What Shouldn't Be Stored in a Car in the Heat? Breaking it Down by Points — Personal Experience

Some items often stored in the car's interior should not be kept there in the heat under any circumstances; many are even banned.

June 3, 2025 at 9:05 PM / Useful

Not all modern people put their car in a garage. Moreover, some car enthusiasts consider garages a relic of the past because they are completely confident that their BMW or RAM should be parked exclusively near the house. The Auto30 team tells what frequently stored car interior items should not be left there in the heat under any circumstances.

Plastic Bottles with Water

We very often leave bottles of water in the car in case of thirst. The principle: so there is always water during the trip. But at high temperatures that inevitably form inside the car's interior in the summer when it's not in the garage but simply in the yard or a parking lot, plastic emits the dangerous toxin bisphenol, and constantly drinking such water is not good at all (bisphenol breakdown products can cause changes in metabolism or the endocrine system).

Medications

People who are forced to constantly take some medications carry them in their car. However, almost all medications are recommended to be stored at temperatures not exceeding 20-25 degrees, in a place protected from direct sunlight. If this is violated, the medication will at least lose its therapeutic properties, and at most - may cause side effects.

Natural Chocolate

Natural chocolate melts into liquid chocolate at temperatures above +25. Therefore, if you leave it in the car in the summer for an hour, even in its packaging, the result will be a sweet and greasy puddle, which will then somehow need to be cleaned up. Costly affair!

Lighters

Lighters can explode if they are at a temperature above 35 degrees for several hours. In the summer, if the car is parked in the yard, the temperature inside from the sun's rays can reach 55 degrees. Therefore, it's important not to keep lighters in there. At a minimum, you can set the car on fire from the inside, at a maximum, if it explodes near the fuel tank, it could blow up part of the neighboring house or a person passing by. The law will not be on the side of the car's owner.

Expensive Smartphones

Before the release of iPhone 16, fans of Apple devices were lamenting about how smartphones froze and shut down at -2 to -3 degrees. Now it's the opposite: iPhones get too hot. APPLE warns that if an iPhone heats up to over 35 degrees Celsius above zero, it's not a warranty case, and the device can easily become permanently damaged.

Plants

Heat and dehydration can kill plants left on the car seat in pots because temperatures on a hot summer day can rise above +50.

Sunscreen

Sunscreen that you carry in the car to protect your sensitive skin coagulates in the interior's heat and loses 90 percent of its sun protection properties. Carry the cream with you, in a bag. Such heat never occurs there.

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