Common features in cars most people don’t know the use

There are some features incorporated bin cars that we might not understand or see the need but actually these features serve an important purpose in your car. These features are common but we tend not to understand the use of these features. Here are some common features in cars most people don’t know the use

The anti-glare button or handle at the bottom of the rearview mirror inside cars. Older car models have a small handle you can pull to minimize the glares that disturb you from head lights of cars behind you. Newer models have buttons to minimize the glares. Most people have never done anything to lessen the glare; they just turn the mirror to a side to avoid glares.

• Your high beam light is the blue one on the dashboard. Your headlight is the green one. The difference is drastic, and it blinds other people on the road. The high beam is usually only for rural areas where it’s dark and there are no other cars on the road. Don’t confuse these two things.

• This picture above is the side view mirror adjustment. You can adjust either the left or the right mirrors. Usually, this is a useless function. But imagine you are trying to parallel park in a busy area between two cars? You can actually lower the side that is going to be against the curb, on your passenger side. Now you can see how close your tire or wheel and bumper is to the curb to better correct yourself into the spot easier. Remember to re-adjust when you get out of the spot.

• You want to know what side of the car your gas cap is on? Almost every car has an arrow next to the gasoline gauge on your car. You don’t need to remember if you forgot. You don’t need to check outside the car if you are renting it or it isn’t yours. That arrow on the dash tells you exactly where it is.

• Is this light on? This is your tire pressure monitor system. This can sometimes mean your tire is slightly low, or it can mean that the sensor for the monitor system is acting up (if it is too cold or too hot, or if the temperature changes too drastically overnight). If you inspect the tires outside your car, and you find that none of them have a puncture, you can reset this light from inside your car. Check under your steering wheel for a TPMS reset button. With the car on, you usually just press and hold the button for about 5–10 seconds, and the light will flash for a while before disappearing. If it comes back on later, re-inspect your tire for any punctures or check the pressure. On newer cars, like my Prius, you can reset this light directly from the the dashboard navigation.

Is your maintenance/oil change light on? You’ll see the wrench or “change oil soon” sign. This is an automatic thing that works on a clock. A lot of cars use synthetic oil today, and synthetic oil is good for 10,000 miles. Most cars still have the “maintenance soon” or “oil change soon” automatically every 5,000 miles. You can reset this, it’s different from car to car, but remember to check the car’s service manual and the manufacturer’s recommended mileage for an oil change or general service. Just because the car is showing a light doesn’t mean it needs work.

Climate control. There are quite a few quirks with most cars that isn’t really written anywhere. If you don’t have “air re-circulation” pressed (the picture of the car with a looped arrow inside it), then the car will continue to operate by bringing in air from outside the vehicle. Now, you can actually heat that air, if you’d like, without turning on the climate control. Turn the climate control on, and then turn the temperature to your desired setting. Turn the climate control back off, but don’t turn on “air-re-circulation”. Now you get a bit of heating, or a lot of it, depending on whether you are driving fast or not. Also, most cars have a way to prioritize which vents feed air into the car. The side vents that allow you to shut them? That’s allowing more air to be pushed through the center. The center can be shut off? That means more air through the sides. In modern cars, you can actually turn the climate control to “driver priority” or “front passenger” priority.