In winter, we are faced with a dilemma: washing in the thaw is pointless, washing in the cold is risky. In fact, it is possible to keep the body relatively clean even in cold weather, although the procedure turns out to be more troublesome than in summer.

Thermal shock

One of the risks of winter washing is a sharp temperature drop between the ambient air and the washing water. If the body is well frozen, contact with water will cause thermal stress in the enamel and primer layer, which, in theory, can lead to cracking.

It is not worth exaggerating this phenomenon, since, in general, car enamels have a certain margin of safety against thermal shocks, and in test procedures they often use many times larger temperature differences than, say, -30 and +10 degrees.

However, with frequent washes, paint fatigue can build up and lead to cracking.

Accordingly, if you plan to drive a car for a long time, do not wash it too fanatically in winter, and, if possible, let us settle before water procedures in the car wash box. And of course, avoid washing your car in arctic weather.

Single winter car wash will not do much harm to the paintwork.

Don't let him freeze

Inexperienced "washers" in the morning sometimes find that the car doors are completely frozen, and attempts to force opening turn into a risk of breaking the door handles.

This problem is easier to avoid than to fix. One of the ways is to treat the door seals (at least the driver's) and locks with a special water-repellent compound. Silicone lubricants are also used for seals.

Even if you asked the washers to thoroughly blow out the locks and doorways, the moisture after washing will still remain. Therefore, it is highly advisable not to leave the car immediately to the parking lot, but rather ride on it, turning on the interior to full ventilation and opening the windows. Before doing this, you can also open all doors, the trunk and the tank flap, removing visible traces of moisture and condensation with a cloth.

By the way, the frosty air is very dry (almost all the moisture lies around in the form of snow), so natural ventilation of the cabin is a good way to dry it out. At the same time, this will prevent the glass from freezing from the inside.

Do not forget, by the way, about the gas tank flap: after washing it is better to open it and wipe it dry, repeating the procedure before parking.

The brakes can also freeze, so during the "walk" of the car you need to use them more often, and on the first night, if possible, do not put on the parking brake.

If the doors are frozen

First you need to understand what exactly is frozen - seals or a lock. If the central locking has worked (audible by the sound) or the key has easily turned in the larva, but the door “does not go”, then the seals are frozen. With frozen lock larvae, it happens that the key either does not insert, or does not turn.

You can try to "loosen" the frozen seals by gently tapping on the edge of the door and light jerks in both directions: if the freezing is not fatal, the ice film will break mechanically. If you have electricity, you can warm up the door with a hairdryer, or pour warm water into a plastic bottle and apply it to the “sore spot”. Pouring water directly onto the door is fraught with even more severe freezing in the future. But remember, contact with a hot bottle is not very good for paintwork.

It is often possible to defrost locks by heating the key blade with a lighter. But a more civilized way is the use of special defrosting sprays, which are sold in all car stores.

If the driver's door won't open, try the rest, including the fifth (Hatch and station wagons). Once in the salon, it is possible to either "squeeze" the problem door, or thaw it, warming up the car.

By the way, some modern cars do not have visible lock larvae, but if in an emergency you need to use a regular key, you will find the larva behind a plastic cover on the fixed part of the door handle. In this case, the key itself, as a rule, is inserted into the keychain and is pulled out of it if the latch is released.

"Cleanliness is half health"- this proverb is applicable both to a person and to what surrounds us in the modern world. It can also be applied to modern technology. But not every technique benefits from purity. For example, this proverb is hardly true for But what about the numerous tips that the car needs to be washed as often as possible? After all, everyone knows that the more often the car is washed, the longer the paintwork and body will remain.But, unfortunately, frequent car washing is not a panacea for corrosion and damage to the paintwork of the body.Especially in winter, when there is severe frost outside.Do not believe it.Let's try to explain how frequent car washing can damage the lacquer, paint of the car body in a short time, and even cause premature corrosion of the body.

"Although there is no object in the whole world,

which would be weaker or softer than water,

nevertheless, she herself will be able to destroy

even the hardest thing"
(Lao Tzu, ancient Chinese philosopher )

Water is an amazing organic chemical compound, which can exist in several states (in liquid form, in the form of ice crystals and in a gaseous state). Water plays a major role in all life on our planet. But, like everything in our nature, water can serve us, both for good and for harm. This also applies to cars.

It is important to know:

That is, water can either help the car serve its owner as long as possible or literally destroy the vehicle in a short time. So, can you wash your car in winter or not?

Is it really better to postpone the sink until the spring? Of course, it is impossible to answer these questions unequivocally.

Yes, yes, winter car wash is definitely dangerous in some cases. But this does not mean that the owner of the car should completely refuse to wash it in the winter. But, nevertheless, in everything you need to know when to stop. This also applies to washing the car during the cold season. Everything, of course, depends on the region of your residence, the mode of operation of the car and of course on the weather and temperature drops outside.

Usually, employees at car washes advise to wash the car as often as possible, telling us "scary stories" how cars literally turn into "dust" in one winter. According to them, from the aggressive effects of chemicals and salt, which are strewn with roads in winter.

And this is not really a myth. In this car washers are not cunning. After all, we know from school that chemical salt compounds accelerate the process of metal corrosion. So, logically, the more often the car is washed, the less the aggressive effects of the salts contained in road deicing agents will be on all metal parts of the car.

But that's in theory. In practice, everything is much more complicated.

Firstly, all modern cars are more resistant to corrosion of metal parts, due to the presence of a factory galvanized layer on the body elements or due to special metal alloys, which are less. Also, do not forget that many body parts of modern cars are covered with a reliable paintwork that protects metal body parts from water, ultraviolet radiation and salt compounds.

Thanks to modern technology, automakers have significantly increased the life of car paintwork in recent years, as well as increased the warranty for corrosion through the body.

So if you own a modern car, if you do not wash the car often, it will hardly lead to body corrosion in a short time. However, this certainly does not mean that you should simply forget about car washes.

Of course, any car should be washed periodically. And including in winter. But the truth is there are many but ...

The fact is that very unstable weather conditions are observed in many regions of Russia in winter. For example, we are all familiar with natural gifts, when it was raining in the daytime, and in the evening everyone is caught off guard by a 20-degree frost, which, as a rule, turns everything around into a solid ice rink.

Usually, with such temperature drops, road services en masse go to the roads and treat them with anti-ice reagents, which, due to their chemical composition, lower the water freezing threshold.

Unfortunately, despite modern technologies in the field of chemistry, deicing agents are not as effective as we would like, and they are also very aggressive towards cars. Especially for metal body parts. It should be noted, however, that the concentration of salts in modern anti-icing road products is significantly less than in old reagents used 5-7 years ago. But, despite this, it has not yet been possible to completely get rid of salt compounds in reagents of the chemical industry. Treatment of roads with reagents would be ineffective without salts.

So, in winter, you won't be able to protect your car from reagents. Therefore, in order to reduce their harmful effect on the car, it is necessary to wash it at least once or twice a month. You've probably heard something like this before. But few people know that this recommendation is valid only when the outside temperature is either positive or not.

If the machine is used in severe frost, then it is often impossible to wash it in any case. Also, in severe frost, in no case should car washers thoroughly wash the bottom of the car. Are you surprised? Indeed, many of the drivers specifically ask car washers to direct a stream of water under pressure under the wheel arches and the bottom in order to knock down lumps of snow soaked in reagents, with full confidence that this will increase the service life of the car body.

In fact, in most cases, such may be more dangerous than exposure to reagents... And that's why.

First, frequent and thorough car wash in winter is dangerous due to a sharp temperature drop. Imagine you drove into a warm box of a car wash, where, as a rule, a positive temperature is observed even in severe frost. After "water procedures" your "beauty" all polished leaves in the cold, where in the blink of an eye freezes.

Moreover, of course, the water remaining on the body (especially under the arches, under the bottom of the car) turns into ice, which can damage the plastic elements of the arches, as well as various rubber seals for the suspension, exhaust and brake systems.

So if frosty weather is set on the street, forget about frequent washing and thorough washing of the wheel arches and the bottom of the car.

This is especially true for those drivers who like to wash their car. in 20-30 degrees frost.

Also remember that the lower the freezing temperature, the more often the road services treat the roads with deicing reagents, since due to their peculiarities of the chemical composition, the effective period does not exceed 3-5 hours. As a result, even if you have perfectly washed your car, the reagent will again settle on the body of your car in a short time. And again you have to go to the car wash.

In addition, remember that professional chemicals are used to help in a short time corrode the dirt that has eaten into the body. But, unfortunately, such products can also be very aggressive towards the rubber components of the car. As a result, frequent washing can damage various rubber seals, and even wear out the rubber seals of the brake calipers. So, as you can see, the very frequent car wash, especially in winter, is not very vehicle friendly. But that is not all. All the fun is next.

How sharp changes in negative temperatures affect the paintwork of the car body?

We all know that the thickness of the factory paintwork of any modern car averages from 80 to 165 microns. In order for you to more accurately imagine what this thickness is, let's translate it into millimeters:

1 micron \u003d 0.001 mm

Accordingly, the thickness of the factory paintwork of most modern vehicles is on average from 0.08 to 0.17 mm... So, probably, no one will doubt that the paintwork of cars is very thin and, accordingly, very fragile.

Also, no one will argue that the strength of any materials on the planet depends on the ambient temperature, since when the weather changes, the chemical properties of any materials change. But most of all, the effect on various materials has a sharp temperature drop. Especially positive to negative.

For example, for brittle materials, the temperature difference is very destructive, since due to a change in the chemical property of such a material, its strength dramatically worsens. As we have already noted, the car paintwork is a fragile material. Accordingly, due to sharp temperature changes, the paintwork becomes brittle. (especially if the car is more than 7-10 years old, since over time the chemical compounds of the paintwork change, and the strength of the paintwork on the body deteriorates).

Imagine what kind of paintwork after you drove from a 20-degree frost to a warm car wash, where the temperature can often be 10-20 degrees. As a result, the temperature drop will be 30-40 degrees. If, after washing, the car is still dried with warm air, then the temperature difference may increase if you go out into the cold immediately after washing.

Naturally, for any paintwork (even a new car), such a temperature difference leads to paint shrinkage at the molecular level. As a result, microscopic cracks begin to form in the layers of paint over time, which in the future will go sideways to the owner of the car. The fact is that sooner or later, water and a reagent will start getting into these cracks, which will accelerate the corrosion of the body.

This is especially true of domestic cars, whose metal and the quality of the paintwork leaves much to be desired.

That is why on many old cars, if you pour boiling water on the body, the paintwork can crack almost instantly.

It’s even worse if your car was not factory painted. Let's say. For example, if a putty and primer is used to smooth out dents and scratches, frequent washing of the car in cold weather can quickly peel off fresh paint from the body.

So if your car was repainted or some body parts were painted, or your car is more than 5-7 years old (at this age, as a rule, it starts to slowly lose its properties and flake off at a microscopic level), then we do not recommend frequent washing in winter time at temperatures below -12 degrees.

Otherwise, you will not only not save the car from the aggressive effects of road reagents, but also accelerate the likelihood of corrosion due to peeling paintwork.

So to wash the car in frost or not?

As we have already said, this question cannot be answered unequivocally. Everything, of course, depends on the age, make and model of your car, as well as on the region of your residence and operating conditions.

But what to do, because anti-icing agents really harm the car? Yes, of course, any, even the most expensive and modern reagent contains salt, which has an aggressive effect on the entire car.

But in severe frost, the chemical oxidation of the reagent that got on the car body slows down. So if it is -12 degrees or more outside, then you have nothing to fear. The reagent that gets on the car will not actually harm the body. But remember that as soon as the air temperature rises and falls below -12 degrees, the oxidation process of reagent salts on the car body will begin to increase, which will damage the metal parts of the car.

The fact is that for the harmful effect of the reagent on the car, it is necessary for the chemical salt compounds on the body to begin to melt.

In cold weather, these chemicals won't melt. But in a slight frost, the process of aggressive exposure to the car body of chemicals containing in the reagent will resume.

So, as soon as it gets warmer, be sure to visit the car wash if your car is seriously covered with snow mixed with reagent.

However, remember that the smaller the temperature difference when entering or leaving the car wash, the better. This way you preserve the integrity of the body paintwork for as long as possible.

In conclusion, here are some tips to help you extend the life of your paintwork and to prevent premature corrosion of the body:

1. Wash your car every 10-15 days (at least).

2. Wash your car only when the ambient temperature is positive or down to -12 degrees. Remember that at high subzero temperatures, road salt or reagent does not actually harm the car. In order for the reagent to begin to aggressively affect the car body, it is necessary that it warms up.

3. Avoid driving in deep snow on the road. Especially in urban areas where snow on the road contains high concentrations of road chemicals and salts. Frequent driving in deep snow in the city is fraught with the ingress of chemical compounds of an anti-icing agent on the bottom of the car and in other unprotected places under the car.

4. Avoid driving in the winter through deep puddles where there is often a large accumulation of reagent salts. Driving through puddles in winter, water containing a high concentration of salts gets on many metal elements under the car body. This will promote rapid corrosion of the vehicle.

5. In the event of even slight damage to the paintwork (even in the case of a small chip or scratch), you must repair it as soon as possible so that the exposed area of \u200b\u200bthe body metal does not begin to rust.

6. Apply to wax at least once every three months. Thus, you will provide the car body with a strong protective coating.

Every new driver who tried to wash the car in the cold was faced with instant freezing of liquid on the surface of the car.

This is especially inconvenient on the front glass. There is no visibility, the image is blurry and poorly guessed.

In this case, you can start the engine and turn on the blowing of the glass, after a while they begin to thaw. Or use glass scrapers.

Therefore, the process of washing a car must be approached much more seriously than other cleaning procedures, like or.

How to properly wash a car in winter, and what mistakes are most often made by novice drivers when washing a car in winter?

When asked how to wash a car in frosty weather, auto mechanics recommend not washing cars when the outside air temperature is below -12 ° C.

The ubiquitous water in the process of washing gets into various gaps, cracks, with significant frost (colder than -10 ° C), water freezes very quickly, it does not have time to evaporate and, expanding, breaks the metal.

There are known cases of serious car breakdowns after an illiterate wash in the cold.

Everyone knows that during snowfalls or icy conditions, roads are sprinkled with salt and chemical reagents.

Getting on the bottom of the car and the lower parts of the side surfaces, these reagents promote (accelerate) the corrosion processes.

This effect is especially destructive for those cars on the surface of which there are chips, peeling paint, bruises, any violations of the protective paintwork. However, one must know that the rate of chemical reactions is determined by the temperature of their occurrence.

At a cold temperature of -10 ° C, the corrosion reaction is almost completely stopped. Corrosion continues at -5 ° C.

Therefore, in case of significant frost, exceeding -10 ° C, it is not worth washing the car in order to prevent corrosion damage.

The interior of the vehicle can be cleaned as usual.

If your car turns out to be very dirty, and you still want to wash it, despite the severe frost, what rules must be observed when washing and where to wash the car in winter?

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Winter car wash rules

Wash your car in a warm (above 0 ° C) box. Before washing, the machine should stand for 10 -15 minutes and slightly warm up and thaw.

Such a waiting time will prevent a strong temperature difference (-10 outside and +30 - water for washing), often causing a network of cracks to appear on the polished surface of the paint.

The machine wash hose should discharge water at room temperature, preferably around 30 ° C. The foam for washing the car must be designed to wash off winter dirt, be frost-resistant and contain anti-frost additives.

The pumps used for washing the car, delivering water under a pressure of about 200 bar, will ensure sufficient cleanliness of the car surface.

Before washing, before the car wash sponge touches your vehicle, treat keyholes, hinges and openings, glass and rubber seals with an anti-freeze liquid. This will help you open doors or windows after washing without any problems.

During the winter wash, there is no need to wash the engine compartment, running gears and the inner part of the wheels.

Thorough drying is required after washing. First, a rag for washing the car thoroughly wipes openings, seals, wipers. Then all possible slots are blown with compressed air, preferably heated.

The main rule of winter washing is that moisture should not remain anywhere - neither in openings, nor in surface microcracks. Otherwise, headlights, mirrors, a radiator, any parts into which or in the gaps between which water has got into may crack.

Winter Car Wash Precautions

How to wash a car in winter is clear, now we need to add some rules for handling a car after a winter wash.

You can only go outside with a dry surface. Even if you need to drive your car to an underground parking nearby, wait 10-15 minutes. Sudden freezing of moisture on glass and surface can cause cracks.

It is advisable not to keep the car in the cold for two hours after washing. If washing allows, keep the machine in a heated box.

If not, consider the options - to put the car in a warm underground parking, or a car cinema, to give it to a heated service station for inspection, or to operate it with the engine running and interior heating for two hours.

It is not advisable to put the car on the hand brake. This recommendation is important not only in the first hours after washing. In any snow condition, moisture enters the brake discs and cable, which, when the handbrake is squeezed out after freezing, blocks the free wheeling of the wheels.

You will have to thaw with a fan heater or take the car on a tow truck to a warm garage.

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Do not close wet or damp doors and do not drive in this state in the cold. Everything will freeze thoroughly and your exit from the car will be blocked.

We'll have to warm up the openings or go to the underground car park.

Following the rules and precautions will help you avoid problems after the necessary car wash in the cold.

?

Some wash, but rarely, others like their car to always shine, and therefore wash it often at any time of the year.

Those who often wash their car in winter say that it helps to wash away any reagents that are sprinkled on the roads and which spoil the car body.

There are people who think that washing your car in winter is not worth it, but driving for several months in a dirty car is also not acceptable, comparing it to wearing dirty clothes.

As a rule, motorists associate winter not with white snow, but with slush on the roads and with reagents that can harm a car.

Because of this, many try to wash their car more often, in order not only to clean it of dirt, returning its original appearance, but also to prevent reagents that have soaked in snow and dirt from harming the body, namely to cause corrosion.

So is it worth washing the car in winter or not? The answer to this question will be given by experts.

Whether to wash the car in winter

Auto experts opinion

To begin with, drivers should monitor their car and treat the car with the necessary preparations in time to avoid the appearance of rust.

Automotive experts and journalists approach this issue from a chemical point of view. Corrosion is the electrochemical or chemical destruction of a metal.

Typically, corrosion occurs when the metal is oxidized and metal ions are formed. As a result of subsequent transformations, they give corrosion products.

It is known that such chemical reactions occur more intensively at high temperatures, i.e. the higher the temperature, the faster the process takes place. This means that at subzero temperatures, the car almost does not rust, even if it is completely covered with a thick layer of dirty snow with reagents.

Only during the thaw does rust begin to sharpen the car body, which means that frequent washing of the car at low air temperatures outside the window will not save the car.

Moreover, in order to properly clean the car of reagents, you need to wash the bottom of the car, and many do not do this when washing the car.

Can I wash my car in winter

The opinion of scientists chemists

If even a small part of the body is not covered with paint or varnish, then sooner or later it will be covered with rust, regardless of whether water, salt or reagent got on the body.

In chemistry lessons, they teach that temperature affects the speed of chemical and electrochemical reactions. The oxidation process is a chemical reaction.

At what temperature to wash the car in winter

If the temperature is below -8 degrees, all reactions that can destroy the metal "freeze". If the temperature rises above -5 degrees, then these chemical processes resume.

But washing, not only will not save the car from corrosion, but can also harm the body.

Imagine that it is severe frost outside, and you decide to wash your car with warm water. The paintwork is subject to extreme temperature fluctuations.

Inside the paint applied to the body, internal stresses begin to arise, which can lead to various damage to the paint, for example, microcracks can appear.

Despite the small size of the crack, moisture remains in it after washing, no matter how much the machine is wiped with dry rags. In cold weather, this moisture freezes, thereby causing even more damage to the car body.

Frozen doors

Of course, those who have washed their car at least once in winter know that after washing the door seals, windows and locks can freeze. Therefore, they dry these places in advance and treat them with special means. But it should be noted that such methods do not always help.

Do I need to wash my car in winter

Auto mechanics opinion

Auto mechanics also say that sudden changes in temperature when washing a cold car with warm water can damage the paint on the car's body. As a result of washing, microcracks appear, but the most unpleasant thing occurs when the car leaves the washing in the cold.

In the cracks of the paint on the body, in the gaps of the headlights and glass, water remains, which turns into ice in the cold, tearing the paint of the car. As you know, when water turns into ice, it expands.

In addition, the brakes start to work worse, the handbrake freezes, and the shock absorbers begin to creak at best, and at worst fail completely.

Door seals can come off and locks can stop working. Even when treated with the necessary drugs, the door can freeze and these are just a few of the troubles that a car owner can expect.

Here's one example given by an auto mechanic:

The young man decided to wash his expensive German car, and it was -30 ° C outside. Immediately after his car was washed and he left the car wash, the right headlight of the expensive car burst.

As it turned out, the washers simply did not get rid of the water in the gaps, and when this water froze, the ice simply broke the glass. However, the problems did not end there.

The next morning, the radiator of the same car burst. The cost of repairs cost the owner dearly, but even after the repair of the noticed breakdowns, the car rattled while driving until the air temperature rose and the streets did not dry out.

Should you wash your car in winter

Conclusion

Reagents (including salt) are of course harmful. But when the same salt is deposited on the machine, plaque appears, which acts as a protective film against new chemicals. When the air temperature drops below -5, it is not advised to wash the car.

It turns out that in winter it is not worth washing the car at all, but if you simply cannot drive a dirty car, then there are two options:

1. Wash the car at a suitable temperature.

2. Wash the car in a well-heated room where it can be left for at least 30 minutes to warm up the paint and the moisture in the glass. If after washing you notice drops of water somewhere on the body, ask to wipe them.

* After washing, do not forget to process door hinges, openings and lock cylinders. This can be done with a water-displacing aerosol such as WD-40.

We wash my car in winter (video)

Winter brings many surprises and often interferes with life plans. Yesterday it was snowing and raining, and today a twenty-degree frost hit, and the road workers poured ice with reagents abundantly. Dirt flies from under the wheels, chemicals smoke over avenues, and high humidity penetrates to the bone. There is nothing to do, the life of a metropolis cannot be imagined without combating icing of the tracks. And so I want to sit warm, staying clean and shiny. Naturally, queues line up at the car washes. Moreover, some are sure that frequent bathing of the iron horse only strengthens the "health" of the car, rid it of salt and chemical deposits, and thereby save it from corrosion.

Talk to the washers and they will tell you how salt penetrates into the interior cavities of the body, how it chemically reacts with iron, turning it into dust. The sooner you knock it out of there, the better. Some motorists specifically ask to direct the jet under the bottom and into the wheel arches in order to cut icy black dirt from the suspension elements. Others are not afraid to pour water even into the engine compartment. After such procedures, the car rolls out into the cold, like a prince from the Habsburg family in a ceremonial dress. After a couple of kilometers, the slurry sticks from everywhere, and the next day you can go to the car wash again.

But there is another opinion. “There is also a lot of chemistry in the arsenal of washers,” says carFix technical expert Oleg Chirkov. - She sits on the body and rubber products in the same way and reacts. We had a case when, due to daily washes, the owner of a Mercedes S-class was forced to replace the brake calipers. Chemistry has corroded the seals. " The repairs were expensive. Moreover, the gum on the calipers was killed not even by the winter, but by the summer car wash. However, an executive car that works in a large company and runs daily to meetings with respectable people must a priori be clean, and such a risk is justified. But is it worth risking a personal car for the sake of simple pedantry?

Washing in cold weather is especially dangerous. From the school physics course, we know that temperature changes are always stressful for materials, especially fragile ones. The paintwork is one of those. If it's freezing outside, the washers try to close the gates and raise the temperature inside the boxes to a comfortable level. It usually stays there at 5-7 degrees Celsius. The water temperature is even higher and sometimes reaches 20 degrees.

Thus, when entering the car wash, the equipment heats up with a difference of 40 degrees. After half an hour of water procedures, the car is dried with jets of warm air, which makes the metal even more heated. Having touched the sides, you can feel the heat of a steamed four-wheeled friend. And after the bath, they drive him out again into the cold, with water droplets in the inner cavities inaccessible to the hair dryer, and with softened rubber bands.

This is stressful for the paintwork, especially in the icy wind after washing. The paint shrinks unevenly, forming micro-cracks. Over time, they grow and after 5-7 years they turn into hot spots of rust. Foreign cars are more resistant to such procedures. And on domestic cars of the last century, the lacquer paint can crack instantly, right in the presence of the owner, if you sprinkle boiling water on it. Needless to say, used cars that have been body-repaired. After a couple of winters, microcracks will turn red.

Putty and body correction places immediately fall into the risk group. The applied non-factory paint holds much worse and flakes off. Blisters swell on the surface, and corrosion centers are formed under them. The older the car, the less it costs to be tested in a bath.

But that is not all. Solidifying water has tremendous power and tears apart not only paint, but also iron. Ice expands and can tear rubber bands in shock absorbers, silent blocks, rubber-metal hinges, pipe joints and other delicate places. Water seeps into old cables and sometimes blocks the handbrake mechanisms and even the gearbox. It is able to penetrate into leaking headlight cavities and, expanding, breaks plastic parts and clips. Sometimes even the headlight itself can crack in the cold.

Once the employees of the service center told me an interesting story about how the owner of Audi replaced the radiator after frequent washes. The car was not new, and the radiator was slightly damaged, where water accumulated after washing and, freezing, tore the combs during frosty nights. As a result, steam came out from under the hood, and the radiator went to the trash heap. This car was washed every day, including in winter.

In addition, water itself also has an oxidizing property, no less effective than that of reagents. Moreover, if the dirt sticks only to the bottom and outer parts of the body, that is, where the factory anti-corrosion coating is applied, then the washers will carefully and accurately fill in water where there is no such coating. Internal body cavities rust in no way worse than external ones.

Can't you wash your car at all until spring? According to chemists, the metal oxidation process obeys its own laws and directly depends on temperature. Salt can act as a catalyst. However, in cold weather, corrosion slows down significantly. The threshold value fluctuates around minus 12-15 degrees. Therefore, in minus 30, no matter how dirty the car is, it will not rust. But with warming, corrosion will take its toll. And here it is important to clean and dry the car, but without fanaticism, of course. The temperature difference should not exceed 10 degrees. Therefore, 5 degrees of frost can be considered acceptable for washing.

If the appearance is not of fundamental importance, then you can leave everything as it is until better times. The dirt will dry out and cover the body with a protective film, which is difficult for even the washers with their water cannons to break through, let alone the splashes from the puddles. But how will neighbors and close friends look at such a filthy?