Last month, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) announced that road salt can lead
to brake failure. While New Hampshire drivers have pretty much known this for some time, it’s interesting to see this announcement coming from such an official, non-New England source. Tom Krisher and Tristin Hopper of the Canadian NationalPost.com explain what led them to that conclusion in an article entitled “Road Salt Can Lead to Vehicle Brake Failure, US Agency Warns.” At first, it looked like there may have been a safety defect affecting the brakes of some General Motors models which could potentially have led to the recall of up to two million vehicles. According to Krisher and Hopper:
For years, U.S. investigators were puzzled why the brakes on thousands of U.S.-made trucks and SUVs were failing without warning. Brake failures were behind at least 107 crashes and there were fears the problem could affect up to two million vehicles. The NHTSA probe, which began in 2011, looked at GM trucks made in 1999-2003 after numerous reports some of the U.S.’s largest passenger vehicles seemed unusually prone to sudden brake failure. Among the suspects: the Cadillac Escalade, the Chevy Suburban and the GMC Yukon. Investigators sent out surveys, pored over safety records, and inspected 71 randomly selected vehicles — but turned up nothing worthy of a recall. “A safety-related defect has not been identified at this time,” concluded the investigation, which was officially closed Wednesday. Instead, the probe came to the chilling finding [that] sudden brake line ruptures were not limited to a couple of million GM cars. Rather they could be a danger to anyone behind the wheel of an older model truck or SUV in one the U.S.’s “salt states.” “Salt and other chemicals can accumulate on road surfaces, can accumulate on your vehicle’s underbody, and could put you and your passengers in danger,” says a safety video issued…by NHTSA. The precise tipping point identified by the report was only eight years. By that point, cars driven in “harsh conditions” would have built up enough corrosion to produce dangerous structural problems.
So if your car is eight years old or older, you should get it inspected twice a year and wash it frequently during the winter (but make sure the car wash has a good dryer, or you and your brakes could end up locked in place with ice), and hope for the best. If it’s newer than that, you may want to consider trading it in for something newer before it hits that troublesome age. Then you can let some other poor dope worry about brake failure, and quite possibly run into you or someone you love. Don’t worry, there’s a better way. It’s called rustproofing. When you bring your vehicle to a modern, professional rustproofing shop, the brake lines will be treated along with the frame, the sub-frame, and so forth. Today’s rustproofing professionals use a scientifically-formulated, technologically-advanced formula, based on studies that keep up with the changes in how vehicles are built and roads are maintained. And unlike the mild rust inhibitors applied to body panels at the factory (which are not formulated to hold up against road salt, anyway), these rustproofing shops treat the whole bottom part of the vehicle. So your brake lines are protected, as well as your wiring harness and everything else your car needs to run safely. Here in New Hampshire, rustproofing is provided by The Rust Stop Pros.
Here is the first part of our 2017 workshop series.
What’s covered in this video; Part 1
1) introduction into NH Oil Undercoating® Oil-based Rustproofing
2) surface preparation and inspection
3) the science behind Oil-based Rustproofing ( how it works )
4) equipment and maintenance
Covered in next video Part 2; Application