GREAT FALLS — Heavy snow doesn't keep people off the roads in Montana - but keeping the roads free from damage sometimes comes at a cost to your car.
So how do you make sure the ice melt on city roads stick to the roads and not your car? Flawless Auto Body owner Jeramy Myers proposed a solution to keep ice melt from damaging your cars.
"As one of the heaviest snow seasons on record, ice melt is needed to keep the roads safe for travelers. Without them putting the ice melt onto the asphalt and concrete areas, we would be sliding everywhere causing major damage to people’s second biggest investment that they make. And it’s also protecting the lives of our families, so it’s a much-needed product,” Myers said.
While ice melt is necessary to provide cars with sufficient traction, the corrosive substance can also cause significant damage. Myers says there’s regular maintenance during snow season is one way to keep your vehicle in both good physical and working condition.
“What we need to do as a community is take better care of our cars. I recommend as soon as you get that first sunny day to get it into the car wash and get it washed. I wouldn’t wanna leave it on more than maybe five days. I would try to get it washed and taken off as soon as possible,” Myers said.
Washing in the winter might seem like a waste, but Myers said it’s quite the opposite, “you’re washing a lot during the winter and people think, ‘Well I don’t want to wash my car in the winter. Well that’s really the most important time to wash it."
Any car wash can remove the ice melt and residue.
“I recommend your local car washes. Almost everyone in the area has jets underneath that can hit the undercarriage. We can wash cars on our own but it’s really hard to get the undercarriage of it,” Myers said.
The best way to wash is to rinse, spray with foam to clean off the residue and wipe down wheel wells, door handles and jams and the undercarriage.
