The Portaferry road was in bad shape today when high tide coincided with the strongest winds of the storm. I’m always shocked at the number of people who continue to drive in these conditions.

My question. If you consider purely the risk of corrosive damage to the vehicle, does it make sense to treat salt water differently to fresh water? I’d drive through a 4” deep fresh water puddle but wouldn’t drive through 4” of salt water given how corrosive it is and it’ll get splashed over the undercarriage, around the arches and over the suspension components. However, we treat our roads with salt right through the winter. Am I therefore essentially being superstitious about sea water when in fact my vehicle is being clabbered in salt all winter?

(Scenes today https://x.com/barrabest/status/1776572297165386113 )

by Keinspeck

7 comments

  1. I think one wee splash should be fine. It’s not the acid blood out of alien.

  2. What do you do in winter when they salt the roads? I’m fairly sure that the salt concentration on a salted road is higher than sea water.

  3. I wouldn’t want to be driving through salt water regularly. I always get my car steam cleaned at the end of spring every year too.

  4. Salt water shouldn’t do any more damage than the salted roads in winter. Just be sure to power wash the undercarriage and wheel arches every once in a while…. If you’re still concerned, speak with a mechanic

    Footnote: I am in no way a professional in vehicle maintenance. If concerned about anything, please consult your mechanic.

  5. Madness unless absolutely necessary to do it, imagine bathing the car in salt water .. you can wash most of the car after it but the engine bay will no doubt have salt in it that you can’t get back out.

    Its one thing to drive onto the beach in summer but same carry on with Tommy in his lexus driving up the edge of the shore literally bathing the car in the sea.. eye winching stuff.

    Just asking for trouble, at the end of the day each to their own but for the average Joe who wants longevity out of their motor try not to have salt around your car in excess of the norm and if you can then wash it every other week at least during salt spreading season (in around your wheel arches and rims/wheel nuts etc as minimum)

  6. If you are that concerned, rinse around your wheel arches and reachable areas of your car when you get home.

  7. Salt water certainly does have an effect , cars that ‘live’ near the coast are/were (better materials recently) known to corrode faster BUT that was due to spray and salty water in the atmosphere, aerosolised rather than splashing through the odd puddle.

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