Salt and the road surface reservoir

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Mon 29 Mar 2010 09:37
Salt and the road surface reservoir - oilrag

You just think it`s all gone - but you notice that ever so slight - lighter colour of the Motorway road surface. A trick of the light, perhaps?

Days and sometimes two or three weeks pass - birds lay eggs and there is the dawn chorus of Spring. Thoughts turn to Summer and lolling about in the warmth while the motor shimmers with a heat haze.

Then you find yourself on the motorway and it rains.

There it is on the car windows again - and nibbling ast the brake lines, corroding those little nuts and fasteners and starting to rot the ever so vulnerable cheap skate radiator core.

Funny thing salt. It`s gone completely 2hrs after it snows - but when you don`t want it, it hangs out in the road surface for weeks.

Are you bothered?

Regards

oilrag

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Mon 29 Mar 2010 22:51
Salt and the road surface reservoir - corax

Oh dear. Looks like you'll have to get back on that car creeper and lovingly tend to all the afore-mentioned bits with a rag and a can of WD40.

No, I don't worry. At least I didn't worry until one year I was told that my rear brake pipes had to be replaced due to corrosion. The annoying thing is that the replacement copper pipes cost peanuts but the labour costs to fit them were huge. And there was only slight corrosion where they passed in front of the rear wheels.

I worry more about where all that salt goes when its washed off the road, probably killing all sorts of wildlife on it's way to the sea...

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Tue 30 Mar 2010 09:13
Salt and the road surface reservoir - Andy P
Salt is soluble in water, so it only takes a few rain showers to remove it. What you're seeing is probably the grit that's mixed in with the salt to improve grip and reduce caking.
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