Weird & wacky car maintenance tips & habits

What are the weirdest car maintenance habits and tips you have come across?

BHPian s4ch recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Browsing through the 'Wiper Blade Thread', I came across this post mentioning a highly unusual and weird maintenance tip.

As I mentioned on that thread, this is a first for me, have never ever heard of this being done before and was genuinely surprised at this!

So that got me thinking, what are the weirdest car maintenance habits and tips you have come across? Would love to hear the weird and wacky.

Another one I have heard of, but maybe not as weird as removing the whole wiper arm, is to put cupcake liners in car cupholders. Apparently, it helps in keeping the cupholders clean and if you use silicon cupcake liners it even adds some grip, supposedly!

Looking forward to other inputs!

PS: No offence at all to the fellow member who removes his wiper arm, it was just genuinely so surprising that it gave me the inspiration for this thread. As I mentioned on the Wiper Blade thread, this is all said in good humour.

Here's what BHPian Naztone had to say on the matter:

So I am a sailor and each tour lasts between 4 to 6 months ergo I pack my bikes before leaving.

Unfortunately, the steps involved have been increasing with time /knowledge - Wash the bikes, top-up fuel, add stabiliser, coat them with a layer of engine oil, disconnect the batteries n take them home, plug the silencers, spray WD40 in the block via the spark plug, but then on blocks so the tyres are off the ground.

While this treatment may not be too weird on Team-BHP: The first time my wife saw this happen (We were dating then) she seriously questioned my sanity, followed by her own sanity - since she was considering marrying me Fortunately they were only 2 bikes in the stable then.

Here's what BHPian airbus had to say on the matter:

Some 15 - 20 years back car theft was a big concern for car owners in Assam. A few unique anti-theft techniques I had personally seen are given below:

1. The garage is next to a bedroom and the family used a thick metal chain (used to secure elephant) to secure an axle, then pass both ends of the chain through a hole at the bottom of the bedroom wall and secured it with a thick iron rod from inside. The idea was that thieves can't move the vehicle with the chain and if they try to cut, it will make noise to wake up people in the bedroom.
2. One of our neighbours used to remove a wheel and keep it along with the spare wheel inside their house to thwart car thieves. While their car usage was less but still it was lot of work to remove the wheel after every drive and put it back before a drive.
3. This was by my brother. He was using an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) as an alarm. The neutral input power cable of the UPS was passed through garage door handles. To open the garage door one must have to remove or cut the cable, as a result, UPS in his bedroom would sound alarmed due to loss of power.

Here's what BHPian ashis89 had to say on the matter:

It was due to the lack of synchromesh on the reverse gear of old cars that led to this habit. The reverse gear wouldn't slot easily and hence, slot first, nice ahead a bit and then reverse. People otherwise explain that one shouldn't start their day/journey in reverse.

As for me, I usually change my engine oils at a conservative 70-80% of the recommended mark. I have noticed that the engine feels course around that mark and hence, a fresh meal makes a good difference. That, along with a clean air filter makes the drive enjoyable.

In my ex-Pulsar, the drain internal was 10k km which was a stark departure from the 2k km that the older engine oils had. I used to change every 2k km at my FNG and the 5th service was done at ASS to retain the warranty.

Here's what BHPian GrammarNazi had to say on the matter:

Over the years that I've been on traveller forums, here are a few reasonably good but some quite weird/quirky tips I've seen regular travellers follow. I haven't practiced most of these as I don't unnecessarily fidget unless needed.

Boroline on some of the rubber hoses in the engine bay to keep them supple. Done immediately after having the engine bay detailed.

Talcum Powder on door rubber beadings to help keep them from becoming brittle.

Over years after regular driving on the highways, despite regular washing, the windscreen develops a film because of the emissions from truck traffic. This leads to a situation where even new wiper blades leave streaks across the glass. While many products are available to clean the glass, rubbing the leaves of commonly available Jatropha/Congress plant massively helps. This was claimed by many seasoned car travellers & once confirmed with a taxi driver.

Peppermint scented spray on the wiring harnesses within the engine bay to prevent rodent attacks.

Mixing 100-200ml Petrol when topping up the diesel fuel tank at high altitudes where night temperatures go below 0°. This was recommended by someone whose diesel would freeze overnight in the fuel tank. This is because modern fuel tanks are made with plastic, this was the most viable suggestion to keep diesel from freezing.

Keeping cars parked facing the fence. Helped keep the fuel liquid in the fuel lines & thereby quicker morning start-ups if temperatures went below 0° & it was windy outside.

15% Diesel mixed into the old oil for an engine flush. When engine oil was being changed, they drained ~300oil & replaced that with ~400ml of diesel. This helped clean out a lot of the sludge that previous oil changes didn't fully clean. This was done on a 50k km odometer (mostly city-run) car which followed regular scheduled oil changes & despite my advice not to bother with such unnecessary stunts. Nothing happened, but I still opine that while it should be OK in theory, IMHO it's fairly unnecessary if engine oil is changed on schedule especially in a fairly young 50k run engine.

Using brake fluid to cover bumper paint scratches. Brake fluid is very corrosive on paint & I don't recommend this as will surely corrode the clear coat. Still, if you are desperate to make sure the paint scratch on the bumper needs to be removed, this can be a temporary solution.

One thing that I do ensure is that each time my cars engine oil is changed, I replace the crush washer on the drain plug. Call it whatever, but that ensures the drain plug seals the oil sump well.

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