Its getting hot

[Fourthbean]

I will consider myself lucky to have a garage to park in at work. Though my car was pretty hot when I got in it this afternoon at the house. Engine bay was reading 100 degrees (was only 95 after some air-flow).

Here in north Texas our weather has been nice. I don't think I have had to go out in anything over 92-94 degrees yet this year.

Has anyone looked at how the triangle windows affect FE compared to rolling down the big ones? I usually just put out my triangle and use my vents as long as it isn't too terribly hot outside.

[Bill in Houston]

RH77, For a car with a big greenhouse like that, it seemed to me to make sense to put something reflective in the back that can just stay there all the time. Maybe a large piece of reflective stuff lying on the deck back there. It might need to be composed of individual "slats" of reflective stuff angled toward the rear in order to send all the incoming light back out of the vehicle in the right direction.

You can get the sunshades at Walmart or the like. Or you can buy a roll of reflectix at Lowes or home depot.

Is it possible to leave your windows down even 1/4 inch while you are at work? For my car, even a little bit of air flow can make a big difference. Also maybe think about the orientation of the vehicle relative to the sun while parked, or maybe parking on another side of the building if possible.

[Telco]

Mazda 929s used to have a sunroof on them with a solar panel strip running around the mounting ring. It produced enough electricity to run a small fan. The fan was set to come on any time the interior of the car reached 90 degrees, and was strong enough that the car was not supposed to ever get hotter inside than whatever the outside temp was. Something like this might work to keep the interior of any car clear without killing the battery.

Also, might see about getting just plain heat rejection tint in the back glass. I have some in my house, works pretty well. There is a noticable difference in glass temp between the tinted and untinted windows in my house (have over half tinted). The stuff I'm using came from Home Depot, but is not recommended for automotive use. Might work fine for a rear hatch though, since it doesn't roll up and down.

[brucepick]

Originally Posted by repete86

... There must be something "wrong" with my engine. The car acts funny, feels like I'm driving on a dirt road when I idle, and the maintenance light comes on about once per month. Until it stops running or my FE drops, I'm not getting it looked at.

FWIW, my car had a rough idle that turned out to be a bad ground strap. I'd go over every ground connection I can find and clean them up at the connectors. My bad one was a bare braided wire (made that way); the copper strands were badly corroded so I think maybe it wasn't carrying current very well.

[Hockey4mnhs]

i bought one of those reflector things there awsome.

[s2man]

I do windows-up in the am, with the vent fan blowing. In the evening, it's windows-down and a nice little jug of ice water sitting between my legs. The ice keeps me cool through conduction, and via sippage :-) That's with high temps hovering around 90F this month in Kansas City. If it gets up around our normal 100F summer temps, I'll be looking for more relief, though.

[Mentalic]

Its hot and humid in south Louisiana but I can manage the drive to work without A/C, windows up no problem. If its sunny I use the window shades for the windshield when parked. Going home in a 135f car is much tougher, some days I just have to run the A/C.

What I have found that helps a ton is a white car with heavy window tint. I've had black cars with dark interiors temps literally break 180F thermometers... Since making the switch to all white cars the difference is dramatic.

[kickflipjr]

Originally Posted by Peakster

Check out today's temperature map at 6:00pm:

Attachment 774

How are you people without A/C coping with this heat???

Yeah peakster I was looking at the weather map in the newspaper a few days ago and was thinking that +100 degree days in Canada seem a bit out of the norm.

[cfg83]

Mentalic -

Originally Posted by Mentalic

Its hot and humid in south Louisiana but I can manage the drive to work without A/C, windows up no problem. If its sunny I use the window shades for the windshield when parked. Going home in a 135f car is much tougher, some days I just have to run the A/C.

What I have found that helps a ton is a white car with heavy window tint. I've had black cars with dark interiors temps literally break 180F thermometers... Since making the switch to all white cars the difference is dramatic.

When I had my 2nd Gen BLACK CRX with black interior, I loved it. But, if I had to do it all over again, it would be white. The CRX didn't have AC, and that really isn't a major problem in LA, but when I sold it to my friend in Phoenix, I had AC installed.

White is good for cars and homes for saving energy.

CarloSW2

[varg]

One thing is for sure, here in south FL, it is a little hot to be driving without my AC on. Some days I just have to use it, there's no to ways about it. Plus, I work full-time in the hot sun and don't care to go from a 100+ degree heat index straight to a 140+ degree car. And believe me, the car does that hot, it's dark blue, and even with a window reflector and tinted windows it gets extremely hot.