Tips to Keep Your Jeep Salt Free

Winter's Arrival: Road Conditions

(Updated November 2023) With the arrival of Old Man Winter, our roads are becoming nasty, dirty pathways turning our Jeeps into salt-coated crawlers. 

The Corrosive Nature of Road Salt

The salt poured on our roads each winter is corrosive, and can cause extensive damage. 

The Culprit Behind Road Salt

Magnesium Chloride is poured onto our roads in the winter in several states. This chemical concoction is called road salt. Road Salt is bad for our vehicles. Road Salt can eat away at your Jeep in the form of rust. the threat salt poses to your vehicle is rust and accelerates with repeated exposure. Extra care must be taken in the winter months. It takes more than just a spray from the hose. 

Tips to Keep Your Vehicle Salt-Free

• Wash your vehicle as soon as possible after the snow.  Wax and Re-Wax

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• Wash the underside of your Jeep often during the winter months.

• Avoid driving through large puddles of standing water where road salt collects.
  
  
• A power washer is the best to use because you can spray water into as many nooks and crannies as you can find because salt and road crud hide everywhere.

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• Extra pressure washing on the backside of inner fender wells is a must.

• Keeping your vehicle cold when dirty is better as well, meaning a cold garage or outside rather than parking it in a heated garage which will keep the rock salt active.

• The frame has holes in the side that get filled with dirt, mud, and salt. Keep it clean put the hose in the holes to get all that yuck out. 

• You should avoid washing when the temperature is below freezing because the water will immediately freeze. Door locks could freeze and your windows could be hard to de-ice.

• If you can't take the nastiness of the salt, and you need to wash your Jeep, drive it around the block a few times to warm the hood. Turn the heater on high to warm the inside of the Jeep. This will help keep the water from freezing while you wash it. 
  
  
• Pay extra care to your soft top. Avoid an automatic car wash if you have a soft top. The brush-type car wash can easily scratch the vinyl windows. Or the dirt left on the brushes from another vehicle can scratch the windows too.
  
  
• A touchless car wash is unlikely to damage your top, but you could get some leakage due to the high-pressure nozzles from various directions.

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• The harsh chemicals in the soaps are also bad for your soft tops. The best way to clean your soft top is by hand, or in a manual car wash.

More Cold Weather Jeep Tips

• Vinegar/cold water on your windshield will also melt ice or prevent it from building up if applied the night before. 

• Keep more fuel in your tank to reduce air inside the tank that can condense and freeze in your lines. 
  
  
• Squeaky wipers annoying? Straight up rubbing alcohol on a rag clean the blades themselves to quiet them. 
  
  
• Light oil (Pam spray or cooking oil or something similar) on your weather stripping to stop your doors freezing shut.
  
  
• Don't let your vehicle idle for an extended time warming it up. Engines aren't really designed to idle, it's not good for it.
  
  
• Alcohol-based hand sanitizers in personal carry-size squirt bottles can help free up a frozen door lock if you squirt it in the keyhole.