Learn the dirty details of how winter weather can diminish your car’s appearance.
Driving in the snow and ice isn’t just hazardous to motorists; it can also deal some damage to your car—even when you’re not skidding along icy roads.
When all the snow and ice melts, your car might be left with some damage it didn’t have before. The primary culprit isn’t the snow: it’s salt and salt brine, common materials municipalities use to treat roads in winter weather.
Corrosion and other marks can occur on your car’s paint if you drive on roads that have been treated. These materials help to keep roads safe and driveable, but they can eat into your car’s paint and impact its appearance.
In this article, we’ll discuss how salt and salt brine affect your car’s paint and how you can protect your car’s appearance from these damaging road treatments.
What Is Salt and Salt Brine?
Many cities and counties use rock salt for roads, which is a mixture of sodium chloride. It’s not much different than the salt you have on your table at home; the biggest contrast is that road salt is in its mineral form (the way it’s mined), while table salt has been purified for human consumption. You might notice road salt being in bigger grains, too.
Salt brine combines road salt with water. This mixture allows the salt to stick to roads more easily compared to rock salt alone. The salt mixture stays in place as motorists travel the roads, which allows it to keep doing its job.
Municipalities apply rock salt and salt brine to the roads prior to a storm to prevent the roads from freezing. The salt brine has a lower freezing temperature than water and prevents ice from forming and sticking to the surface. As a result, the roads are safer to drive on, which reduces the risk of sliding or losing control of a vehicle.
What Are the Dangers of Rock Salt and Brine on a Vehicle?
Adding solutions to the roads to make them safer in winter weather is the right idea. But unfortunately, sodium chloride is corrosive to vehicle paint and the metals on your vehicle.
As you travel on treated roads, the salt solutions splash onto your vehicle and stay there until they’re rinsed away. Long exposure to either of these compounds can cause long-term damage, including:
- Removal of the paint and clear coat
- Rusting of the vehicle’s metal components and frame
- Damage to electrical components
Salt brine compounds these issues. Using salt brine is growing in popularity since it’s more effective than salt alone. Because of the mixture of water and salt, this solution can seep into smaller areas, cracks, crevices, or chips in the vehicle’s paint. This allows even more damage to occur and can make it harder to thoroughly remove all of the salt from a vehicle.
How Do I Protect My Car from Salt and Salt Brine?
Cold weather car protection is a must. While you’re stocking up on chains, antifreeze, and winter-grade oil, make sure you also consider ways to keep your car clean, even if you’re not handwashing it yourself.
As with any type of car care, your best approach is to be proactive about protecting your car’s paint. Here are some steps you can take to prevent paint damage from road salt and salt brine.
Invest in Paint Protection (Before Winter if Possible)
Start before the winter season by pre-treating your vehicle with a protective coating. A wax or gel-wax is a great option for fast, cost-friendly protection. An even better choice is ceramic graphene paint protection. Ceramic with graphene coatings are stronger than gels or waxes and are typically applied by a professional dealer. The coating “bakes” onto the paint to form a hard clear shield that will protect your car’s paint from the elements.
Regularly Wash Your Vehicle
The fastest way to remove sodium chloride from your vehicle is to wash it. Choose a car wash that targets the undercarriage to get rid of hard-to-reach salt buildup.
If you live in a place where snow or ice only linger for a day or two, wait until things clear up before heading to the car wash.
If you live in a climate where snow stays on the ground for many days or weeks, aim for a car wash every 1-2 weeks (even though you’re likely to recoat your car with salt brine the minute you drive out of the car wash parking lot). Reducing build-up is key in keeping your car’s paint in good shape.
You can also rinse your car with a hose in your own driveway in between washes. It’s hard to get away from the salt and brine in winter, but frequent rinsing is better than letting the salt linger.
Park Your Car in a Garage
Whenever possible, leave your car parked in a garage when you’re not using it. Sheltering your car will help you avoid catching salt and brine from trucks as they treat the roads.
If a garage isn’t an option, park your car as far away from the road as possible.
Keeping Your Car Fresh in Winter
Getting around town in the winter is a requirement; damaging your car’s paint in the process doesn’t have to be.
You can keep your car’s paint protected for longer by staying vigilant about road salt dangers and eliminating sodium chloride from your vehicle. A little effort now ensures your ride is shiny and ready for spring!