Tommy McEvilly was shocked when he received a $1,400 estimate to repair his daughter’s 1996 Buick—and that was after he replaced the motor mount washers that had completely rusted away.

“The washers are an eighth of an inch thick,” McEvilly said. “They hold the frame that cradles the motor. They rotted right off.” 

After replacing the motor mounts, mechanic Robert Bekesy of Rob’s Auto Repair in Weissport said to McEvilly, “You should also have the brake lines fixed. The corrosion is really bad.”

“I sent it back the next week for him to repair them,” McEvilly said. An hour later McEvilly received a call from Bekesy asking him to come to the garage.

“My wife and I walk over and he showed us the problem—massive corrosion,” McEvilly said. “Rob told us that if we slammed our brakes in an emergency, we would have blown the brake line.” Corrosion had rotted the four brake lines on their car’s ABS braking system and the fuel line.

Bekesy has been repairing cars for nearly 20 years. Before coming to Weissport, he owned Rob’s Auto Repair in Penn Forest Township where he was “replacing brake lines in two or three cars a week.” “In the last ten years, the corrosion is just terrible,” he said. He routinely replaces corroded body mounts, fuel tanks, and fuel lines—besides brake lines.

But of cause, corrosion of a brake line could lead to a dangerous situation. “Once the brake line is rotted through,“ said Bekesy, “You lose fluid and the brake pedal would go to the floor.”

Ryan Yost of Leiflers Auto Service Jim Thorpe replaces brake line on one or two cars each week. Replacement of brake lines has become so routine that he stocks a wide variety of replacement lines.

“A lot is due to corrosion on the brake lines,” said Yost. “They swell and start to seep. It is a safety hazard. You lose breaking if a line pops. It is also a reason for failing a state inspection.”

How do people know that that their brake lines are corroding? “People come in with the red brake light coming on, the brake pedal fading to the floor, noticing a visible leak in the driveway, or the corrosion is detected during state inspection,” said Yost.

“One out of every eight to ten cars or trucks that come in need brake lines replaced,” said John Kline of John’s Penn Forest Garage. “Especially the lines that run to the back because of the road salt getting on them and corroding them.”

“We see them as new as 2000 models, about seven years old,” said Kline. “There’s a big problem with fuel lines—even frames. You wouldn’t believe the amount of corrosion and rot that’s on the frame rails.”

Kline told of a 1996 panel truck with 26,000 miles that he had in for servicing at his shop.“The frame was so rotted that the frame sagged on the lift.”

Before opening his shop in Penn Forest Township, Kline owned a shop in Montgomery County. “Down there, I didn’t see near the rust that we have seen up here. I think it has to do with the chemicals that they put on the roads.

These three randomly selected mechanics all agreed that they were routinely seeing corrosion in areas such as brake lines that were severe enough to fail state inspection. Some were seeing it in cars only four years old. All were seeing it in cars over seven years old.

Interestingly, the corrosion of brake lines was more often seen in domestically manufactured cars. They typically manufacture brake lines from uncoated steel. Yost said that Toyota, Honda and Hyundai often use a plastic coating on their brake lines. Third party replacement brake lines for both domestic and foreign models are available either coated or uncoated. These repair shops order coated replacement brake lines whenever possible.

Volvo may be using a brass or copper nickel alloy for its brake lines. Copper based materials are more resistant to salt corrosion than iron or steel.

Most domestic automobile manufacturers provided brass brake lines before World War II. During WWII, a shortage of copper forced manufactures to begin using steel for brake lines. The steel performed as well or better than the brass and was cheaper. It was also a time when very little salt was applied to roads for deicing.

Over the years, increasing amounts of salt, chiefly rock salt – sodium chloride, but also magnesium and calcium chlorides, have been applied to the roads. The salt was applied after the snow fell or the ice formed. Then, a new approach became the norm.

“For the past five to seven years, we have been putting down a liquid salt water solution, “ said Ron Young  - a spokesman for PennDOT - District 5.“ It can be sprayed two to three days in advance of a storm.”

Young explained that the liquid salt water “brine” solution is a mixture of the rock salt from their stockpiles that is dissolved in water and sprayed on the roads.“The water portion evaporates and it leaves the salt on the road surface so when the snow and ice comes down, it starts the melting process before we get there,” Young explained.

Is there a problem with salt corrosion, Young was asked? “We don’t get many complaints,” he said. “I’ve gotten a handful over the past five years.”

The mechanics all felt that there was a corrosion problem and that it was getting worse over the past five to seven years. They felt that the liquid salt might be a contributing factor.

The corrosion effect of either rock salt or the dried powdery residual salt from the brine application is chemically the same, but the powdery salt might migrate to inaccessible areas of the vehicle, have the ability to settle into cracks, or have a stronger mechanical adhesion. No data was readily available to prove or disprove whether the brine was any more corrosive than the rock salt—although three out of three mechanics made such a suggestion.

The current thinking is that deicing salts are necessary to keep the roads safe, and that liquid salt improves safety while reducing the total amount of salt that will be discharged onto the fields and streams from the road runoff.

So, what can you do to avoid premature corrosion of your car? According to both PennDOT and the mechanics, wash you car—especially underneath the car. Wash after the road has cleared of salt. Young recommends washing your car at least once a month in a professional car wash that has an undercarriage spray.

Meanwhile, McEvilly is selling his daughter’s 1996 Buick. “The car is too costly to repair,” he said. “So, the consumer has to bear the problem while PennDOT keeps spraying.”