What is everyones salt removal method?

Are you just trying to do a foam gun spray on/hose off, or are you agitating?

So then the salt is not "hard to get off", you are just afraid to get it off because it might scratch. Sounds like you need to use a pressure washer.

Well, Bill...salt is water soluble, so you really shouldn't need any soap at all. The problem is, particularly here in the northeast where they are using a mag chloride solution, is that along with the salt you have other components of road film, oil, etc. that bind to the surface of the car.

So you are pressure washing first, to knock off most of the grime, and then how are you proceeding to wash?

Technically speaking, a power wash should be just fine. Really if anything, I would just spray the car down with an APC if you need to and let it dwell and soften it up, and then spray down again.

That dang brine (the liquid pre treatment) and ClearLane (green salt pellets) are the killers those both are made to stick


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I pre wash rinse with pressure washer - then do a waterless wash with uber rinsless. If it gets too cold for a while I just rinse at the self wash. Spring polish with essense and reseal and again in Oct for full protection.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Autogeekonline mobile app

I rinse off at a coin op. I'm not afraid to put the pressure washer close to my paint, like less than 6 inches close. It won't hurt your paint unless you have underlying problems already, it's not that strong. It's rated around 1600psi it says and it gets the salt off. I do a timeless when I get home if it's not too cold but the car will be dirty as soon as I pull out of the car wash because dry salt will be crumbled up on the roads and it stays forever.

I have resently done some digging what road salt is more than just the salt. Know that english is not my first language so I google translated it and got 2 translation and it's gypsum and plaster. Think it's gypsum I'm look for that is a part in the road salt that is for to make it kling better to the road. That's why I think it's gets so white when dryed. And I think that is also why it's gets harder to desolve with only water which would be the case with only salt. Then it's a chemical that does so it's holds up in a granules too. The salt is a really good cleaner too and makes the grime on the roads to desolve. And the tires aggitate it well and sling it up. There is all kinds of different dirts on the roads. And different chemicals desolves different kind of dirt.

So my prewash is based on mineral spirits and is a tar degreaser. Know that is as I understands not common in the US but in Scandinavia and northern Europe is relative common. Sonax for an example has cleaners with it but have not seen any sold in the US. This tar degreaser is only used to the front and lower parts of the car and the back of the car not over the windows. You can use any tar remover to do this or a degreaser that desolves tar. Rinse thorough and the best way is to use a PW to do it. The next step is to use an alkaline degreaser to desolve other kind of dirts to the whole car. And with the PW clean rinse it of. This step you can apply right over the tar degreaser after it has dwelled enough also. If useing a prewash foam in the foamcannon I switch the order and do the tar degreaser after clean rinsed the foam of. There is products that is named as tfr traffic film remover and is the alkaline product you use. And if looking in the sds document you often find that it's based on some kind of salt in it. The thing about that is that same desolve same. And the only thing as useing any chemicals is to not let it dry on the paint.

Then after this I feel that I can touch the paint by washing it. But the car is almost clean after the prewash but does not take away the washing step. Plus it neutralise the chemicals used in the prewash.

On my wife`s escape D/D I have Hydro Blue on it. When she gets home I hit it with Whip's Wax Road Salt Remover in the driveway and rinse off with a water hose, it seems to do a great job of getting everything off till I can gave it a good wash.

She hates rubbing against the car when she gets out and getting salt residue on her clothes.

Bill1234 said:

I have trouble after every winter in the northeast as the stupid road salt is bad and is hard to get off even with car soap. What is everyone's method to get rid of the salt?

Click to expand...

What do you mean by "after every winter"? Are you saying you don't wash your car from the start of winter until the end?

Bill1234 said:

I have trouble after every winter in the northeast as the stupid road salt is bad and is hard to get off even with car soap. What is everyone's method to get rid of the salt?

Click to expand...

DIY Car Wash or Touchless Car Wash if it's heavy. Light stuff I jump right to rinseless washing at home. Just spray/pre-soak the car for a few minutes. You'll be fine. Just use the weight of the rag with light to no pressure to wipe.

SWETM said:

I have resently done some digging what road salt is more than just the salt. Know that english is not my first language so I google translated it and got 2 translation and it's gypsum and plaster. Think it's gypsum I'm look for that is a part in the road salt that is for to make it kling better to the road. That's why I think it's gets so white when dryed. And I think that is also why it's gets harder to desolve with only water which would be the case with only salt. Then it's a chemical that does so it's holds up in a granules too. The salt is a really good cleaner too and makes the grime on the roads to desolve. And the tires aggitate it well and sling it up. There is all kinds of different dirts on the roads. And different chemicals desolves different kind of dirt.

Click to expand...

SWETM, your English is fine and we're glad to have a Scandinavian perspective on the forum. However, I don't think they put any gypsum in the salt here, at least not on purpose. The road salt does have a lot of contaminants in it, as there is no reason for them to make sure it doesn't and they want something as cheap as possible. I can see how in Sweden they might have different additives since you are at a much higher latitude than any of the continental US. I think you're right that the resulting brine from the road salt (perhaps aided by the anti-caking agent they add) is good at dissolving all the gunk from the roads and depositing it on your car.

What Is Road Salt? Chemical Composition

mrken1 said:

On my wife`s escape D/D I have Hydro Blue on it. When she gets home I hit it with Whip's Wax Road Salt Remover in the driveway and rinse off with a water hose, it seems to do a great job of getting everything off till I can gave it a good wash.

Click to expand...

That sounds like an interesting product, albeit one that's not sold here. Double interesting that it's wax-safe. I know on one of the forums we have talked about an undercarriage wash product for neutralizing the corrosive effects of road salt, I never got around to buying any though...can't even remember the name.

PS I got a pretty good selection of salt-removers by googling "road salt removal for cars undercarriage"

I can actually hear the salt eating the paint. If it is above freezing I will use my Worx Hydroshot with hot water drawn directly from a bucket to remove the salt and road grime. Then I will finish it up with a standard bucket wash with Meguairs Gold Class. If it is below freezing then I will take it to the local touchless or DIY car wash and avoid any puddles on the way home. Then I will do a Wolfgang Uber Rinseless in the garage.

We've had a mild winter the past 2 years but even when we've had snow this year they've salted the s#it out of the roads. My car was coated Memorial Day weekend 2017 and topped with various coating approved toppers since, so it makes washing the car very easy. I've gone 2 weeks between washing the car and it's still easy.

Last winter I was doing RW's either using the Aqua sponge or GD method and I still had no issues but then again we had .6" in January and 0.0" in February, LOL. Now I have the Worx hydroshot and I always use the soap dispenser first to break things down first and then do the traditional wash and it comes out great, no issues ever!

I'm surprised #476S isn't doing it's job

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

Setec Astronomy said:

That sounds like an interesting product, albeit one that's not sold here. Double interesting that it's wax-safe. I know on one of the forums we have talked about an undercarriage wash product for neutralizing the corrosive effects of road salt, I never got around to buying any though...can't even remember the name.

PS I got a pretty good selection of salt-removers by googling "road salt removal for cars undercarriage"

Click to expand...

I would take that with a grain of salt. PA Ultrared was supposed to be wax safe too until I used it on my car a couple times and it completely removed my wax.

Setec Astronomy said:

That sounds like an interesting product, albeit one that's not sold here. Double interesting that it's wax-safe. I know on one of the forums we have talked about an undercarriage wash product for neutralizing the corrosive effects of road salt, I never got around to buying any though...can't even remember the name.

PS I got a pretty good selection of salt-removers by googling "road salt removal for cars undercarriage"

Click to expand...

I believe its called underwasher. I have one but I seem to get more water on myself then under car ...It hooks up to water hose and does a fair job...