How To Remove Road Salt From Your Car?

If your local road crews are starting to put down road salt in anticipation of snow or ice storms you may be wondering can road salt damage your vehicle?   You may have heard that road salt is not good on your vehicle but never understood why.  This article is designed to inform you how to remove road salt from your car and what you can do to help protect your vehicle if you live in an area where road salt is used.

What Is Road Salt?

Road salt is designed to melt ice and snow on roads to allow for safe travel of vehicles on the roadway.  Without road salt, it would make it much tougher to get around during the winter months for people living in the Northern United States and Canada.  Road salt is most commonly made from Sodium Chloride (NaCl) but Calcium Chloride (CaCl) can also be used.

Does Road Salt Damage Cars?

Yes, if left on your vehicle for extended periods road salt can cause corrosion and rust on your vehicle.  Sodium Chloride which is the most commonly used road salt is extremely corrosive. Over time if left on the undercarriage of your vehicle road salt can start to strip away at the undercarriage sealant designed to protect your vehicle.  Once the sealant is gone your vehicle will be more susceptible to rust.

The Midwest United States has been coined “the rust belt” because road salt is used frequently in the area and it will damage vehicles that are not properly taken care of.  Any car restoration shop will tell you that it’s better to restore a vehicle that lived it’s life in the southern states because it’s less likely to have rust than a car that lived most of its life in the Midwest.

Just ask the owner of any 2005-2010 Toyota Tacoma how bad rust can be for your vehicle.  Toyota recently settled a $3.4 billion class-action lawsuit to replace the frames of any truck that has been affected by rust, which could effect 1.5 million Toyota Tacoma’s sold from 2005-2010.  The frames were not properly sealed which lead to accelerated corrosion and rust which left several inch holes in the frames of trucks.

What Is The Easiest Way To Remove Road Salt From Your Car?

The best road salt remover is a thorough car wash.  If you are going to be taking your vehicle through the automated car wash you would want to be sure that you are getting the undercarriage cleaned as well.  This may cost a bit more than the standard car wash but you want to make sure that the undercarriage of your car has all of the salt removed from it.

If you are going to be washing your car yourself in a car wash bay then you would want to do your best to wash the underside of your vehicle with the pressure washer.  It can be somewhat difficult to get under your car with a pressure washer but you want to do your best to hit all areas of the underside of your car.

I usually wash my car in a bay during the warm summer months to save a bit of money.  In the winter months if road salt is on the road it may make more sense to take your car through the automated car wash.  Since it will likely be freezing outside and it’s usually not fun to wash your car in the cold.

How Often Should You Wash Road Salt Off of your Car?

According to Menieke, Most automotive experts recommended washing your car every couple of weeks to help protect the paint.  However, if road salt has been applied on your roads recently then you would want to wash it more frequently.  If you don’t have the chance to get your car to the car wash the next day you would want to get it washed within the same week.

It would also make sense to look at your local weather forecast to see if road salt will be applied again in the coming days.  If you are going to be getting more ice and snow tomorrow then it would be best to hold off on washing your car until you will have a few days of clear weather.

How To Protect Your Vehicle From Road Salt

Now that you know how to remove road salt from your car you should also know about steps that you can take to help protect your vehicle.  The best way to protect the paint of your car is by applying a coat of wax periodically during the winter months.

The layer of wax will help protect the clear coat of your paint which protects your paint.  Once your clear coat is worn away your paint will be susceptible to wearing away, any unpainted surface of your car will be susceptible to rust.

You may also want to look at applying ceramic coating to your car to help water bead off the surface of your car more easily.  Ceramic coating is a semi-permanent coating that makes the surface of your car more hydrophobic which means water will bead off of your car more easily.

If you are interested in learning more about ceramic coating and the benefits of applying ceramic coating to your car you can check out my other article what are the benefits of a ceramic coating?

The best way to protect the underside of your vehicle is to apply a sealant or paint any surface that is currently unpainted.  You can have a shop apply an undercarriage sealant if you want added protection from road salt and you want the underside of your car to last as long as possible.

The cheaper option is to periodically check the underside of your car for areas of rust and corrosion. If you spot an area that is unpainted or is starting to corrode you would want to apply a new coat of black paint.  Remember that any area that has unpainted metal will be susceptible to rust.

Related Questions

Calcium Chloride Vs Sodium Chloride Road Salt Which is Better?  The two main types of road salt used are sodium chloride and calcium chloride.  Sodium chloride is the more commonly used road salt because it is cheap to buy. However, sodium chloride is substantially more corrosive than calcium chloride.

Therefore calcium chloride is the better road salt to be used because it will do less harm to your vehicle. Calcium chloride is also effective at lower temperatures than sodium chloride.

If you have a say in what type of road salt your local department of road works use then you should advocate for calcium chloride to be used.

How To Remove Road Salt From Carpet?  If you get salt on the carpets of your car during the winter you likely will want to remove it at some point.  Salt won’t damage your floor mats but makes your car look messy.

To remove salt from your floor mats you would want to vacuum your floor mats to remove any leftover salt granules.  After vacuuming your floor mats you would want to use a carpet cleaner or cleaning solution to apply to your floor mats.

If you don’t have a carpet cleaner available you can use a solution of vinegar and water to apply to your floor mats to help remove any salt stains.  Once the cleaning solution is applied you would then want to use a shop vac to suck up any remaining cleaning solution or carpet cleaner.

At What Temperature Does Road Salt Stop Working? It depends on the type of road salt being used.  According to this article on Thoughtco.com  sodium chloride is effective down to a temperature of 20 degrees F.  Calcium Chloride is effective in temperatures all the way down to -25 degrees F which means