Does a car rust quicker, garaged

The only issue I can think of is that if the garage is heated and if there is some humidity in the air, this will add to the rusting process on the car. Other than that, I do not think there is any real difference if its garaged or not. I'm not sure what the floor of the garage has to do with it either.

The principal governing factor is that the chemical reaction occurs more quickly at higher temperatures. That argues against garaging and especially against heated garaging.

Other factors are second-order. If epoxying the floor allows you to clear out the slush often, that's good; else the difference is negligible during the winter. However, the salt absorbed into an untreated cement floor will have a small effect when the car is garaged wet in the summertime.

Some years ago I read that Rochester (western NY, for our distant readers) uses 7% of all the road salt in the US. To me that's a jaw-dropper. I wish I'd saved the newspaper article so I could attribute it here.

Brent

In general chemical reactions occur more rapidly with higher temperatures than they do at lower temps. So, if the garage keeps the vehicle warmer then it would be if left outside then the answer is probably yes.

John

I've never seen any authority on this, but I would agree with John, that it would be worse in a heated garage. Not only do many chemical reactions occur faster at higher temps, but when you melt the ice/salt/slush, I would think it would give it more opportunity to get into cracks, crevices, etc. If you kept it cold and frozen till it could be washed off, I would think that would be better.

And the other question is, how much difference does it really make, as compared to the other benefits of having the car garaged, ie warmer/easier start so less wear on the engine, more comfy, no frozen doors, windshield ice, etc.

I would think they're two issues as far as an unheated garage. First humidity would be higher as vapor would not be chased off and outgas as readily as in heat, result is comparitively higher humidity over a longer period of time but at slightly cooler termperatures. Second retention of water even if the floor is coated by definition is higher as it is a "closed environment" My two cents.... Doc

Rust happens only above a certain temperature. Below that, it won't.

If you garage the car, the more likely it is that you'll hit that temperature.

warm, salty, wet - bad combo for cars.

There is no one simple answer.

Below the freezing point no rusting will occur, so outside may well reduce the rust. Driving a car into a garage means the warm car will warm the garage and stay warm longer allowing more damage.

Outside being cold does not bother the car, but it can slow rust.

In real life there is not that much of a difference.

"Even better is to rinse salt out of those spaces with water - not the salt recycled water found in car washed. What does a car wash do? Wash that salt into places you don't want it. "

Now this is an interesting point of discussion. I've wondered about this. Does a decent car wash have anything in it's water recycling system to remove salt from the water? Do they at least use clean water for the rinse? If not, I wonder how high the salt concentration would get and how long after the last application of road salt it would be before the car wash had eliminated most of it from the water in use?

Its funny that no one here has really hit the nail on the head on this one yet.

Increasing the number of freeze-thaw cycles over a car's life along with the presence of moisture (and compounded by corrosion- inducing ions found in road salt) will certainly accelerate the pace of rusting. The moisture gets into seams and beneath undercoating and dirt and paint (even in microscopic size locations) and then freezes (which expands, causing minute but detrimental movements in the metal and paint bonding) and then thaws and allows the moisture-salt solution into even more new new places to repeat the process is what does the damage over time.

And by the way, a high pressure car wash in the winter will force that corrosive solution deeper into the seams and nooks and crannies and can do more harm than good. Worse yet, some car washes use water that has been recycled several times and has a very concentrated salt solution from everybody elses car before you use it - shooting this stuff all under your car a few times every winter is really asking for it. Sounds funny, but if you suspect recycled water after the carwash owner denies it, taste it for saltiness (have a bottle of good water handy to rinse afterwards in any case!)

I think that it would be a bit safer and easier to just use an ohm meter. Recycled water with a high ion concentration should have considerably lower resistance. It might also save you from consuming a mouthful of hydrocarbons, antifreeze, and who knows what.

Eric

Most use clean water for everything.

"Most use clean water for everything. "

Is this true? I'm pretty sure the local one uses recycled water. And unless water was free or really cheap, I would think most would recycle at least the wash water?

I think the real "nail" here is how old of a car are we talking about? I haven't seen rust on any car that was less than 10 years old for a long time. Who actually worries about rust any more other than those that have "vintage" vehicles?

Keeping cars looking newer longer these days is almost entirely a matter of avoiding dings and dents and keeping the paint from fading/oxidizing. Rust is simply not the issue any more. About the only time a newer car is going to rust is after it has been damaged in a manner that exposes bare metal.

I've heard this before, but think it's over-rated. The water is hitting flat pieces of sheetmetal and bouncing off. Some gets into panel gaps. I don't see any real "forcing" of water into strange places any different from where rain-water would drip. Plus, those "hidden" places aren't what's going to rust first. What's going to rust first are areas where the paint has been damaged by rocks and sand.

I've seen some late 90s Chevy Cavaliers and Malibus with moderate rust along the edges of the doors and trunk lid.

I work for an environmental company, and have done clean up at a few local washes cleaning out the traps.

All fresh.

i agree, i've been there as well (in the south)

always been municipal water into a holding tank of some sort, that fed the pumps, some times with water softners to help soap and wax treatments do their jobs easier and of course prevent spotting etc.. the water drained to sewer, all the crud stuck in the PIT, when the PIT was full the crud stayed and the bays just flooded

definately would not want recylced water shooting on my car.