This summer has already produced some of the hottest days on record – and we’re only halfway through the season. This can cause serious damage to your motor vehicle, especially if it’s an older model or you regularly drive for long periods. Here are some beat-the-heat tips to decrease the odds of breaking down and forking out for expensive repairs.
The following tips and precautions come from the roadside assistant app gotU. They are divided into the categories of Tyres, Battery and Engine. For upholstery protection, we recommend investing in one of these – you know you want to.
Naturally, you should also avoid leaving glasses, flammable items or electronics in your car when parked outdoors. Here are the tips:
Tyres
- Extreme weather patterns can affect tyre performance, possibly causing damage to the tread on the tyres – especially if they aren’t properly inflated.
- Gas expands with heat and hot days will cause the air inside tyres to expand and change the tyre-pressure.
- Check your tyre pressures with a gauge first thing in the morning, when it’s cooler, to ensure it’s at an optimal pressure.
Battery
- During extreme heat, battery fluid can evaporate. To avoid fluid evaporation; where possible, check the car battery acid level on a regular basis during hotter periods.
- If the car won’t restart, a service provider can help jumpstart the vehicle. Alternatively, keep some jumper cables in your boot and flag down a good samaritan.
Engine
- Maintaining water and coolant levels during a heatwave is important as car fluids are more likely to dry up.
- Low coolant levels in high heat can damage the engine – and there is nothing worse than being broken down in 40-degree heat!
- Keep an eye on the vehicle’s temperature gauge and ensure that all fluid levels are topped up regularly.
Have any additional summer maintenance recommendations of your own? Let us know in the comments!
Comments
3 responses to “How To Avoid ‘Car Meltdown’ In The Sweltering Heat”
If you’ve got an old banger, this will probably be OK. However if you have something reasonably modern with computerised electrics, be very careful as older jump cables can fry the electronics.
You can get jumper leads for newer cars that have surge arrestors in them.
Two other points. When the engine is hot, don’t stop right behind some one at the lights and suck up their nice exhaust heat and when moving again keep a nice gap between you and the vehicles in front so you don’t have to go on and off the accelerator.