noob q about rinsing off salt residue on car

[marQ_deLa_cruz]

i've always been a bit worried for when it snows then rains here and obviously salt's everywhere on the road and next day or two, car's covered in salt residue (car's black so it's very obvious) and i always plan on rinsing it off and spray the under carriage, just with the regular hose we got at home, same one i use to wash the car.. even if it's gonna snow again like next week and for sure more salt on the road, i sometimes rinse it over and over.. just run the water throughout the car so most of the salt gets rinsed off...sometimes even run it through a touchless carwash afterwards... is that something good to do? meaning like, is that suggested? or it's fine if you wait a month or even the whole winter before washing it off?.. like is the benefit of doing what i do is fairly minimal?..if it is, i could just save the effort and keep warm inside than washing outside in negative temp..and even save some money for the touchless carwash.....if i made sense at all lol.

thoughts?

[Calvin Ng]

Six dollar car wash at wash world.  You could always put a nice paint sealant on before the cold that way you can just rinse off the salt as in it will sit on top of the sealant.

[John Hartman]

soapy water helps to negate the effects of salt.

So while the rinse may help knock off large deposits, you need to wash it not just rinse.

now, not saying what you are doing is bad because its not, and you will knock off large chunks of salty dirt etc, but do wash it when you can too.

Get the hose up in your wheel wells, door and trunk jambs, under the hood etc too.

[Shane Sawatzki]

dont wash your car if your leaving it outside untill it warms up above 0. Unless you want your doors frozen shut. If you park in the garage or something then its all good, you can wash it and stuff it in the garage to dry / not freeze lol. If you really need to take a sponge and soapy hot water and go over all the lips of the wheel wells and just rinse that area at very least (atleast this is what i do if the car will be outside and theres alot of salt around the wheel wells) Salt scares the shit out of me :\ haha

[marQ_deLa_cruz]

Salt scares the shit out of me :\ haha

lol.. worries me a bit too.

i do park it on an underground parking but seems like it's hella cold down there still so i'm not sure if it hits freezing point...the water source that we use to wash cars in our condo is outside and frozen so can't use that so i was thinkin of calvin's plan of going to washworld for a quick rinse and just parking it since it's gonna snow again tonight anyway but at least i can get most of the first batch of snow residue washed off but i'm not sure if the drive back from washworld to home would be enough to freeze leftover water since  a week ago, the drive from my work to home (10mins drive), froze the water from the windshield sprinkler when i used it to clean my windsheild before leaving the lot!

[Shane Sawatzki]

problem is washing it and driving it on the road right after ur just kicking up more salt and when it drives it will still have that white salty residue on your car again. i wash my car and pull it 5 feet foward into the garage

[marQ_deLa_cruz]

oh yeah i wouldn't wash it when it was raining..like earlier today, i went to washworld for that $6 "winter wash" or whatever they call it and it definitely cleared maybe 90% of the salt on the car..car's black again lol.. i think it's worth the $6 for the regular rinsing off since it also soaps it up a bit and sprays the under carriage.. i'd prolly do that occasionally now when we get hit with snow...like tonight.

[Calvin Ng]

6 dollars car wash rocks. And the wash the underbody. Wad telling my Gf I was washing her tl but I was just going to washworld. Than I got caught hahaha. Make sure you open the doors and hatch after when you get back to the underground just to make sure it's not frozen

[CamWeiss]

Just open up the doors/hatch and wipe them out. No water, no problem.

I've been doing this all week in freezing temperatures (I'm a detailer at a body shop) with no issues yet.

[marQ_deLa_cruz]

lmao haha nice.

yeah i did, the leftover water did start to freeze so i used my ice scraper to make sure non freezes my doors/trunk/hood.

[Brett Haviland]

dont want to use a ice scraper on your door seals!!  unless its a brush.  bet get a old big clean towel and use that to wiper the areas around your door seals.  also be carefull of spraying water into your lock cylinders...  that can cause major problems.  has to get my small blow torch style butane lighter out to be able to get into my truck after washing it the night before in sub zero temps.

[marQ_deLa_cruz]

oh yeah.. i only used the scraper to the metal body areas and fiber glass part around the door, used brush on the door seals... still, thanks for the advice, especially for the lock cylinders..will definitely keep that in mind.

[Ivan Skare]

In my opinion, you're worrying too much. It's not a Ferrari. A blast with the hose underneath is all you need once in a while. If you've waxed your car recently, you're fine. If not, then, you don't care about your car that much!

[Graeme H Burvill]

I agree with cam, i detailed for years and never had a problem with the cold, you should be drying it off anyways.

One thing about the north, everyone thinks we have horrible cars because of the winter, but we don't use salt up here. With that said I never washed the salt off my cars when i was down there and I never had a problem.

If you really are worried have a good detailer/shop apply a good undercoating. by good I mean actual undercoating not used motoroil, something like diamond kote. They can apply some anti rust spray as well to certain points while they are under there.