misterp Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) Dylan & Adams crew - With the freezing here in Dallas last week, the road department used a sh!t-ton of Magnesium Chloride de-icer and I had to drive through it with my truck, about 20-miles over 2-days. On the 4th day after exposure I was able to get to the car wash and spent a good 4-hours pressure-washing everywhere I could reach but the damage was already done, the chrome on my Centerline rims is ruined, I guess I will have to re-chrome them in the future. So I am still worried about Magnesium Chloride, there is very little information on this stuff and what I understand is that it is even more damaginng to vehicles than [older] road salt. Road Salt will dissolve in water, so high pressure washing will eventually produce a clean undercarriage, but from what I understand Magnesium Chloride is not water soluble, you need some certain chemical spray treatment or spray wash to get the vehicle actually chemically clean again, and until you do it is coated in an invisible coating of the deicer which continues corroding. Many truckers complain that their rigs are literally falling apart from Magnesium Chloride, I don't want the same happening to my truck. Do you guys have any info on what we can use to get this crap off our undercarriages? How ironic is that, to have an all-wheel drive truck you can't drive in winter weather because of the road department chemicals that dissolve your truck to nothing... Mr. P. Edited February 9, 2011 by Mr. P. (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverado777 Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 You can try this... http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_7445222_remove-magnesium-chloride-cars.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zachm89 Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 i picked a shitty weekend to come to DFW...whats even worse is the weather is so damn cold still theres no way i could get out and hand sponge my truck right now. thanks for looking into this Steve, I had no idea thats what they used on the roads Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misterp Posted February 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 You can try this... http://www.ehow.co.uk/how_7445222_remove-magnesium-chloride-cars.html Vineagar & water huh... makes sense I guess (vineagar being an acid). That's all I need is a truck smelling like a big black pickle! Mr. P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hankg42 Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Vineagar & water huh... makes sense I guess (vineagar being an acid). That's all I need is a truck smelling like a big black pickle! Mr. P. So we have to douche our trucks to get this crap off, huh? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverado777 Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 I would do the vinegar then do just a regular wash to get the smell off. Also you might be able to put the vinegar in the pressure washer to get the under side of the truck. Just a thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverado777 Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Also remember that vinegar will remove car wax so plan on waxing your truck afterwards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
diggerdan11 Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 (edited) Yeah Vinegar can work wonders, It works great on hard water spots. I had to use it to get rid of them once. It also works great on road grime, wood pitch and caked on bugs. But just like Silverado777 said, It will strip your wax off. Im glad we dont have to deal with the Magnesium Chloride that much where I live. They only put it on a couple places in town mainly steep roads where people slide very easy, and we dont use salt out here either (as you know Mr. P seeing is your from Oregon). They use Cinder rock out here to help with traction but it does mean more rock chips because of it. Im going to repaint my truck one day because all of the cladding and hood is covered in rock chips Edited February 9, 2011 by diggerdan11 (see edit history) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miller812 Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Ya they switched to that sh** a couple years ago here and it does major damage to rims. If ya don't keep your rims really clean it pits the hell out of them and strains them. Its nasty stuff. That's why I bought a pos hyundai accent for my dd and leave the truck garaged as much as I can. I've never heard of the vinegar thing but that is something to try. I usually pull my truck up on my car ramps and get under it and get wet lol. I just scrub the frame and everything I can get to and rinse it off good but this is only when it gets nice enough out to do it. Otherwise I just pressure wash as good as I can during the winter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dylan06SS Posted February 9, 2011 Report Share Posted February 9, 2011 Yep... you guys pretty much hit it on the head... the best way to attack it is to fight it with a little chemistry.... being an alkaline deicer you just need to counteract it with an acid to make it neutral. The tricky part is knowing how much to use. I have been completely unable to figure out what the levels of the stuff they use on roads is, or if its even consistent. Its entirely possible every city/county/state mixes or buys their from different sources making it impossible to do a one size fits all diagnosis. I would suggest picking up one of those large pressurized chemical sprayers from home depot (like this one: http://www.amazon.com/Smith-190285-1-Gallon-Chemical-Non-Corrosive/dp/B002YNSADU) pre-mix a fairly liberal amount of vinegar with water and take that with you to the coin op... blast the stuff loose with the pressure washer, then treat everything you can with the water/vinegar mix, then blast again with the pressure washer. Wheels are screwed no matter what so I'd just recommend running some winter wheels. The frame and undercarriage is something you might look at having the undercoating redone regularly to give you some kind of protection. A friend of mine just had the entire underside of his truck shot with linex b/c of this... he was noticing rust even when he thought he had completely protected the underside. The linex seems to be the best (albeit expensive) semi-permanent solution. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChevyMan23 Posted February 11, 2011 Report Share Posted February 11, 2011 That sounds ridiculous. I know Texas has had a shitty winter this year, but even Ky has worse winters than Texas, and they dont use that crap up here. They use a saline/beetjuice mixture that works amazingly, and no fast major damage. Dylan's idea sounds like a great 1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlownFogger540 Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 I use to spray my rims with wd40 messy but seemed to work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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