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What is Salt Brine and How Can it Affect my Vehicle?
Winter is right around the corner and that means snow will be falling from the sky. Few people like to drive in it but many of us have to, after all we can’t call off of work just because a few flakes are falling from the sky. With snow brings another hazard to your car in the form of the salt brine treatment that is used to help keep the roads here in Central Pennsylvania free of ice. This brine can do serious damage to the underside of your car and it is something that the general public does not seem to be aware of.
Rock Salt
When snow and ice are in the forecast keeping our roads clear so we can travel safely is a daunting task. For many years salt was (and still is) used to help melt snow and increase traction for vehicles. The problem with road salt was that once the temperature hits 20° Fahrenheit it becomes useless in preventing refreezing. A new product was developed to help keep the roads clear, a salt brine.
Salt Brine
Salt brine is a combination of rock salt and magnesium chloride dissolved in water and is used as an anti-icing agent to treat the roads before a storm hits. It is able to get into cracks in the road (and we have enough of them here in South Central Pennsylvania for sure) where rock salt cannot since the brine is sprayed in liquid form. Not only is it cheaper to deploy but more of it is put to use when it is since rock salt tends to bounce off of the road when placed on a road. The state of Michigan found that nearly 40% of it was wasted by bouncing off of the road and onto the side of the road where it did no good. As a further benefit salt brine is effective to -6° Fahrenheit. Of course it is possible to get colder here, the coldest temperature ever recorded in the state was -42° Fahrenheit in Smethport in 1904.
For the most part the salt brine has been effective since it began to be deployed much more widely in the last five years. It would seem to be a win/win for both the hard working men and women who are tasked with keeping the roads clear and the taxpayer. But is it?
Is Salt Brine Helping or Hurting?
The problem is that both the rock salt and the magnesium chloride are corrosive agents. The brine activates when it comes into contact with moisture and begins to eat away at whatever surface it occupies. This may be fine on a road made of asphalt but on the metal underside of your car it presents serious rust issues. It is hard to get it off of the metal as well. The magnesium chloride starts working at about 20-30% humidity so it gets to work pretty much as soon as the snow starts falling. For the record rock salt needs 70% humidity to become corrosive.
Mechanics all across the snow belt have noticed an uptick in rusting undersides in the past few years and the culprit has been found. Here in Pennsylvania the salt brine was first tested in the more mountainous areas like the Pittsburgh area and it did not take long for mechanics to find accelerated cases of rust. PennDOT has not studied the issue (or at least publicly admitted it) but believes that the salt brine is the safest option available and is sticking with it. AAA has urged motorists to thoroughly wash the underside of their cars following a snow event though it seems that few motorists are aware of the issue.
Alternatives to Salt Brine
Some other states have been more proactive about finding a solution. Brine solutions have been tested from other products that are much more environmentally friendly like cheese (in Wisconsin) and beets. Beet brine mixtures have been found to be less corrosive and offer superior anti-icing properties. Beet brine has also been found to be effective to -30° Fahrenheit.
Why You Need to Heed This in Pennsylvania
In the winter of 2017-2018 PennDOT used 9.8 million gallons of brine to help keep the roads clear. That is a lot of product and there is a very good chance that you drove over a road treated with it. The damage to your car may already be underway. Besides painstakingly washing your car after every snow event there is something else you can do. An underbody coating for your car can help to prevent a lot of the damage to not only the body of your car but the components that the metal underside is tasked with protecting. There are many different options when it comes to underside coating from do-it-yourself kits and products to having it professionally done.
At LINE-X of South Central Pennsylvania we use the Krown system to help protect the underside of your vehicle from rust and corrosion. It’s unique formula helps it to get into harder to reach areas to remove moisture from metal and then to form a coating that will keep moisture off of the metal. Krown is able to protect the underside of your car in ways that others can’t.
With winter approaching now is the best time to prepare. Schedule an appointment with LINE-X of South Central Pennsylvania to get your vehicle prepared so when the white stuff starts falling you can drive with confidence knowing your car is protected.
About LINE-X of South Central Pennsylvania
LINE-X of South Central Pennsylvania is the leader in vehicle undercoating protection using Krown products and truck bedliners using LINE-X spray-on bedliners. We serve York County to help maintain and extend the life of vehicles. If you are in York City, Hanover, Red Lion, Manchester, Dover, Dillsburg, Shrewsbury or any point in between stop in at our Vogelsong Road location to see what we can do to protect your vehicle. No one knows protection better than LINE-X and the premium performance and exceptional value that it brings.
Resources:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/worse-than-salt-brine-sprayed-on-roads-will-munch-your-car-to-pieces/2015/02/22/b89294e6-b949-11e4-aa05-1ce812b3fdd2_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.3493f33be307
https://triblive.com/news/allegheny/7524656-74/salt-brine-corrosion
Amount of brine used – https://www.penndot.gov/TravelInPA/Winter/Pages/Winter-Operations.aspx
Coldest temp in PA – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Pennsylvania#Climate_extremes
Salt and brine temps- http://epdfiles.engr.wisc.edu/pdf_web_files/tic/bulletins/Bltn_006_SaltNSand.pdf
Cheese brine – https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2014/01/21/264562529/cheese-to-the-rescue-surprising-spray-melts-road-ice
Beet brine – https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/trafficandcommuting/2015/10/31/c212b040-7e66-11e5-afce-2afd1d3eb896_story.html