A tyre bursts, a side view mirror falls off or a can of deodorant spray that was left behind bursts. Those are some of the things that Gulf News readers experienced with their cars during the summer months.
Fahad Ali was driving to work one morning and had a frightening experience, to say the least.
He said: “I was driving in the fast lane on Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road. My car’s speed must have been around 140 kilometres per hour. Suddenly, it felt like my car was wobbling, so I slowed down a little. I started to smell burnt rubber through the air conditioning ducts and then heard a loud bang — a tyre had burst.
“Since it was one of the rear tyres, I thankfully didn’t lose control of the car. Once I managed to safely stop the vehicle, I called a recovery truck. The tyre was a bit old and the tyre wall was weak. The recovery truck’s driver told me the tyre had burst due to the heat, as the heat from the road breaks down the rubber. He was trying to convince me that I was lucky that the tyre’s rim had survived the incident. I felt anything but lucky!”
Anjali Ramchandani had once forgotten a CD on her car’s dashboard and the next morning she was unable to listen to her favourite music.
She said: “The CD was left there a whole day. When I finally returned to the car, the CD had bent due to the heat and of course was not useful anymore. This is just one of the cases. Many a times I have left folders on the dashboard and the colour of the plastic fades within a few hours. Additionally, even thought my car’s windows are tinted, my left arm that faces the window while driving is darker than the right due to the drive to and from Jebel Ali every day.”
While we’re on the subject of dashboards, Diya Mazumdar was surprised to find that the dashboard in her dad’s car seemed like it was “melting”.
She said: “Our car is parked out in the sun for long hours near my father’s office. It becomes a hot gas chamber and whenever he opens the door he feels the hot air engulfing him. One day, he noticed that the dashboard was very sticky. The hard rubber had started to melt due to the immense heat and this is why it had become sticky. This was an irreparable damage. We did try to clean it, but till now the surface is rough and corroded.”
Adnan Anwar made the mistake of leaving a can of deodorant spray in the car.
He said: “The deodorant was placed on the rear deck, exposed to the sun. After a while the can exploded, completely shattering the rear windshield.”
Tabassum Abdul Majeed has had similar experiences with items exploding in the car due to the heat.
She said: “As the car heats up so much, often the drink cans that we keep in the fridge of our car burst and it’s a difficult job cleaning it up.”
Another summer-related experience was shared by Eman Qadeer when her car’s side view mirror fell off due to the heat.
She said: “Our cars are obviously exposed to a lot of heat during the summer. The side view mirror of my car fell out of its slot and was hanging by a string, which is the cord that connects the mirror to the mechanism used to move it from inside the vehicle. Driving became impossible and my father had to get it fixed immediately.”
