Mid-Atlantic Members: winter road treatment

I hoping for some input from those of you from states like NJ, VA, MD, DE, etc. I am wondering how the roads are treated in the winter time, or what kind of impact you are seeing on the average vehicle due to salt, magnesium chloride, etc treatments.

I’m looking to buy a new to my family vehicle. It will probably be in the 5-10 year old range, which will make it 5-10 years newer than anything we own now!

I’m in CT. In New England the road salt and magnesium chloride they have been using the last decade or so has been destroying vehicles, especially trucks and SUVs. Although it appears most vehicles have their unique or normal rust areas. All three suburbans I’ve owned not only face body rot, but have had to have fuel lines replaced too.

For the first time in many years I am shopping for a vehicle and not under the gun of a 30 day rental. It seems that my wife or I usually get hit hard enough that the insurance company totals the car. That’s one downside of driving older vehicles; not enough value to warrant repair. So I am looking in a larger area than usual. And I figure if I can get a car from a different climate that hasn’t taken a toll on the body, that car can last longer than one that comes from this climate.

So your input would be greatly appreciated. Obviously New Mexico and Arizona cars would be the way to go, but that’s a lot more drive time to get the vehicle home. And I will certainly take input from other areas of the country too, but figured I would start with the mid-Atlantic region because of its proximity. Thanks.


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Bump. Anybody?


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I see plenty of cars from the 90s to early 00s that are rotted out when I watch shows that are from Michigan or when people from the north come down to this area.

They use salt brine on the roads here but only when iceing conditions are threatening or present. If your in the mountains of NC they use more salt than around here.

If I were you I might look for a car from the south, Like GA, SC, NC maybe Alabama even? Are you going to trailer it back or going to fly and drive back? If flying a ticket to GA is probably not much more than one to MD...esp since Atlanta I believe is the second busiest airport behind O'Hare.

In this area the rot is not a problem, neither is salt water cars. That's really something I think northern dealers put in people's heads so that they don't buy cars out of the south?? You heard a lot about that like 20 years ago after that string of hurricanes hit NC. But I haven't heard it much out of these last big hurricanes that they have had.

I drive older vehicles too. I have a 01 Highlander that's my daily driver. It's been in the south I think all but the first few years. It has zero rust. We also have an 04 Sequoia. It has Zero rust. I had a 1990 ranger that only was starting to get a rusty bubble the size of a quarter, that was developing behind one of the back tires on the bed fender..behind that tire. That truck still is around town. That spot has looked the same for really like 5 years. That was the only rust that truck had or I knew about.

I would consider looking in the south..just my thoughts.

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Following saewoody as I need to replace soon. Buddies 15 Silverado failed safety inspection for rust 2 months ago!!

 

Lots of good info there clemsonfor!

I would likely fly down and drive it back. I guess it really depends on the distance/time/cost analysis of the specific situation. Did it once with a vehicle from FL. That vehicle gave us a lot of good years until somebody hit my wife and totaled it abut 2 1/2 years ago.

Thanks for all the feedback; very helpful.


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A family friend did just this to get a non-saline cancer vehicle. He ended up making a mini vacation and in the throws of -30° January was online and bought a pickup. He and his wife took a week off and left the frozen Dakotah Territory. They went down to balmy Arkansas, grabbed his pickup, and went to the gulf coast for a few days of reprive from the cold and ate fresh seafood. He said this is the only way he will buy vehicles from now on.

 

Whatever you get, just do an undercoating of it to slow down the inevitable cancer.
There are many options out there to choose from, for an undercoating. Fluidfilm is very popular and so is just motor oil.
I did my 86 pickup this fall with a product called corrosionx-hd. I like it so far.
I plan on doing my other vehicles with it as time permits if it doesn't get to late into winter.

 

I know just about anywhere south of Ohio uses much less treatment on the road (and have less reason to in the first place) even southern Ohio is better than northern in this regard. I have a buddy that lives in Tennessee and deals in vehicles...and it seems to me that Tennessee is a really good place to buy used vehicles...light winters, low to no salt on the roads, not much flooding issues there, no salt air to worry about like in the coastal areas. My current truck is a 2003 F250 and lived its life in Sarasota Fla. until a couple years ago when the guy moved up here and sold me the truck...it is rust free, but the paint on the hood and roof are totally sun baked...typical Florida vehicle...it is slated to be repainted on the top soon...

 

Yes, we have our vehicles oil sprayed every year or two now...stops 99.9% of the rust I'd say. We are lucky to have a local guy that does it for $40 on cars/$55 full size trucks...uses new oil made just for this purpose, not some shade tree guy using used motor oil. I like oil spray 1000% better than undercoating...I had a truck done by Ziebart years ago...almost worthless...and $350 to boot, this was in 1990 or so. And had to pay $50-100 every year to have it "inspected/touched up" too...otherwise there worthless warranty was...even more worthless!

 

agree with any kind of undercoating like that. It hides the rust, seals it in etc. Oil based is the way to go.

 

Not to sound jerkish, but... We always joked about the states to the east of Dakotah Territory all the way to the coast because you could see the salt cancer. When the oil boom happened here a few years back, there was such an influx of out of state drivers not used to our road conditions that the accident rates went through the roof. We only used sand and grew up that way and learned to drive to those conditions. The state went about 5 years ago and added salt to try and assist people to drive like idiots and eat our vehicles. Those of you that have these oil undercoating jobs done, is it called a specific kind of undercoating, is it done at vehicle dealerships or service stations or is it a complete business on its own, how bad does it gum everything up after you get coated and drive a gravel/dirt road, is it a once a year thing or how often do you do it? I think I'm going to try finding somewhere that does this but since the salt addition is a relatively recent thing I haven't heard anyone advertising they do this around here so may need to do some looking.

 

Driving on dirt roads afterward is preferable...the dust soaks into the oil and makes a nice protective grease layer...a real mess when you need to work on something, but at least you have something left that is worth working on! I only do it once every year or two...some go as much as twice per year if they drive high mileage.
Around here it is stand alone business' that do it...maybe different elsewhere? Some guys do DIY...messy! Thats why I gladly pay our guy $40! Only takes him 10-15 minutes too. They even drill the door and panels to get inside, then plug it with a rubber plug just like the undercoating shops do.

 

It's only specific by brand/type I guess. It's kind of a business on its own. I did mine myself, small investment in a undercoating gun, time and material.
I'm not sure about gumming stuff up but dirt will stick to any oil based material obviously. I heard of some guys doing the dirt road drive after getting the motor oil coating done to help
keep it from dripping. Usually once a year to every 2 years depending on different variables/material used.
I don't believe fluid film will drip and what I used definitely isn't dripping. It's a lot thicker than fluid film.
When I did mine I bought a tyvek suit with a hood. Had a respirator already.
I wore that and some safety glasses. It wasn't too messy.
I'm sure working on it will be a different story.

 

I can't add much useful to this conversation except that after a weather event where brine and salt was put on the roads, I take my truck off roading and drive through lots of puddles at a high rate of speed to clean off the undercarriage. Or do I just do it because I never grew up? hmmmm

 

That sounds thicker than the stuff our guy uses...it drips for a few weeks afterward. The wife parks on cardboard in the garage for a bit. This is where it would be nice to park in a gravel drive, but ours is concrete.
When I had my car sprayed a month or so back the leaves were still on the ground, so I raked a pile to the driveway and parked on that for a few days until the worst of the drips subsided.

 

This is all great information. I had always heard about the undercoating basically being a scam. But that may basically just have been an issue around here. I know some guys around here do the POR15.


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It's very viscous, It wouldn't "pour" out it came in out in glops, I used a funnel to catch it and than had to use a paint stick to get it down the funnel and scrape it out of funnel because it wasn't going any other way. It didn't help that I had the jug in the garage before doing this and it wasn't warm out.
I now have it in the house hoping it will help when I get around to doing the car hopefully soon.
There is nothing in my driveway from it. It also wouldn't spray thru the 360 degree hose that came with my kit. It was a gun designed to shoot fluid film
and I was afraid it was to thick for that gun but it worked..

 

My guy has an unheated shop bay that he sprays in, he keeps his gun in a heated pot of water between jobs to keep it flowing...and the next gallon of oil too. He gets it out of a 55 gallon drum 1 gallon at a time for the spray gun(s)

I've used POR15, its a good product, but its all about proper prep if you want it to work well...basically like doing good paint prep, with an extra step maybe...too much work for me! Plus it still doesn't protect all the inner panels, and all the other lil nooks n crannys that oil runs into...