damage UV rays vehicles

The Damage UV Rays Cause Inside and Outside Vehicles, Part 1

Many vehicle owners are aware that prolonged exposure to the sun may damage a car’s paint, but fewer are aware of the numerous other impacts UV rays may have on a vehicle. There are several such potential impacts, both outside and inside a given car, and in some cases they are significant.

At Pro Tint Utah, we’re happy to offer several vehicle protection methods to keep your car safe from UV rays, from window tinting to paint protection film, wraps and numerous others. In this two-part blog series, we’ll go over several other ways UV rays may damage your vehicle during prolonged exposure, plus how many of our various products protect you from these risks.

Safety Risks

This isn’t the first area many car owners think about, but it’s often the most important when it comes to driver and passenger safety. High temperatures inside the car, generally caused by UV rays, can damage the airbags, for starters – they may be rendered inoperable in high enough temperatures, a major safety hazard.

In addition, consistent exposure to high temperatures and UV rays has been known to impact tire pressure. If you are not regularly checking your pressure levels, you might be driving unsafely without even knowing it based on over-exposure of UV rays.

Fading Dashboard

Between that same heat that builds up over time due and the actual UV radiation entering the space, dashboards are often at risk here. This combination can damage many dashboard materials – and these are often extremely expensive fixes due to the rarity of many of their components.

In many cases, the windshield only increases this exposure through reflection. Over a period of time, dashboards may fade and lose their shine, plus begin to crack or split in certain areas. Window tint, however, minimizes the dashboard’s exposure to UV rays – even if there are high levels of heat still present in the car, the combination needed to damage the dash will not be present.

Upholstery Problems

Another potential interior issue with UV rays is the risk of deteriorating upholstery. Leather, for example, is known to dry out and stiffen with enough UV exposure – even in cases where this leather is treated to resist sun damage, the upholstery itself will still be damaged by UV radiation with enough exposure.

In any situation where you’ve previously spilled liquid or food on the upholstery, the combination of these and UV rays could create even worse issues. They often cause permanent damage if they are baked into the material by UV rays. This is why it’s important for those with this sort of upholstery in their cars to strongly consider window tint that will block these UV rays from entering.

For more on the impact of UV rays on vehicles, or to learn about any of our window tinting, paint protection or other services we offer, speak to the staff at Pro Tint Utah today.