Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
SUMMERTIME DRIVING CAN be lots of fun, especially when the sun is out, the radio is on and you have a few days off work. But there are some things that you should be aware of when driving in hot, sunny weather as the combination of heat, long trips and heavy loads can take its toll on your car.
So before you head off on the open road make sure your motor is summer ready.
Air-con
This is not just a driving luxury, it is a must if you are carrying a car full of people. Cool, calm passengers make for better driving companions.
Check that the air-con is really cold and doesn’t smell. If it isn’t icy cold you may need to top up the refrigerant and if it is stinky you make need to change the pollen filter or clean the matrix.
Changing the pollen filter is also a great idea if you or your passengers suffer from hay fever, and closing the air vents will reduce the amount of pollen getting into the cabin.
Battery
Fluid evaporates quicker in hot weather so if you have a serviceable wet cell battery top up fluid levels. Make sure you top up all fluids while the car is cold.
Coolant
Coolant is a mix of water and antifreeze – the antifreeze raises the boiling point of the coolant – so, as with the battery fluid, it is important in hot weather to make sure this is topped up in order to keep your car cool and stop it from overheating.
If your car does overheat, you need to wait until it has cooled down before opening the radiator cap, as the coolant will be hot and pressurised and may scald you if opened.
Over heating
You may think I am being over optimistic about this one happening in Ireland, but the risk of heatstroke (hyperthermia) increases significantly when the outside temperature reaches 22 degrees Celsius, and temperatures here have already surpassed this in the last month!
When the sun’s rays shine through car windows they heat up the objects they strike, e.g. the dark dashboard, steering wheel, seats, doors etc. Research has shown that a car parked in 25-degree heat can reach 43 degrees in just half an hour, and that’s with the windows cracked.
Therefore, you should never ever leave a child or animal alone in a car, not even for a minute.
Keep your car cool when driving by turning on the air-con or opening the windows. Buy sunshades for the windows and put a reflector up when parked. Try to park the car in the shade.
To cool the inside of your car, roll down the windows, turn the a/c on, turn off the recirculate button and turn the fan up high. Drive for a few minutes until the warm air starts to leave the car and the air in the car starts to feel cooler. Then you can switch the a/c back to recirculate and close up the windows.
Oil
As oil flows through your car’s engine it cools it down, therefore, it is really important in summer to make sure that the oil level is correct and that your oil is clean – the cleaner your oil the better it is at cooling your car down. Make sure you use the oil viscosity recommended in your car’s manual and if you haven’t had the oil changed in a while, maybe think about getting one done if you are planning on lots of road trips over the summer.
Tyres
Make sure your tyres are properly inflated before you set off. Check the pressure when the tyres are cold, not after a three-hour drive! For every five-degree Celsius change in temperature, your tyre pressure could change too; from 1 to 2 psi.
Under-inflated tyres create excess friction, which causes heat and if it is already hot out then the tyres are more likely to fail. Also, as heat makes air expand, over-inflated tyres could result in a blowout.
If you are going to be loading up your car with people and luggage you need to take this into consideration when checking tyre pressure and if you have a spare tyre, make sure it is properly inflated, too.
Windscreen
Glare is a real hazard to drivers and the best way to reduce glare is to keep your windscreen squeaky clean – dirty windows tend to scatter light rays magnifying the effects of glare. It is also important to keep the inside of the windscreen clean too as this reduces the likelihood of fogging.
The sun’s rays can also damage the windscreen wipers, destroying the rubber and whilst we know it is not going to rain at all this summer (come on, I’m being positive), bugs and insects on the windscreen are a problem.
Natural-rubber wiper blades have a shelf life of about one year so consider replacing your blades if you haven’t done so in a while and top up washer fluid, too.
Finally, keep a cool box or bag in the car stocked with bottles of water and take lots of pit-stops for ice-cream. Following these tips should make your summer driving stress free on both you and your car.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Not one word on the housing crisis in this article.Why would any teacher want to work in Dublin for example with exorbitant rents and virtually no prospect of getting on the housing ladder.No wonder places such as Dubai are benifitting from our education system.
@Willie Marty: apparently they’re not buying houses in dubai either as the union is highlighting the problems of returning?
@brian o’leary: ??
No full time jobs for teachers, but let’s pay out hundreds of thousands to an RTE executive who was responsible for the Deceit, Lies & Misinformation around salaries, refused to attend the PAC, goes out sick for months & is then rewarded by the “new transparent regime” who hide their rewarding for incompetence, behind a Non Disclosure Agreement. What a mess of a country, Simon Harris allowing the whole RTE debacle continue, while schools can’t even get full time teachers. The moral of the story is, the more crooked, corrupt, incompetent you are, the more likely you are to succeed in Ireland, the days of being honest & hard working in Ireland are only for the fools.
@SV3tN8M4: hospitals taking on foreign staff…Irish Nurses in Sydney a few years ago holding signs saying ‘give is a reason to come home’
We are speeding towards an education crisis in Ireland. Just as decades of FF and FG has brought us a healthcare crisis and a housing crisis, their policies are also destroying education. We have packed schools with 30 or more students in each class. The number of students with additional needs is increasing as supports available to them decrease. Teachers are increasingly expected to parent, as well as educate. Norma Foley’s phoney war on phones is a great example of this.
@Keyser Söze: You do realize that poorly educated children become adults who don’t necessarily practice scrutiny and skepticism, may focus on convenience and compliance (where parents are unable or unwilling to fill such gaps) and thus become sheeple citizens?
Limit career breaks to after 35. Went into a bar in Perth. 8 Irish teachers working there all under 40 and all on career breaks from teaching. Teachers with 3-4 years working should not be allowed to take career breaks. Do the job or leave, get out. Politicians do not set a good example.
@Alan Cooke: one important reason why young teachers take career breaks abroad is to try and build up a lump sum for a deposit on a house. This issue is directly related to the housing crisis.
@Alan Cooke: won’t make a difference. We’ve had two teachers just resign after failing to get a career break extension and stay in Dubai. A permanent job is not what it once was if you can’t get somewhere to live. And if they do come back they know they’ll get another job no problem.
@Alan Cooke: Nonsense argument. I am teaching 15 years, the last 5 being in Sydney. I was stuck in the Irish system with no chance of progression because the Irish system values length in the job over efficacy. One year in Australia and I was earning 40K more than in Ireland, I pay 30% tax and I have been promoted twice. The Irish system is years behind England, Australia etc.
The worst minister we’ve ever had. Let’s ban mobile phones. Which she knows won’t work at second level. Let’s continue to make allowances in state exams for Covid years after the fact. Let’s give free books to those who don’t need them to win some votes. And on and on it goes
Re-hire Enogh Burke.
@Karin Ahlers: We’re desperate but not that desperate!
@Karin Ahlers:
Haha hahaha No school on earth would touch him.
Even the head of the famously fanatical Westboro Baptist church in Kansas said he goes too far.
@Karin Ahlers: lol… culty lunatic cant even get an open comments section!
@jak: he was locked up because he’s an attention hoor who disrupted a school. If he walked into a school in the US without the right to be there he might have been shot.
I’m currently a Pme student in year 2, the salt in the wound regarding the tremendous cost is the utter irrelevance of the content of the course to instill the necessary skills to actually teach. Countless non value add essays. You can tell when it was expanded to 2 years they scraped the barrel for content, at least 60% fluff which enormous overlap/repetition of content. That’s what I find most demoralising, 13000 euros for fluff. Keep the money if that’s their primary concern, which I suspect it is, but my god lean up the program and trim the morbid obesity of fat that is currently contained within.
Maybe change the pay scales so they get more starting off and less later on as they’re much less likely to go off to dubai etc when they’re 40+ and have a mortgage and kids etc?
@brian o’leary: If they’re only getting partial hours then even with elevating the pay scale teachers are starting out on miniscule money. And theres no requirement on principals to increase those teachers’ hours over time either. Why would you stay?
@Mindful Muinteoir: a new type of permanent contract could be created, where a teacher could work in a few different schools within an area?
@brian o’leary: who would pay for the exhorbitant cost of travelling to several different schools? Also would timetabling give a person time to travel between classes?
@Ashling Fenton: exorbitant? My town has 5 secondary schools within walking/cycling distance? Milage could be orovided, with scheduling keeping travel to a minimum.
My cousin worked “temporarily” for 12 years and missed out on pension contributions and mortgage opportunities.
She then emigrated.
@Padraig O’Brien: This ^^. The crisis is in availability of dogs-body teachers willing to take shite hours or last-minute day-to-day subbing. Treat teachers & teaching with respect.
Point one of the payscale while paying Dublin rents lol…doesn’t take Einstein to work out the lack of new teachers in urban areas. After all those years in college…get out of here and onto a plane to a country that won’t bleed you dry in your younger years and will pay you well and not tax you to death while destroying you with high rents.
Some ideas to help solve the problem. Teachers need to be able to change schools without having to give up their CID. Access to redeployment must improve. Extra pay needs to be given to those who have extra qualifications. Posts need to return to being based on seniority. Teachers who return to the profession should not have to start at point one of the scale again. School inspections need to be stopped.
@peter lynch: I agreed with all of that bar posts being based on seniority. The fact that Brenda who has been doing a mediocre job for 18 years is automatically entitled to a post is the kind of thing that drove me to Sydney. Ridiculous notion that you won’t find in any leading education system.
I also disagree with school inspections being stopped however, let’s make them about pedagogy and making teachers better rather than catching people out who don’t have paperwork completed. The fact that most inspectors are woefully out of date with current research on best practice doesn’t help either.
@Mark De Brún: needs to go back to seniority as interview system is abused & regardless of who gets them in current system once they have them they cannot be taken away so productivity will reduce regardless as it can now potentially remain with the same person for 30 years or more. A more regular change is more of a healthy environment where experience is respected. I agree with inspections if inspectors have significant teaching experience & training done
I’m 86 years old.My father was a Classics master,brothers,Grand parents,great grandparents were school teachers.I would respectfully suggest that the calibre of those graduating from Colleges are often not suitable or committed to their profession .If you were studying for Nursing you would have assessment en route as to your suitability ,comittement etc.and in some Asian country’s would be required to give at least 5 years of work in your own country before you went abroad,
Part of the problem not mentioned in the article is the fact that teachers can take a career break of up to 5 year’s and up to 10 year’s over the course of their career.
What other occupation in the country is allowed to do that and then expect to be somehow comeback home from wherever and keep their seniority and pay scale parity. There are many newly qualified teachers who can’t get teaching posts because of this ridiculous situation.
@Chaotic State: public sector job rules are as dark and mysterious as the social welfare system. If you were the right age at the right time and knew the right people who knew people to help you learn the loop holes which existed it would certainly have gotten you very far in the sector with a cozy number. Not as many today but back in mid 90′s dear god a lad with half an intercert with the right neighbour would have made a board of management!
The low ballers of middle isle Ireland.
They will have to ship in teachers from India soon like that what’s be done in every other job, no Irish will be left in this rip off country
The only one’s benefitting from this system are property and land owners
Unless parents stop trying to dictate how teachers teach and raise their kids to behave in public, there will continue to be a teacher recruitment and retention crisis.
have your say