When there is no choice other than to park your vehicle outside, you must know the ways to protect your auto glass from external factors and environmental damage. Being a reputable and experienced auto glass repair and replacement service provider, we understand that not everyone owns the luxury of parking their vehicle in reserved parking, garage, or even in a covered parking slot. But if you must park outside, there are still ways to protect your ride. The following tips will be helpful to avoid your auto glass repair or replacement needs when parking your vehicle outdoors.
1. Don’t Park Your Car in Direct Sunlight
Whenever possible, parking the car in shaded or semi-shaded areas helps protect your windshield from harmful sunlight rays. If you have ever touched your auto glass right after it’s sat in the sun for a few hours, you will know how hot it can get. And while a hot auto glass might not be alarming, excessive heat may damage the integrity of your windshield and make it more susceptible to auto glass damage and cracks. If your auto glass already has slight chips and cracks, extreme heat may spread them rapidly. If you don’t have an option other than to park your car in direct sunlight, get our auto glass repair service to fix those chips and cracks.
2. Don’t Park Your Car Under Trees
Tree branches can be found under a few inches of snow after a night of heavy precipitation. When you park your car under those branches, the risk of damaging your auto glass increases. Unfortunately, you cannot determine when or if a branch will fall from the trunk of the tree and fall directly on the windshield, which may incur you a heavy cost for repairs. Hence, keep that in mind while parking under the tree.
If your usual parking area is faced with overhanging branches, think of trimming them back before the heavy snowfall hits. The smaller the branch, the more snow it may accumulate without getting separated from the tree.
3. Be Careful of Temperature Control Settings
It can be alluring to put your heat on high as soon as you switch on your vehicle, but please, fight the urge. When your vehicle has been sitting outdoors in cold temperatures for hours, your auto glass slightly contracts. Just like the water contracts as it forms ice, the windshield follows a similar pattern. When you directly set your defroster to high as your car warms up, you make an abrupt temperature change against the frosty glass, increasing the chances that of cracks.
Rather than instantly turning up your defroster, let the vehicle warm up before using the defroster. Even then, keep the defroster on a low to medium setting to be on the safe side.
We hope that you must have found these parking tips useful. Still in need of auto glass repair or replacement? Contact us now for a reliable and prompt service.
