You Can Solve Your Car Problems With These Affordable Fixes

Items Needed: Cooking spray
Est. Price: $2*

Another cold-weather problem we’ve encountered is waking up in the morning to find that your car door handle is frozen shut. It’s as frustrating as it sounds when you’re stuck with coffee in one hand, yanking on an immovable door handle with the other, hoping to get inside and blast the heat as soon as humanly possible.

Sin peleas con el hielo: manijas @dollartree / Pinterest.com

The solution to this problem can also be found in the kitchen, this time in the form of cooking spray (no matter what type of oil it is) to spray on the hinges of the handles. With this simple hack, those painful winter morning moments can be completely avoided!

Items Needed: Plunger
Est. Price: $9.95*

Annoyed by the dents on the body of your car? Have you ever lent your car to a friend, only to get it back with marks they insist were there before? This is another problem that can be solved with objects that we already have at home. In this case, we will need a regular plunger and some hot water. 

No más abolladuras @KathyDeloff / Pinterest.com

If you splash some hot water on both the plunger and the dent, and little by little start pushing and pulling with the plunger, the dent will miraculously come out. If the body isn’t badly damaged, the dent should come out right away, and if it’s not fully fixed, it will at least look less prominent.

Items Needed: Scented candle wax, glass jar
Est. Price: $7*

We all have a little glass jar in our homes that was originally home to a food item or other home good, that we have since washed and has wound up in a drawer somewhere. This hack is that random container’s chance to shine, in the form of a car air freshener.

@wikihacks/Pinterest.com

The first step involves drilling a few holes into the lid of the glass jar. Then, you can scoop some scented wax out of a candle and place it in the bottom of the jar. From now on, when the car gets hot enough, instead of being stinky, the wax will melt, releasing its pleasant aroma throughout the car. 

Items Needed: Pool noodle
Est. Price: $7*

Either while moving or in a parked car, it’s always easy to lose your things underneath the seat of a car. The problem isn’t when your coins or phone fall beneath the seat in front of you, but when your items fall in the tiny crevice between the seats and the center console that it becomes a real headache. 

@jusitha703 / Pinterest.com

This narrow space is difficult for even the tiniest child’s hands to reach into, and many of us end up using a stick or a coat hanger to retrieve our belongings. However, for this annoying problem there is a simple solution: foam pool tubes. They can be cut to the length of the problem spaces, shoved in, and problem solved!

Items Needed: Whitening toothpaste
Est. Price: $3*

The car’s headlights are exposed to external elements on a daily basis: weather changes, stones, bugs, rain, hail, and more. These elements little by little yellow the headlights, making the light dimmer as time goes by. This rather serious problem can be solved in less than 30 minutes with a cloth, water, soap, and whitening toothpaste.

@eduardo52as / Pinterest.com

First, wash the headlights with soap and water. Once clean, place a thin layer of whitening toothpaste on the headlights. Let it dry for about five minutes and with a slightly damp cloth, clean the area in a circular motion, spreading the toothpaste. With about four minutes of polishing, you can already see a difference. 

Items Needed: Vaseline
Est. Price: $4*

We normally associate Vaseline as the solution for extremely dry skin or to overcome cracked lips in cold weather, but the effectiveness of Vaseline for a dashboard worthy of envy has been touted by experts as comparable even to the most specialized products.

La vaselina, nuestro mejor aliado @janmdh / Pinterest.com

The trick is to clean the dashboard first with a little water and some cleaning solution that you have on hand, and once dry, apply a small amount of petroleum jelly on a clean cloth and clean the board again.

Items Needed: Rubber band, pen
Est. Price: $5*

To be clear, no responsible driver would ever use their phone while operating a car. Texting, surfing the web, and phone calls are all off-limits. But what about GPS? Today almost all drivers use one of the many GPS apps to find their way, but it can be difficult to navigate with your phone on your lap. With just an elastic band and a pen, you can create a phone holder that is attached to the ventilation system and solves this problem.

El acondicionador multiusos @tiphero / Pinterest.com

If you put the elastic band around the vent and use the pen to roll it up so that it sticks out from the bottom, it’s easy to secure your phone by placing it through the upper and lower loops. Cell phone holder ready!

Items Needed: Roll of paper towels, elastic cord
Est. Price: $9*

Paper towels are the MVP of cleaning supplies. They are multi-useful, as they are super absorbent and can replace other objects when cleaning. They are an ideal object to have in the car to solve any mishap, but they can easily end up wandering around lost in your trunk.

El papel toalla siempre vienen bien @loanhead / Pinterest.com

On the other hand, if you place a short elastic cord inside the trunk’s lid you can place a roll of paper towels in there in a useful way, preventing them from being damaged. In any situation, you’ll now be ready to clean up messes big or small.

Items Needed: Conditioner
Est. Price: $4*

This is a trick for sunny Sunday afternoons when you go out with a sponge and a bucket of water in hand to clean your car. You don’t have to go to the supermarket or the hardware store to be able to properly wash your car, you only need the conditioner that you have waiting for you in the shower.

El acondicionador multiusos @5minutecraftsfamily / Pinterest.com

 The trick is to add a little conditioner to your bucket of water before starting to wash, applying it to the body will give it shine and increase resistance to damage from dust or watermarks. The only care we have to take is to make sure that the conditioner you use contains lanolin or silicone since these are the ingredients that will work the magic.

Items Needed: Isopropyl alcohol
Est. Price: $3*

In warmer weather, the last of your worries on your car is the windshield wiper. It doesn’t rain, so you don’t need to use them, and your car concerns are focused elsewhere. However, when the rainy season begins it is necessary that the windshield wipers work well since they will be the determining factor to achieve the visibility you need to be safe.

Limpieza absoluta @hellok288 / Pinterest.com

To keep the brushes clean and working optimally, they have to be rubbed with isopropyl alcohol. This will de-grease the surface and the blades will clean even the smallest of raindrops. Now you’ll be ready to see even in the biggest downpours.

Items Needed: Coffee filters
Est. Price: $2*

Coffee filters are not only a necessary implement to start our mornings, but they are also the perfect material to combat dust. This is because these filters are made from lint-free fabrics, which when used for our car-hack purposes collect dust without leaving marks.

El filtro del café más allá del café @thenursecheeks / Pinterest.com

 It is these characteristics that make them ideal for cleaning the dashboard of the car. What you have to do is apply a little olive oil to the filter and start wiping. In a short time, and without much effort, you will have a dust-free surface with a shiny touch. Voilà!

Items Needed: Knowledge and a “Recirculation” button
Est. Price: $0*

There is a button on the dashboard of our cars that really influences the air we breathe, and it happens to be a button unknown to most drivers. It’s called the car’s recirculation button, and it determines where we want the car to take air from. By default, it is the outside air, but for example, if we are stopped in a traffic jam and we want to avoid the hyper-polluted air outside, we can press the button and the car will become practically hermetically sealed by recirculating the clean air that we already had inside.

@autobuzz/Twitter

In addition to being beneficial for our health, using this button will also help us save fuel since the air conditioning and compressor will have to make less effort to continue cooling the car. This is an easy trick that can save a little money at a time, which certainly adds up.

Items Needed: Cupcake tin liners
Est. Price: $1*

Cup holders are one of the most useful spaces that we can find inside the car. However, they are spaces that, because they normally contain liquids, food, or small garbage, get dirty quickly. Instead of getting a tiny vacuum cleaner or some special gadget for the area, cupcake liners can be placed inside the cup holders to easily pick up debris.

Cupcakeliners for car @carkarks/Pinterest.com

The liners will prevent dirt from accumulating on the brackets and in addition to being very inexpensive, they can be constantly replaced. This way the car will stay clean for longer, and you won’t have to worry about gunking up the holders.

Items Needed: A penny
Est. Price: $0.01*

For this trick, you can use that penny that’s stuck under your couch cushions or that you found in the pocket of your pants. To find out if it is time to buy new tires, the penny test will help you make the difficult decision.

El estado de las ruedas @casjay / Pinterest.com

Take the penny and place it upside down so that the top of Lincoln’s head is facing the floor. Then dip the penny into the tread to check its depth. If the tread goes across Lincoln’s forehead, then the tires still have some life. If not, Lincoln recommends we buy new ones.