road salting - myth

jon1981

hi,

does road salting still occur up the north and the UK ? does it have that much of an affect on cars? should it be something to be concerned about

cheers

Gregor Samsa

It does, and in fact a lot of the salt used on the UK's roads is mined in Kilroot, near Carrickfergus in NI. Of course, the UK is a relatively big place and the likes of Cornwall will get a lot less snow and ice than the Scottish Highlands, so salt use isn't going to be the same all over the country.

As for car corrosion, the UK Salt Association has this to say:

It is recognised that chlorides contribute to metal corrosion. Modern vehicle design and consideration of the de-icing activity in designing and building road structures have both helped to reduce the impact of corrosion. The use of corrosion inhibiting additives is now being trialled in the UK, with some success. Vehicles and metal structures exposed to salt should be cleaned down regularly to avoid accumulation of salt.

(source: http://www.saltsense.co.uk/deicing-environ01.htm)

Basically, check any UK car for corrosion, but I wouldn't loose sleep over it.

maidhc

Apparently many e46 BMWs imported from the UK have needed serious welding around the rear suspension.

Also if you look at ebay, many cars circa 10 years old have a substantial amount of corrosion. Few cars here have.

stretchaq

i bought 7 cars in england all older cars never seen corrosion on any of them, often think english people treat there cars a lot better than irish but most in sheffield which is fairly far north!!!!!!:D

Zube

stretchaq wrote: »

i bought 7 cars in england all older cars never seen corrosion on any of them,

Boss moved over from UK a few months back: just had to scrap his old Escort, as it was too rusty to pass an NCT.

samih

That said they do salt roads here too, and quite a bit too. Dead giveaway is when in the cold sunny mornings some roads are really wet while e.g. housing estate roads and (unsalted) minor roads are bone dry.

A few winters ago I was approaching Dublin from Palmerstown and salt finished just where the Chapelizod bybass began. The road was unbelievably slippy and a MX-5 had ended on top of a crash barrier. It looked nice and dry compared to the salted section before that.

maidhc

samih wrote: »

A few winters ago I was approaching Dublin from Palmerstown and salt finished just where the Chapelizod bybass began. The road was unbelievably slippy and a MX-5 had ended on top of a crash barrier. It looked nice and dry compared to the salted section before that.

They mostly use grit here, but more importantly, our winters tend to be wet, compared to the UK where things are much colder.

samih

They do normally use salt, white granules that dissolve. Check it out next time you're behing a gritting vehicle.

Salt is hygroscopic which leads to wet roads even when it's apparently a dry day. There is no other explanation why the main roads would be wet while minor roads running alongside stay dry.

NedKelly

AFAIK they use a sugar based compound since late 1990s ?

samih

That sounds like a good news Ned. Have do some a taste testing next time when gritters are around :-)

L1011

samih wrote: »

That said they do salt roads here too, and quite a bit too. Dead giveaway is when in the cold sunny mornings some roads are really wet while e.g. housing estate roads and (unsalted) minor roads are bone dry.

A few winters ago I was approaching Dublin from Palmerstown and salt finished just where the Chapelizod bybass began. The road was unbelievably slippy and a MX-5 had ended on top of a crash barrier. It looked nice and dry compared to the salted section before that.

We don't use salt. We use other chemicals and grit.

maidhc

samih wrote: »

They do normally use salt, white granules that dissolve. Check it out next time you're behing a gritting vehicle.

Salt is hygroscopic which leads to wet roads even when it's apparently a dry day. There is no other explanation why the main roads would be wet while minor roads running alongside stay dry.

They use grit in cork anyway! Grit is little stones from the pleistocene era (or a quarry), that incidentally do not disolve, but do leave your car looking like something Sebastian Loeb might drive.

gofaster_s13

MYOB wrote: »

We don't use salt. We use other chemicals and grit.

Kildare co.co. use salt

L1011

gofaster_s13 wrote: »

Kildare co.co. use salt

Where? Never, ever seen them use anything other than pure grit up this end of the county.

samih

I got showered with white granules in Leixlip (Kildare) last winter. They looked like salt granules.... They always seem to dissolve within minutes.

Edit. These looked the same as salt granules they were spreading near Birmingham (picked up a van from there last November).