How do you deal with salt on your car in the winter

[TypeRD]

So you think the ppf would crack under those conditions? Or some rubber seal flash freezing? Id rather not risk it if I don't have to lol

Also jesus christ, that sounds terrible! I used to love the winter and cold until I got into cars and now I hate it haha

I’ve actually never heard of automotive PPF nor rubber/plastic parts cracking from the cold. If this were the case, people in the Dakotas and up in Canada would need cars specially built for their winters.

Yeah…there’s cold and then there’s COLD. I don’t recommend the latter unless you enjoy your face cryogenically freezing solid while just walking to and from the mailbox. It was brutal. My first spring/summer there, people would be outside swimming and sunbathing when it hit ~70°. It was wild. But when you think about how long and cold the winters are, 70° can feel pretty damn warm!

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[Cueyo]

It sounds like it’s best to leave it be and not introduce water since it won’t be able to dry properly.

I’m in central MA and they do the same thing here with salting dry roads. Then the just seem to keep adding to it unnecessarily. It’s all about spending the money allocated so they get the same budget next year.

I’m not looking forward to tomorrow! We’re supposed to get upwards of 2 feet of snow! Of course people from Buffalo are going “so, what’s the big deal?”

I'm not leaving the house till Wednesday, the snow can be bad, but it brings out even worse drivers, especially anyone over the age of 65 in a crossover that they swear the AWD will save them

 

[Superhatch]

I was at -16 this week with windchills in the -30s and ppf did fine.

The funny thing about temps this cold is seeing IATs go down considerably as you start to speed up.

 

[timestamped]

If you’re stuck at home and have the time, you can get under the car and wipe everything down you can reach. I did it on quick jacks and it took me about 4 hours, just relaxing as I went from front to back.

 

[22Si]

As OCD as I am about my car I'll tell you one thing that's the best is not having to worry.

Just insure that you can take it to a Touchless Car Wash where it will wash the undercarriage and spray all the salt off the key is finding a really good touchless one.

Aside from that just ensuring that your car has a good coding or protection on there along with doing a wash whenever you can and as often as you can but if it's too cold just let it be.

The car does awesome in snow with winter tires the only downside is how low it is and all the gunk that collects on those black underbody kit

 

[MooMoo]

Also in NY, My FL5 gets packed away when there is salt on the road which this winter seems like its for the whole time, sad but the amount of salt they use here is asine, the salt will stay on the road even after a nice day of rain.

These cars actually pretty protected though but stuff like bolts and stuff is the problem, they will seize, this happened to my last car that I drove through winter, an M2. That said the under carriage of that car was fine after 2 years of winter apart from a couple of seized bolts, which honestly coulda been from the older owner since car came from Maine.

What I did, and still do on my other cars that see winter is use this
Salt Gone - https://amzn.to/45tCwuK

and then this -

Sprayer - https://amzn.to/3LBrOf7

This stuff really works. Car is caked in salt, all white, spray this and its almost fully gone, with just water on the driveway it will still be there. This actually does a good job, I just spray the whole car, get underneath as much as I can as well and wheel well, the fill the same sprayer with water and hit it with that. Most of the salt is gone. Best of all can get done in the driveway even when its cold as shit.

Its not a perfect system but imo it works. The problem of going to the car wash is that you get the car washed and on the way home there is salt all over your car again and now you have water that the salt just touched which is really the enemy, salt its when it gets in contact with water.

 

[Cueyo]

Also in NY, My FL5 gets packed away when there is salt on the road which this winter seems like its for the whole time, sad but the amount of salt they use here is asine, the salt will stay on the road even after a nice day of rain.

These cars actually pretty protected though but stuff like bolts and stuff is the problem, they will seize, this happened to my last car that I drove through winter, an M2. That said the under carriage of that car was fine after 2 years of winter apart from a couple of seized bolts, which honestly coulda been from the older owner since car came from Maine.

What I did, and still do on my other cars that see winter is use this
Salt Gone - https://amzn.to/45tCwuK

and then this -

Sprayer - https://amzn.to/3LBrOf7

This stuff really works. Car is caked in salt, all white, spray this and its almost fully gone, with just water on the driveway it will still be there. This actually does a good job, I just spray the whole car, get underneath as much as I can as well and wheel well, the fill the same sprayer with water and hit it with that. Most of the salt is gone. Best of all can get done in the driveway even when its cold as shit.

Its not a perfect system but imo it works. The problem of going to the car wash is that you get the car washed and on the way home there is salt all over your car again and now you have water that the salt just touched which is really the enemy, salt its when it gets in contact with water.

Oooo, I'll try that! Does it mention anything about reacting with undercoat? Don't see anything on the page

 

[AZCWTypeR]

I moved to southern AZ, no salt here.

Before that I kept cars for 10 years in New England. No rust issues with several Honda's, other than one stuck caliper. My Scion FR-S had 10X the rust underneath as our same age CRV.

 

[MooMoo]

Oooo, I'll try that! Does it mention anything about reacting with undercoat? Don't see anything on the page

not sure but id message them and ask. Honestly I doubt would do anything to an undercoat but definitely good to make sure

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