Road Salt Protection

Oct 16, 2005 2 Replies

My Saturn Ion 3 has alloy wheels. According to the manual they are clear coated. I take it I should probably wax them before winter arrives and the state of Pennsylvania starts dumping tons of salt. I will get only one shot at it since I do not have a garage.



Does anyone have a recommendation for what wax is best? I really do not want to mess up my wheels. And what is the best wax for the painted rest of the car?



I am going to avoid actually driving it in the snow since my other vehicle is a the second largest truck in the world, a one ton dually 4x4 7.9l, though at 10 MPG and a very long commute it may be cheaper to buy steel wheels and snow tires.


You said it.

You will easily save the cost of a used set of wheels from a wrecker in the savings and longer tire life from not remounting tires twice a year and will also allow you to get extended use from your summer tires as you will not need to decide if they are worth remounting every spring. There are many other operational advantages to having wheels and tires ready to use.

Tire rotation and seasonal changeover becomes a simple driveway job and will save some more money.

Save some more money and don't bother with wheel covers that only collect snow and ice and contribute to out of balance.

Happy trails.

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