Driving on salted roads - do you take some special care after? + poll

[SuzaFan]

Hi all,

I have recently picked up (delivered on September 29th) a brand new RS4 B9.5 and currently have 1.600 km on the clock (just finished runnng in process).
I came from Nissan GTR which I never drove on snow/winter/salted roads - I have another daily driver and I wanted to “take best care of my precious”.
I got an extra set of OEM winter tires/wheels as part of the deal and I actually don’t want to watch my RS4 sit in the garage during whole Winter (that is one of the reasons why I sold my GTR, I was more watching it that driving it).
My question is how bad salty roads can be for RS4 and do you take some special care after driving your RS cars on the snow/salty roads?

Greetings from Croatia

[Rwg]

I have removed my 20" diamond cut original alloys in November every year from new and swop for 19" black powder coated set. Swop back to original in April.

[ToysOnWheels]

I'm located in Japan and as many parts of my country see tremendous amount of snow and anti freeze on the road, people in those areas spray anti corrosion stuff (like Noxudol).
But the stuff has its downsides I hear, like some of them don't completely cure and end up collecting matter on the panels and arms. That's not what I'd use on my cars.
When I'm forced to drive on winter roads on those conditions, I'd wash the car just as soon as I can.

I don't live in those areas and rarely get to drive on snow or salt covered paves, but try and avoid cars with low ride height like RS4 that are awkward to wash underneath as often as I'd like.
Yeah it's got an excellent quattro system and is perfectly fine during winter, but that doesn't mean it's completely immune to corrosion. If I were planning to sell it in a few years down the road, I wouldn't bother.

That's one of the reason why I keep a workhorse like my Jimny that's super easy to live with AND keep clean during winter.

[Jools]

I always jet wash out my wheel arches as part of my maintenance wash anyway. Once your on top of it, it doesn't take long to do, then every few months I have a cheap under body pressure washer chassis cleaner I use to fully rinse off the underside of the whole car. You would be surprised how much dirt comes off.

Maybe twice or three times a year I use a 5% solution of Bilt Hamber Atom-Mac in a hand sprayer that I soak every metal suspension component I can see, plus anything else in reach to slow the corrosion. Epsecially where Audi insist on putting steel and aluminium together

Don't forget to rinse off all your radiators as well after picking out all the fallen leaves you will have collected. The salt really loves aluminium