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With the summer heat bringing some seriously high temperatures, staying cool is a must no matter where you are. Naturally, this goes for car rides as well, with cabin air conditioning becoming more of an essential than a mere luxury. But a car’s A/C may not always be the best solution, especially if it needs servicing. There are ways to tell if your car’s A/C needs recharging, or replacement entirely. Thankfully, you can seek out other ways of reducing temperatures in your car. One even has some serious academic backing behind it, as it utilizes the power of science to cool your car down.

This handy trick comes from YouTuber @fryrsquared, who explains that it’s great for those times when you get into your car and find that the air inside is absolutely unbearable. Instead of waiting for your A/C to kick in and cool things down, you can take action with just your door and one window. Simply open the passenger-side rear window, get out of the car, and use the driver’s side door as a fan. This action creates an area of low pressure, which pulls out the hot air that’s making your car impossible to sit in. Fresh air then comes in through the open window, cooling down the cabin. It’s a great example of how fluid dynamics — a scientific discipline focusing on the movement of liquids and gases — works.

This isn’t your only course of action if you’re hoping to cool your car down. Other non-A/C-related tricks can help too.

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The aforementioned trick is a great way to get hot air out of your car relatively quickly. However, if you can’t do it for one reason or another, you’re not out of luck. There are other ways to cool down your cabin if your A/C isn’t working or just takes forever to get nice and cool. One method is to utilize your vehicle’s ventilation mode. In this state, the fan system brings in outside air to, ideally, cool things down inside the car. This will, in turn, move the hot interior air out, bringing down the temperature. From here, the recirculation mode can help, closing off outside air and moving around the comparatively cooler air within.

Alternatively, if you’re in a hurry and can’t go through the open window, door-as-a-fan method, you can simply open all your windows. Doing this gives the hot air a chance to exit the vehicle, and when you drive, you’ll quickly bring in cooler air from the outside. Of course, if you have manual crank windows — one of several classic car features that are likely gone for good — this could prove difficult if you don’t have much time to spare. Additionally, opening your windows slightly and parking out of direct sunlight is a preventative measure that should help keep temperatures slightly more manageable once you return to your ride.

No one likes sweating inside a far-too-hot car. Fortunately, even without A/C, there are multiple ways to make your daily commute far less excruciating.