flatso

I live in the northeast and think I take very good care of my car but we have alot of road salt and was wondering if it will cause problems with rust and other things down the road if you do not remove soon after driving in it?

Sue Esponte

In the long run road salt will eventually destroy a car. It's always a good idea to wash your car down after its collected a lot of dirt/salt/debris from the winter roads but IMHO, that's just a part of caring for a car. Should a car fall apart after a few years of winter use? No. That being said, however, the RX8 is a car...not a collector's item. Love it and use it....and it will treat you well.

Most cars have something like a 10yr/100,000 mi rust/corrosion warranty. It takes a while for salt to do its thing to a car.

-Eric

Trx8

I have heard of people not keeping there car in a garage to avoid the warmer garage from melting the snow, letting it mix with the salt, and becoming salt water sitting in your car.

Check page 8-43 of the manual, roughly it says:
- Flush *.* at the end of the winter
- Try to flush every month
- The car has has drain holes that should not be clogged

jniamehr

My tail pipes turn brownish from the salt (At least I believe its due to salt) thats what I read on the forum here

G8rboy

Before I purchased, I decided if I spent that kind of money on a car that I would find a good car wash and go once a week during the winter, regardless of temp or weather conditions. I ended up finding a place a couple miles away at a BP/Amoco station that is high pressure and touchless, with a powerful heated underbody blast as you drive into the tunnel... it's awesome. I sleep much better at night knowing that I don't let that salty crust build up anywhere on my 8. When I was underneath doing my oil change last weekend I was impressed with how good the bottom looked.

Nubo

You should be able to tell by just looking around. How are the other cars doing? I was born & raised in Cleveland and cars don't last too long there on average; at least compared to the southwest. There's a huge salt mine under Lake Erie and it's applied to the roads with abandon. My '91 Miata did survive its first 2 years in Cleveland winters as a daily driver and I just sold it without any rust. Had it "rust-proofed" when new, if it makes any difference. Also flushed underneath regularly during the winter. Got one of those flat roll-up hoses so I could do the job and get the hose back inside before it froze up. Keeping up the wax is a must, of course. Prior to that I owned a number of cars varying degrees of "cancer" from the salt.

KKMmaniac

I posted a few weeks ago asking about the measures Mazda has taken to make the car saltworthy. Since I got no responses, I'm thinking Mazda hasn't taken extra measures like zinc coating, etc. to prevent the car from looking like Swiss cheese right after the corrosion warranty ends. I'd think if they did, they would be more than happy to boast about it somewhere.

Just the same, I'm taking my chances driving in the winter, and washing or at least rinsing my car off at the local DIY carwash as often as is practical. I go in the morning when people aren't waiting and I can do a fairly thorough job; unfortunately, by the time I drive to work and back home, the car has a fresh layer of brine covering it.

Damn! Why do I still live here!

Trx8

Yes, I have the same question at a different location.

JensRX8

We just had two feet of snow, and I've washed mine twice just to be safe.

NAVILESRX8

iTrader: (1)

Mazdas have always been good rustwise, compared to the same year Toyota or Nissan. It is way easier to find clean RX7's than the same year Supra. They hold up pretty good. Just clean and wash them regularly and it shoud be fine.

JimJimElf

Agree wash your regularly in the winter and before winter get a good couple coats of wax on your car and you should be fine.

Overport

i would definitely think so.....salt can RUIN your vehicle.