Winter Car Hacks? Try Good Common Sense Instead

Posted on Sep 9, 2021 in Safety | 1 comment

Winter has set in across the United States, which is something of which the people of upstate New York need no reminder.

When winter snow and ice make their annual return, websites like to give advice on how to deal with the effects on cars. Advice on everything from driving through blizzards to de-icing your car with onions can be found with a simple Google search.

Some of the advice, though, is just dumb and you’d be better off using some common sense instead of random produce.

Here is some crazy winter advice, followed by techniques that make much more sense.

Avoid Having to Scrape Ice: it may sound strange, but rubbing half an onion over your car windows and windshield at night will stop frost from forming in the morning.

Rub an onion over your windows? How is that a good idea? Aside from the mess and the smell, you’ll be using a half an onion every day through winter. Either park in a garage, use a frost blocker, or start your car ten minutes earlier and let the defroster handle the job.

Prevent Frozen Windshield Wipers: soak a soft cloth with full-strength rubbing alcohol, then wipe your blades. This will keep your blades from sticking to the windshield when it’s cold and icy.

Yeah, that might work. Or you can lift your wipers off the windshield.

Forget About Icy Side Mirrors: to prevent icy side mirrors from fogging your vision in the morning, tie them up with some plastic bags and elastic bands at night.

Who’s going to do that every night? And how hard is it to scrape off a 4-square-inch piece of glass? That’s basically one pass with a standard ice scraper and it’ll take far less time than tying plastic bags up every night.

Have the Sun Help You Defrost the Car: if you’re parking your car outside in the winter, try to park with the windshield facing the east. That way, the rising sun can help to clear the ice from your car before you even get outside.

If you’re lucky enough to not leave for work until noon, this could work.

Fog-Proof Your Windshield: car windows tend to fog up the most in the winter. So prevent that annoyance by fog-proofing your windows with shaving cream. Rub shaving cream on the insides of your windows, then wipe off with a paper towel.

Seriously? Turn on your defroster, people. It’s there to de-fog your windows. Don’t lather the interior of your car with shaving cream and don’t rub it down with onions. You’ll get through this winter by driving slowly, removing snow and ice from your car, braking gently, and using your heater.

Save the produce and shaving cream for their intended purposes.