Protect Your Car From Salt Damage
Road salt is unavoidable, but there are ways to protect your car from its damaging effects.
Salt industry sources list billions of dollars worth of direct damage to cars, roadways, curbs, bridges, sewers, roadside vegetation and local aquifers each year. In all fairness, sources are equally quick to list even more billions of dollars worth of benefits from the widespread use of road salt: accident avoidance, productivity gains versus weather-induced absenteeism, increased road-construction employment making repairs, etc.
While there are a number of less damaging alternatives, salt enjoys a considerable price advantage. It’s likely to remain in widespread use.
In Cleveland, road salt is heavily used. Lake-effect storms routinely blanket the region, and freezing rains turn roadways into skating rinks. Motorists who venture out accumulate a thick coating of road salt mixed with slush throughout their vehicles’ undercarriages and wheel wells. As the slush melts, much of the salt is left behind where it begins a slow and insidious attack on metal and rubber parts.
Most of the cars in local salvage yards still have plenty of good mechanical parts left, like engines and transmissions, but the bodies have rusted out due to salt.
Brakes are particularly vulnerable, since the rotors always present a fresh metallic surface for the salt to attack. The salt causes rust on the brackets that encase the brake pads. The extra layer of rust puts the squeeze on the pads over time, preventing them from applying fully or releasing completely. Exposed metal brake and fuel lines can also be weakened, ultimately rusting through if no countermeasures are taken.
Tips to Help Maintain Your Car’s Longevity
Get your car to a good car wash at least once a month during the salt season. The most important wash of the year is the one in mid May, once April rains have finally washed the last remnants of winter salt off all of the streets. Look for a car wash featuring a “chassis bath” or similar undercarriage cleaning.
Don’t rely on the names alone. Some undercarriage cleanings are too weak or too sparse to do any good. Look for several strong jets of water spraying upward and sideways across the width of the bottom of the car. If you don’t see them, look for another car wash.
If your car is still in good shape underneath, you might also consider having a professionally applied rust-proofing treatment that concentrates on the brake lines, fuel lines and other vulnerable areas. Make sure that the procedure includes cleaning the areas to be treated before the chemicals are applied. It’s difficult to achieve much otherwise.
In the end, the rust will still win, but you may delay its eventual victory by five years or more.
About this Experts Contributor
Sam Bell owns The Lusty Wrench in Cleveland Heights, Ohio. He was named the Delmar/Cengage Learning ASE Technician of the Year, and is a contributing editor for MOTOR Magazine.
As of Sept. 16, 2011, this service provider was highly rated on Angie’s List. Ratings are subject to change based on consumer feedback, so check Angie's List for the most up-to-date reviews. The views expressed by this author do not necessarily reflect those of Angie’s List.