Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

[CarbonBlack]

I live in Colorado, and road salt is a a part of life. I had the following questions

"how harmful is road salt"
"how does it harm paint (scratches, swirls,etching) "
"how can you protect from road salt"

thanks,
nick

[Murr1525]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

Well, of all the things that land on my paint, salt seems to be the least harmfull. Hard water, bird droppings, and berries and stuff all seem to etch in much faster. Now as far as the car, of course it can be harmfull to metal and such, but I dont seem to see as many doors rusting off these days.

Now, you want to wash it off properly, road salt is too much for a QD product. Dragging that around certainly would cause swirling. I'll even put a little extra soap in if it is bad, or turn up the foam gun a little, give a pre-rinse, etc.

All you can really do is try to wax it before winter, and maybe you find a garage or a warm day halfway through to wash and cleaner/wax then wax, or something like that.

[CarbonBlack]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

"try to wax it before winter"

sounds good, thanks for the reply. I had already waxed it prior to the snow, so it sounds like i'm set!

thanks,
nick

[BlueZero]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

I'm with Murr1525.

One thing to watch is stone chips and anything else that has removed your paint/primer down to metal. Those spots will rust pretty quick with salt. On my Jeep I have rust forming on the bottoms of the doors. Get those spots taken care of before it spreads.

[G Force]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

I live on a tropical island not too far from the sea.At the windy beaches one can see salt on his wind screen after a few minutes.Thinking that some cars live there 7 days a week The best option for these people would be to go for 100/100 galvanised vehicles.

[Mike Phillips]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

We lived on the Oregon coast for 3-4 years, folks still live there and any car or truck that was old was also rusted out.

Best thing people could do was to keep their cars and trucks parked inside a closed garage.

Another option would be to have the "Beater Car", which would be your "Winter Car" and take your pride and joy off the road during the Salt Season.

[Nick Chapman]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

Move!

[AeroCleanse]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

Are you sure its salt and not another de-icer?

[johnd651]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

im up in Upstate New York, and they use a mix salt coated with a blue chemical (something chloride, and no not sodium chloride --thats the regular salt) but i am not sure as far as how that affects our cars.... any one else know about that???

[BlueZero]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

It's probably the anti clumping chemical. It's keeps the salt from sticking together so they can spread it.

[pcmark]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

As others suggest, it's not so much pristine painted surfaces to worry about, but any compromised areas that allows the salt to reach the metal beneath the paint. Also, salt rusting metal is a chemical process that's dramatically slowed at temperatures below freezing, so while it's a great idea to get salt off of a car as soon as possible, it's most important to do so before temperatures start warming up in spring. Lastly, I feel your pain -- my vehicle has only been exposed to road salt twice, including yesterday, so I'll be venturing to the touchless automatic car wash tonight to hopefully wash away as much as possible (it's been in the single digits where I live, so my own hose is frozen solid!).

[Jeepster04]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

Ive never seen problems with rust on any of our Jeeps. One Jeep as been going strong since 94 and it only has mild rust on the bottom of the doors and the tail gate.

I just spray it off as often as I can. We dont get a whole lot of snow here so if I drive it in salt I spray it off the next day. If you live where its wet and salty all the time then the best you can do is keep wax on it. If you ever get a good dry day, spray it all off really good.

Watch the area around your 3rd brake like behind the rear glass BlueZero. Seems like I may have some setting up which isnt normal and is a defect it seems. I may try to get it covered under the rust warranty.

[BlueZero]

Re: Road salts in cold climates (3 questions)

Thanks for the heads up! I'll have to check that out.

One thing that doesn't help with mine, is my garage is normally always above freezing. It's nice to have the vehicle get melted off at night but then it rusts faster. I'll have to do some touch up pretty soon.