Hidden Features in Cars. Do You Know About All of Them?
Have you read the owner's manual for the car you drive? From cover to cover? We doubt it, although you can find many tricks and hidden functions there that can be useful in everyday life and in emergency situations.
Hidden functions are useful not only in emergency situations.
You will learn about many of them in the owner's manual - if you read it carefully.
Knowing about these tricks will really come in handy!
The battery in your car is dead, and you can't get into the car because the central lock doesn't work? Or maybe during the first frosts it turned out that you can't fill up because the filler cap is frozen. Or, for example, when it's hot, the bottle of water in the glove compartment is so hot that you don't want to drink it at all? If you thought that car manufacturers didn't take this into account, you are wrong. Cars usually have many hidden functions that make them easier to use not only in emergency situations. Unfortunately, drivers don't know about many of them, or simply forget about them. The arrow indicates which side the fuel filler is on. You rented a car, you need to fill up, but you don't know where to go at the gas station because you don't remember or don't know which side the fuel filler is on? No need to guess - most cars have an arrow on the dial indicating which side the fuel tank is on. And if it doesn't, most often the filler is on the side where the fuel gauge is on the dashboard. The storage box can act as a refrigerator.
Want to keep your drink cool or don't want your chocolate to melt? If your car has air conditioning, it is quite possible that it also has a cooled glove box. Simply to activate the cooling function, you usually have to adjust the handle in the glove box so that cold air directly from the air conditioning distributor flows into the glove box. Hidden lock for emergency opening
Do you have a modern car with a keyless entry system or a remote-controlled lock? What do you do if the battery in the car or the remote control is dead? After all, in new cars there is often no room for a key in the door. No need to worry! The lock and key slot are usually there (usually only in the driver's door), but they would spoil the appearance if they were open - so to get to them, you need to remove the plastic cover. But where to get the right key,if the car is opened with a key fob? We will explain it in the following picture! The key is hidden in the remote control
Even if the 'key' does not look like a key, but is a miniature remote control, there is usually an emergency metal tip inside that can be pulled out of the case. Thanks to it, you can also get into the car when the car battery or the battery in the key is discharged. The sun visor can be folded to the side.
This is one of those features that can be found in every car, but only a few use it. The sun visor can protect our eyes from the sun falling not only through the windshield, but also from the side. One of the hinges of the visor is designed in such a way that it can be removed, and the visor can be moved to the side window. Simple and effective! Emergency start when the remote control fails
Let's get back to electronics and keys. The key battery sometimes runs out, and the range drops so much that a key hidden, for example, in a pocket, cannot communicate with the car's electronics and unlock the ignition. The designers thought about this. Usually, inside the car, most often on the steering column or in the central tunnel, there is a place with a key icon. Immediately behind it is the transponder antenna, which can excite the transponder in the key at a minimum distance and read the signal from it. If the remote control is discharged, in order to start the car, you need to bring it closer to the marked place before pressing the start button.
Opening the trunk from the inside
If you like action movies, you've probably seen scenes where someone is locked in the trunk and can't get out. Scriptwriters usually fantasize. In many cars - and certainly in American cars, there is a rod in the trunk for emergency opening from the inside. It is brightly colored or even made of a material that glows in the dark. Automatic air conditioning shutdown
Have you deliberately turned off the air conditioner, and now it keeps turning on even when you don't need it? In many cars, this is not a sign of a malfunction of the air conditioning control, but a special function! Check how the air flow is set up. If it is directed at the windshield, then in many models (this is a typical function in cars for the American market,In older Volvo models and many Japanese ones, when air is supplied to the windshield, the air conditioner automatically turns on from time to time to remove fog, even if the switch is in the 'AC-off' position. Unlocking the automatic transmission
This function is useful in emergency situations, for example, when the ignition switch breaks, there is no power, or the engine does not start. In such cases, on cars with an automatic transmission, the drive mode selector is usually automatically locked and cannot be moved. This means that the car cannot be pushed, pulled, or towed. Fortunately, there is often a button or a small slot next to the lever. Depending on the model, you either press the button or insert the key into the slot, this way you unlock the lock and can, for example, switch the lever from 'P' to 'N'. Emergency opening of the fuel filler neck
This trick is most useful in winter, when we want to fill up the car, but it turns out that we can’t open the fuel filler flap because the central lock drive is frozen. Sometimes, even without frost, it happens that this element simply gets blocked or fails at the most inopportune moment. So what? Often, somewhere deep in the trunk there is a deeply hidden lever or rod for emergency release of the fuel filler flap. How to find it? We write about this in the description of the next photo. Emergency opening of the fuel filler neck
We look for the emergency opening lever or rod on the same side as the filler neck. This element can be located under the trunk trim or under the hinged lid. Sometimes it's a simple pull rod, sometimes a rope with a brightly coloured handle. The photo shows a pull rod under the flap as it can be found in many Audi, Volkswagen or Skoda models. Colored elements under the hood are not for show!
Important colors under the hood! For many years, manufacturers did not want users to look under the hoods of their cars. Of course, there are exceptions to this rule - because sometimes you need to check and possibly top up fluids or disconnect the battery in an emergency. Items that may be important to the average user are usually marked in bright colours. In the photo, among others, the yellow tip of the oil dipstick, the yellow cap of the brake fluid filler neck, the blue cap of the washer fluid filler neck and the red cap of the positive terminal of the battery.
