What Road Salt Does to Your Vehicle During the Winter

OKEMOS, Mich. –– In states like Michigan, road salt is vital for keeping drivers safe. Road salt provides traction for vehicles on roads that would otherwise turn to sheets of ice and slippery packed-down snow. But despite the benefits of road salt, it also has a corrosive effect on your vehicle. It's important to understand what road salt does to your vehicle during the winter, and how you can limit the negative effects it has.

While you drive down salted roads, the salt accumulates on your vehicle, including on its side panels, front and rear ends, wheel wells, and the entire underside of your vehicle. While your vehicle was likely designed to handle corrosion, overtime that protective barrier breaks down and elements like road salt are able to begin their corrosive effects.

At the end of a winter day after it has snowed and salt has been put down, you may notice a white dust that has clung to your vehicle, coating it from the windows down to the bottom of the vehicle. This is the salt your vehicle has accumulated from the roads.

The best thing you can do when your vehicle is covered in salt is to keep it clean and run it through a quick carwash. While a carwash may seem unnatural during the winter, it's a necessary step you must take to clean your vehicle of the corrosive dust from the salt.

When you take your vehicle through a carwash, it doesn't have to be for the sake of preserving your vehicle's glamorous appearance. All your vehicle needs is a quick wash––no wax or extra-sparkle carwash options are necessary. The entire point of a carwash during the winter is simply to wash your vehicle of the corrosive salt it has accumulated from driving on winter roads.

It may seem like a fruitless process, washing your vehicle of corrosive road salt after driving on winter roads only to have it accumulate more salt over the course of a few days, but in reality you're doing your vehicle a huge service by getting it washed. If you chose instead to leave the salt on your vehicle until after winter, you would be letting corrosive salt eat away at your vehicle's body over the course of many months. This could cause serious body damage to your vehicle that could cost a good deal of money to fix.

Instead of spending a large amount of money to refurbish your vehicle to a healthy appearance after the winter months, it would be smarter to spend less money overall on regular car washes throughout winter. Now that you know what road salt does to your vehicle during the winter, you know to keep your car in great shape all year long! You can do so with help from our seasonal maintenance pages at Graff Chevrolet Okemos!

Hank Graff Chevrolet Okemos is committed to providing you with top-notch service and convenience close to home. Let our friendly team of Chevy professionals at Hank Graff Okemos help you find your dream car – simply call us at (517) 349-8300 or visit our showroom, located at 1748 W. Grand River Okemos, MI 48864. We’re just minutes from Lansing!

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