Hey Guys and Girls,
I just wanted to share with you all some info that was brought to my attention by a coworker who does a lot of snowmobiling. Watch out for magnesium chloride and other salt road deicers. Forgive me if this is old news, but i have found this stuff to be really nasty.

I take the evo up to Snoqualmie pass anytime we have a heavy dump of snow and I need to get up there with out chaining up (regularly). I religiously stop and hose it down (especially the undercarriage) as soon as i get off the mountain. Long story short, its not working.

This stuff loves to eat aluminum parts as well as raw unpainted steel. It'll creep into weak spots in painted surfaces and really go to town. My oil filter housing is really screwed up on the flange that seals to the filter, it was difficult to change the filter because the corrosion began to get under the seal and bond to the rubber. The surface of my wheels that mate to the disc hub. Any place that salt gets stuck to and can't be easily washed. The surfaces of the discs for that matter look like hell, pitted like crazy and now my brakes suck. Gotta check the condition of the pads. I was shocked at the damage, I've listed just the very obvious stuff. My diff housing mounts are scaling, shock paint peeling...

Anyway, I just wanted to say that this crap is evil. I will post up some photos later documenting some of the easy to see damage as I go through and fix it this summer. I'm putting salt-x on everything and touch up painting the rusty stuff.

By the way, they use this crap along with regular road salt in the lowlands too. Take a good look under your car, Washington is now part of the rust belt! It ticks me off to no end.

 

List of damaged items discovered so far that qualify as alarming:

• One piece of steel fuel hardline
• shock bodies
• oil filter housing
• wheels
• brake rotors
• body above rear subframe and around any suspension mount tabs etc. where there is only primer.
• exhaust flanges (not alarming, but an excuse to build new exhaust!)

 

Thanks for the information!

This weekend JoeyB and I are doing a full undercarriage cleaning as part of our annual detail process.

-pressure washing
-scrubbing
-soaking eachothers corks
-steam cleaning
-apply new undercarriage spray

 

Too bad brown bear car wash doesn't have lifts. I'm going at it with a spray bottle, brush and a creeper for now. I've got the diff out now so I can get above it. The aluminum diff mount subframe is showing some signs of corrosion in the bolt holes and washer surfaces. I'll probably try to hit all that stuff with some zero rust whilst I have access.


Post up any similar rust or corrosion damage. Has the annual treatment worked? Maybe I've just been slackin'.

 

Yeah its pretty much the same here in Idaho. Oddly enough my undercarriage isnt too bad for being 22 years old though.

 

effin cork soakers...

 

Yeah I already know my evos undercarriage is all nasty. I need to do some work.

 

This is a cheap Japanese car. Nothing is coated. Run an under tray /thread

 

yeah, the cork soakers will get ya every time.
I'm planning on building trays once I get done painting etc. I doubt it will fix the problem entirely.

I think we ought to sue the state for using this stuff. That way our cars and the snow will stay around longer.

 

Sue because of a minor rust coating on a cheap Japanese car that is now 7 years old? Go complain to Mitsu you have a corrosion warranty.

 

Sure, sue everyone, Its the American way!

The point is, salting roads to this extent and with some of the particular products themselves is a relatively new thing around here. The switch has been very apparent, there is a distinct lack of sand used on the roads now.

If you are from the east coast, its already an accepted facet of life to deal with salt.

 

Don't drive your Evo in the winter. No point in destroying an Evo when a POS FWD Honda that can be bought for $4K does fine in the snow.

 

Yeah, I've learned my lesson. I love this cheap Japanese car, I'm not rich and I do all my own work, so this is a big deal to me.

Maybe I'll get some studded tires for the Isuzu Pup but FWD is really the way to go.

Since my shocks are on their way to Bilstein, I have plenty of time to check everything. I'm in the process of pulling apart the entire suspension and subframe system to clean, paint and lube. Wow.
For instance, rust was starting to creep between the output seals and the differential housing. Oh, and the rear cover to housing mating surface. The gas tank isn't looking too hot...Where will it end?!

Never again will this thing see salt.