So, I live in Ohio and can't stand not driving the S during the winter. I try to keep her off the street if there is salt on the roads but broke down today and took her out anyway. I was doing fine until I got stuck behind a trunk that was spraying that liquid de-icer stuff. I sprayed the S off at a do-it-yourself car wash before going home, but I am wondering what that stuff is, and what does it do to your car?

 

I've never heard of a city truck spraying anything liquid during the snowy season. I've only seen salt and sand being sprayed, and that gets thrown pretty hard at times.

I would imagine that if it was being strewn all about the road by the city/town, they would have done enough testing on it to say that it won't cause any significant issues to another car. What you did by quickly spraying it down should be perfect.

 

What color was it? I've heard of some trucks that throw beat juice slurry.

 

It is a very strong brine solution or a combination of brine and beet juice. The beet juice is not so bad but the brine solution is incredibly corrosive, way more so than normal rock salt. It would help if you sprayed down the undercarriage.

 

You guys are serious about the beet juice eh?

There are some solutions they have and on a few elevated overpass roads with big sweeping turns in Toronto they spray like an automated sprinkler. Would potentially be very dangerous otherwise.