For those of you that drive in winter with salted roads etc is there any suggestions care and maintenance?

for example my dad on his truck he would remove the spare from under the bed as he found sand/salt would usually get stuck up inside and cause rust issues so he would move the spare to inside his truck bed under the tonneau cover.

 

I don't do anything special except giving the underbody a really thorough douche down once the weather starts warming up again. So far this has worked well enough for me, as I've never had any serious issues with rust on any of my vehicles.

 

99% of the vehicles around here go to the crusher because of the "salt" on the road. Usually 15-20 years is it. Ive seen 100 different ways to deal with it. None have impressed me. I brushed and por15 my entire frame on my 21 f150.

My Rubicon got rust arrow or rust bullet or whatever it was when it had 19 miles on it. It's an 08 and when a u joint failed in the front I had to torch the ball joints off and replace the entire front from the stub shafts outward. New ball joints, knuckles, wheel bearings, u joints, etc etc. It had 50k miles.

Now granted, it's a trashy Mopar but that's at 50k miles and 12 years old. Could be the Canadian/ German/ French/ Italian/ Detroit engineering... whoever owned Mopar at that time. Idk. Lol

I just cut a rusted in wheel bearing out of a 2018 subaru this year too. We also junked 4 gm service trucks in the last three years. One a 99, one a 2000 one a 98 diesel and one an 06 with a 6.0. All mechanically great trucks. One I kept for the 454, one we kept for the LS. The other two were sold for scrap.


Most places use sodium chloride on the road, sodium chloride needs water to activate. Many people say hosing them down is actually worse. The jeep above was driven through a car wash with an underbelly sprayer weekly. If your area pre-treats with brine then it doesn't matter. They are adding the water already. I have no idea which side is correct.

Other people have used oil/ kerosene/ diesel mixtures sprayed on their vehicles. I service a few of those and they may have slowed the rust some, but they are 90s models and pretty well shot.

I service a couple new gm that were coated with beeswax. Ill be watching to see how they do. Would be far less toxic than my phosphoric acid/ por treatment.

Taking the spare down would save the spare and mount im sure. Ive seen many mounts gone and spare wheels ruined, but honestly if the rest is ruined by the salt do you care about the spare and mount. Idk.

I'm sorry I have nothing particularly constructive but I have many pictures of vehicles that failed to stop the corrosion. Lol. Many stories of what didn't work

 

I treat everything underneath thats steel with Fluid Film/Woolwax.

 

this is the only thing that might work. Annual application of some sort of film, starting from day 1.

For me I’m not too worried. Realistically, in the 10-15 years (~150k miles) I keep a vehicle the undercarriage is not going to rot out. And since the body is aluminum it still should look good. If I was aiming for 500k miles and 20+ years I’d reconsider.

 

My $1100 winter beater to keep my good stuff out of the salt. Bought this 2 weeks after I picked up my 21 F150.

 

www.Krown.com applied annually. My 2013 F150 had less rust on the rear axle than the new 2021 F150’s on the lot when I placed my order in March. My new 2021 has already been coated. Yeah it’s costs $149 per year, but I don’t like looking at surface rust so the cost is well worth it. I really believe it helps keep all the joints lubricated so there is more than just rust protection.

 

I wonder if Ziebart is still around? Years ago, a co-worker who spent a lot of time in the Northeast and Canada would always have his cars treated by Ziebart...and it really seemed to work...

 

That is what I do. My wife's RAV4 gets the Krown treatment every year too.

 

Fluid film and similar oil-based sprays work exceptionally well when they are applied properly. This not only includes spraying everything underneath the car, but also using 360° nozzles to coat the entire inside of the frame.

The big issue with that is it makes the vehicle hell to work on. It traps dirt and is exceptionally difficult to clean off off tools, clothing, and skin. Every time you work on your car you will spend hours cleaning off all the crap from everything.

I use it on certain high-risk areas on my other vehicles, but refrain from doing a complete coat.