With snowfall around the corner, road services will use salt to improve road quality. This is a popular trend in the Rust Belt states, which include Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, which experience the most yearly snowfall. This means more negative impacts on our vehicles, which causes them to rust more easily, significantly decreasing their life.
Road salt is made from a chemical composition containing 98% sodium chloride, 2% Calcium, and/or magnesium chloride. This creates a hygroscopic mixture, and attracts things like carbon steel/aluminum, resulting in a faster corrosion time. All cars use carbon steel/aluminum in their structure, which makes a bad mixture for driving. An example of this is in your car’s chassis, where the most exposure happens. All the constant rotation from your tires results in your frame being coated in all of these chemicals like salt and even just water. Over time this will destroy frame paints, and create a layer of salt and water, which in most cases, causes the chassis to rust from the inside out. Like the chassis, your car’s body is also exposed to a lot of salt. In some cases, this can be even worse due to how thin the metal or aluminum is. This can break down your car’s paint and expose the inner layers of the bodywork, essentially making corrosion an easier result.
To prevent these things from happening, road departments should use better options like gravel or dirt. These have fewer chemicals, making them a natural way to add more grip to our roads. Furthermore, these solutions are also better for our vehicles due to less exposure to salt and other snow-melting chemicals that cause rust. This also stops salt from damaging your car’s paint, and from getting trapped into small areas that are harder to get off, when trying to remove the salt.
However, until these options become more available, it’s important to make sure you wash your car regularly during the winter, and in some cases, get the treatment/paint needed to protect your chassis or underbody from the weather. Washing and maintenance is the best way to protect your car from the winter elements, as well as fight against the rust that is so hard to avoid this time of year.
