Top 8 car hacks

1. Back it up

When arriving home, have you ever accidentally hit the garage wall because you didn’t really know what the distance was between your car and your wall?

This tip will end up saving you money in the long run, and you’ll be able to park your car perfectly, every time.

All you need is a tennis ball, string and 2 screw hooks.

Have the car already parked in the correct garaged position. Using a ladder, measure the length of string you’ll need to reach from the roof of your garage, to the middle of your windscreen. Then add an extra 30cms to allow for tying a knot.

Once you’ve measured everything out, screw one of the hooks into the tennis ball, and the other into your roof, at the exact point that the tennis ball will rest against your windscreen once in place.

Ta Da! You’ve just decreased your parking time, stress levels and incidence of dints and scratches to your car and garage wall!

2. Fog on window – use a potato

This weird hack is a clever and cheap way to help get rid of fog on your car windows, as well as pretty much any glass or plastic surface.

All you need is a clean potato and a knife!

Cut the potato in half and rub over the foggy window surface area, in a circular motion.

It is important to remember to only go over the area once. Twice is the absolute maximum!

If you lay it on too thick, the starch from the potato will leave a white residue over the area.

3. Keep your chin up!

It’s a freezing cold morning and you just want to quickly run to the car and jump in, but you spend a few minutes battling with your unlock button, and nothing happens!!

This handy car hack will keep you nice and warm or even save you a few minutes a day.

All you need to do is place your remote car key under your chin, hold it to the skin and press your unlock button! Your head acts as a conductor, giving your key more range.

4. Newspaper to the Rescue

Whether you’re trying to remove a rego sticker, or a really embarrassing bumper sticker that you all of a sudden hate, this hack will make it easier to remove the sticky residue left over, and all you need is some newspaper and warm water!

Grab a sheet of newspaper and pop it onto the section with adhesive residue. Pour some warm water over the newspaper and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

Remove newspaper and voila!

5. Clean your headlights with Toothpaste!

All this time we thought toothpaste was just for cleaning your teeth, but if your car lights are looking a little dim, this tip will help give them a nice clean up.

By simply using an old rag and a bit of toothpaste, the grime on your headlights will come right off.

Be sure to give it a good scrub in circular motions, but be careful to not let any toothpaste go outside your head lights, as toothpaste is abrasive and could damage the exterior of your car.

6. Plunge out dents

So it turns out that you can use a plunger to not only unblock a toilet or sink, but also to extract small dents on your car as well!

Keep in mind that this will only work on small to medium size dents and you’ll need to use a sink plunger, which costs about $5 from Bunnings.

Apply some water to both the plunger and dent to help create suction, and keep pulling until you hear a ‘pop’.

I’d recommend purchasing a NEW plunger for this hack… touching one that was been near any sort of plumbing grime or dirt would be pretty disgusting!

7. Staple Remover

Have you ever wasted precious minutes of your life struggling to hook a key onto your keyring?

Another hack that will save you time (and broken fingernails), involves a staple remover.

Simply pry the keyring open with the staple remover and push your key on!

8. DIY Phone holder

If you don’t have a fancy phone holder in your car, don’t worry! All you need is a rubber band and a phone.

Using one of your air-con vents that’s in a visible and easy to reach position, gently feed the rubber band in between one plastic air vent slot, and feed it back out another to create a loop, making a handy phone holder.

Now, imagine a seamless segue here…

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