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Seattle Road De-Icer

2223 Views 10 Replies 6 Participants Last post by  gregert12
I was just curious if the new stuff that Seattle puts on the roads causes tons of orange rust? I drove my jeep during that last snow storm and it has been in the garage since. I looked underneath today and noticed my Riddler diff and all my TREs are covered in bright orange rust. My jeep has moved from Denver to Pensacola to Seattle and I have never had rust on my TREs. Anybody notice this? I am headed to the car wash tomorrow, other than that is there anything I can do to neutralize that crap? Maybe spray some brake cleaner on before I go to the car wash then pump new grease in when I get home?
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We use the same thing as Washington DOT; calcium chloride, molasses and brine, basically a skanky beer.

No idea how to neutralize it, but this is what they use.
Go to a boat store & buy a gallon of Salt Away or Salt Terminator & the sprayer that you need to use w/ it (mixes it with water). You hook it up to a hose & spray off the underside of your car with it. It neutralizes/removes salts & leaves a nice coating. I started using it on my boat a few years ago & ALWAYS use in on my cars now in the winter. Both are good products.
Move to the East side of the state-we know how to handle snow over here... :lildevil:

Seriously though, not sure what they use other than the calcium stuff around here. Haven't noticed any rust issues from it though on either of our DD vehicles-with going on 6 winters on the Jeep now and I THINK this is #4 on the Subaru. Thinking about it though, in typical "west side" fashion, that orange coating is likely there to preserve some sort of vegetation through the winter for the grubs to feed on come spring to help the salmon for the next season. Either that, or more spotted owl mating dust. :D I'd be careful getting brake fluid on too many things. That stuff mentioned above sounds interesting though.

Best of Luck,

Mike
Mike,
Good idea except I don't think the Navy has any ships on that side of the mountains. They may not be using the de-icer over there this is a new product they were bragging about before the storm hit. I emailed them this morning and asked what the chemical was, but I have my doubts as to whether they will reply. I am sure they don't want to admit culpability to rust by keeping the roads safe or admit to anything in writing that someone could decide was grounds for a future lawsuite. I just want them to tell me what it is so I can be sure to get it clean. I don't think it is salt based, usually when I have seen salt corosion on metal it's white or a light color. This looks I drove through a group of hunters.
MTDIRK said:
I don't think it is salt based, usually when I have seen salt corosion on metal it's white or a light color. This looks I drove through a group of hunters.
Whatever it is, it's corrosive as heck though. I think it's Calcium Chloride. Pierce County Road dept uses it too.... what I also saw was trucks running around with a full load of SALT in them two weeks ago.

My Jeep got all rusted up in the same areas as yours during the Christmas 2008 snow event.
calcium sucks, although is does a marginal job of deicing the roads. just make sure everything under your jeep has a good coat of paint, grease, wax, or something that will protect the metal. I spray bomb the under side of mine twice a year once before the winter salt bath, and once in the spring after a good bath to turn it from rust to balck again.
Just like Eric, I normally spray the whole thing with armor all tire cleaner which seems to help.
I was surprised today by an email from WSDOT, they said its Calcium Chloride with a corrosion inhibitor blend. I think they ordered the wrong stuff and got corrosion enhancer. I was pretty happy about the snow and even got a snow day from work, but in the future I will hope for rain.

Here is the email:

Thank you for your e-mail to the Washington State Department of
Transportation (WSDOT) asking about the deicer used on the state
highways.

The liquid deicer used in your area is CC&B. It is a Calcium Chloride
deicer with a corrosion inhibitor blend.

There are a few products on the market that are specifically designed to
breakdown deicers. However, they are usually quite expensive. I am
including for your review, a link to a product that we currently use in
our fleet division.
http://www.rainx.com/Products/Plastic_H ... Clean.aspx

While we do not endorse this product over any of the other products that
are currently available, we have had success using it on our equipment.

WSDOT also recommends that drivers who drive on roads treated with
deicers, manually wash their vehicles or drive thru a mechanical carwash
to help prevent build-up over time. Normal car wash soap with agitation
will remove most deicers.

For information about our snow and ice removal program, including
deicers, please see our website at
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/winter/anti.htm.

If you have further questions about deicers, please contact Jay Wells,
WSDOT HQ Maintenance and Operations Staff Superintendent, at
360-705-7863 or [email protected].
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And I wonder of the local municipalities use the same stuff as the WSDOT?

WSDOT only manages state highways and interstates. City/county road crews deal with the surface streets.

Annoying that the Pierce county road dept will drive around spewing that stuff on the road simply if freezing temps are forecast, even when no precipitation is coming... In other words the they lay it down on bare and dry roads, apparently thinking that "frost will form on the roads" so we better spread this stuff around first. :dhorse:
desertfox1 said:
And I wonder of the local municipalities use the same stuff as the WSDOT?

WSDOT only manages state highways and interstates. City/county road crews deal with the surface streets.

Annoying that the Pierce county road dept will drive around spewing that stuff on the road simply if freezing temps are forecast, even when no precipitation is coming... In other words the they lay it down on bare and dry roads, apparently thinking that "frost will form on the roads" so we better spread this stuff around first. :dhorse:

The pretreatment does not "go bad" but it is normal for us to spray within 24-48 hours of a storm.
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