Worse than salt is the calcium chloride. A few years ago My red van made a
trip to Connecticut during a cold and snowy weekend. The sudden damage a
few months later was amazing. One of the heads corroded so badly that not
only did the outer gasket fail from the corrosion pushing through it but
the head actually crumbled into dust at one of the exhaust ports. Yes
after driving through that crap you can hear your Vanagon rust.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Allan Streib
Sent: Thursday, August 21, 2008 10:03 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Adding Power Steering

Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM> writes:

> Someone should point out to the Insurance institute of America or
> whomever, that salt on the roads costs millions of dollars in car
> repairs, if not even loss of life now and then.
>
> In Oregon, fortunately, we have red volcanic cinder material to put
> on the snowy roads. Works great, and is totally non-corrosive.

Where I am in Indiana, years ago they would spread sand.  Then it was
sand and salt, and now it's almost pure salt.  And they put it out at
the slightest THREAT of a POSSIBILTY of ice.  It's really crazy.

I must say that modern cars, with some exceptions, are MUCH more salt
resistant then older ones.  My '91 Jetta weathered MANY salty
Chicago-area winters with no corrosion, while my '72 Super Beetle
rusted in sunny dry weather.

Allan
--
1991 Vanagon GL