I'm thinking of moving out of the desert and heading to a place with snow (Fargo?). My max has seen snow once in it's life, and it has only driven about 5 miles on snow covered roads.

I don't have any snow experience, but I've heard stories of rust and damage from road salt. Is there anything I should do to my car to ensure it doesn't get too corroded? Are there any common rust areas on the max I should watch out for?

How about an engine block heater? Needed? Available?

Thanks!

 

I would get it undercoated by a professional. Especially if it's never seen salt before. Snow tires help immensely also. Other than that, before it gets cold make sure fluids, belts and hoses are good.

 

i've heard that some guys even go as far as hosing down the undercarriage once a week.

 

In a place like Fargo, you will absolutely need snow tires on your Maxima.

But as for salt and rust... you're making too much of a concern about that. Just use the car-wash in the winter specifically so you can get the undercarriage spray.

You'll be fine. Relax.

 

Tires and wipers.

 

AWD swap from a G35x j/k


Snow tires(blizzaks), good wipers, non-freezing windsheild wiper fluid, and check to see what temperature your anti-freeze can take. Finally be prepare to get pissed off at salt trucks and washing your car everytime its decently warm out.

 

I do in snow months, I stick a sprinkler under it and let it run for about 30 minutes.

 

 

^^^^^^^^^


hey it's either that or this:












(not my max)

 

Just wash your car and try to park in a garage thats what I do to try and avoid rust and corrosion because that salt is a *****

 

Salt blows. I hate the midwest for this. So, I actually drive a beater during the winter.

You also have to watch out for idiots who don't know how to drive in snowy weather.

 

people don't know how to drive for **** in snow its so irritating

 

Thanks fellas. I'm liking the beater idea Perfect excuse for me to get that Ramcharger I've always wanted. If that doesn't fly with the wife I'll just stick to tires and wipers. I'll definitely have to change my fluids, my coolant is like 80% water.

 

Being a Canadian and living in a province that use a lot of salt on the roads, I can recommend a few pointers.

The warmer you keep the salt, the more active it is. Your best bet is to keep the car parked outside, out of the garage, and run it through the car wash every couple of weeks.

Warm garages will definitely accelerate the damage that salt can do. If you do park in a garage, wash it more often. It's a trade off. Early to mid spring is the worst season for our cars. Warm temps and lots of salt still on the roads!

Undercoating or rust proofing also helps. Get mine sprayed in the fall every year.

WINTER TIRES A MUST!!! Highly recommended! It can definitely make or break your winter driving pleasure. I enjoy driving in the snow.... with winters on! It can be a blast if you're prepared.

Hope this helps.

 

or get a winter beater. something tall and strong like a truck.
for the money to get snow tires and the damage to the car, you can get a very good winter beater.

 

...then you'll want to put winter tires on the beater, you'll need the extra space or bigger garage to park it, added insurance for another vehicle and additional maintenance. Depends how you look at it I guess.

I could not live without the Max for 5-6 months of the year.

 

washing it in the warmer weather may not be a great idea. Many car washes tend to "re-use" their water. When there are huge lines and tons of people washing it is the worst time to do it. Try and avoid that because you are just washing your car with all the crap you want off.

 

Personally (Living in Minnesota and actually driving to Fargo often) I have never owned winter tires and am usually the one to drive in snow storms. I just buy all seasons cause just in case you dont know OP its really hard on the tires to drive them in the summer. so this means you are either having a tire shop swap your tires every year...my dad does that and spends $80 a year doing that. or you could get a second set of wheels to do that with your self but thats pricey. So I get all seasons and am just a smart driver. I love driving in the winter and have had no problems with my Max on all seasons. hope this helps/ saves you some money.

 

get some crappy snow tires on some steel wheels. 40 winter tires are very hard to find.
its a winter beater, you park it outside, you only drive it a couple months, oil change is enough.
since its a beater, you only need liability.

sometimes driving a crap car can be more fun than driving a good car.

 

New set of steelies for your snows ~$200 MAX. Way less damage than mount/unmount every year

 

Here in Canada people get their car sprayed with a special oil underneath, in the door etc. I mean that create a bit of mess but after a week everything is fine and for most your car will last longer.

 

I forgot to say, four season tire are crap in winter and are now banned in Qc. Just buy a good set of winter tire like the Blizzak and a set of steelies and call it a day. When my max was seing winter my winter tire last about 6 years. On my X5 I have 2 set of tire ( summer and winter ) I have been driving in snow for over 30 years now and trust me sometime it can be dangerous if you are not carefull about the way you drive.

 

Good info! I have all season tires already on both cars. I'll have to see how it goes. I'll keep money set aside for spare wheels/snow tires for both cars just in case it's too sketchy or we annoy the natives too much

 

I was the one who only used all seasons and thought the same way. I was quite stubborn on the subject in fact! One year, I decided to be a little more open minded and give winters a try. I'll never go back! Huge difference in grip and inspires an entire new level of confidence when driving in the winter.

There's no such thing as "all seasons". These are known as "3 seasons"!

You can get a set of steel rims quite cheap, less than $200 for a set of 4 16", to through the winters on and bypass the tire shop swap all together.

 

You are missing out, man. This winter we got a ton of snow on the east cost and I had snow tires for once. I could not believe how well they worked in the snow compared to my experience with all season tires. I will never buy all season tires again. Summer tires for summer, winter tires for winter. That's my recommendation.

 

I may be being stubborn or what ever but ill tell ya being a smart driver and having patiens sure saves me a lot of trouble in the winter I just havent needed them I just understand the snow I guess.

 

Have you tried them?

 

I did, I'm Canadian and I drive both - one with winter tires and another - with all seasons. Winter tires actually were the reason I almost wrecked my car once - it was a lot of damage, luckily only to my Max. The problem with winters is they create impression you can drive faster than you actually should. Unfortunately here in Ontario when temperature drops below -17 C the salt on the roads doesn't work anymore and out of sudden they become very slippery, nothing can hold a car on that ice so if you happen to drive too fast (40 km/h in my case, it's all relative in the winter) you'll have problems. All seasons make you adjust much earlier in the season while there's still some traction exist. They are not born alike either, so you have to check how your particular type behaves in a winter. Winter tires do work much better in the snow but my worry is the ice where all of them slip. So to me consistent performance (even lousy) is better than sudden changes.

Spray your car before cold weather settles, I found it most affective. One chain around here under name Krown does a really good job - they drill holes in various parts of the body and spray internal crevices through them and then plug them up. Car leaks that oily liquid for a few days afterward. The liquid also has a tendency to spread itself over surface so in a few days it reaches every corner. It actually stopped the rust on my 93 Max and that car was a rust bucket being never sprayed before. I found that stock underbody coating on Maxes works fine, no need to spend money on doing custom job. Washing the car or parking it outside did not affect the rate rust was eating the car. If anything parking it outside made it worse contrary to popular belief. My theory is that inside the garage the salt/ice from the fenders melted and that allowed them to dry while outside it got stuck there all the time. In any case my 93 was visibly getting worse over weeks period. That Krown liquid did wonders - it went through winter without developing new spots or increasing old ones.

 

Undercoating and Rust Proofing should be your first step. Get that puppy first coated with "Krown" and then after driving down a few dusty roads hit up a "No Drip" or Wax based undercoating and that should help take care of your body panels and fenders.

Next as others have all mentioned; Snow tires ! Nokian Hakkapelita are amazing in snow and come from the swedes whom are some of the most serious driving enthusiasts in the world.
Bridgestone Blizzaks are quite good also and as others said, get them mounted on a set of steelies and rock those in the winter months.

I don't believe in all seasons..the kind of work at everything but aren't really great for anything.

Washing the salt from underneath and off the body is important also...you just have to watch your locks and windows icing up...Get some Lock De-Icer and put it somewhere handy for the days when it gets REALLY cold out.

 

You've seen some other views now I'll give you my $0.02 after 30+ years of driving in snow both in New England and in upstate NY.

In the long run it pays to invest in a 2nd set of wheels for your winter tires:

.Because it's soooo much easier to change them over.
.The wheels don't get wrecked from changing the tires twice each year.
.The winter tires will last much much longer because you won't tend to drive on them longer than you should .... because its such a hassle to change them over.

When you run snow tires on a front wheel drive vehicle .. always drive on 4 snow tires. Two reasons:
.You won't be constantly spinning out due to no traction on the rear tires.
.You can rotate the wheels each year to greatly extend the life of the snow tires.

Personally I always ran on 4 studded snowtires. I found this to be an unbeatable setup. You must however stay aware that it is easier to slide on dry pavement (or wet non snow pavement) when you brake hard on studded tires.

Always, Always remember that no matter what you do .... you will not have anywhere near the traction in snow that you do on dry pavement. That's why you see so many dingbats in 4-wheel drive vehicles in the ditch in snowy weather. Always brake gently when driving in the snow for the same reason.

On ice Blizzaks are actually better than studded snows but they wear out after two seasons .... and nothing (other than chains) beats studded snow tires in deep snow.

My personal view is that "all season" tires are good if all you get is a dusting of snow but in anything over an inch and they just just don't cut it.

 

Good Luck with your Snow Prep dont get none in Southern Cali!!

 

I developed special winter tire rotation technique- I always put tires with more tread in the rear. This means I don't rotate them at all until front wear out. Then I buy new pair, put them in the back and move former rears to front. This is due to Max weight distribution 60/40 - if you put worse tires in rear car spins out of control real easy, I learnt this the hard way. Having worse tires in front causes understeering and longer braking distance but I decided I can live with that as winter is no fun driving anyway. I tested once how car behaves with the same set of 4 winter tires on an empty parking lot: with better tires in the rear car simply understeers but you can actually control it while with better ones in front it simply spins and I couldn't do anything about it no matter what I tried. Just my 2 cents.

 

Tires don't create impressions, drivers do.

Seriously, you're trying to blame having increased traction for an accident?

 

Agreed! And a little common sense when driving on icy roads goes a long way!

 

Having lived in the neighboring state of S Dakota for 6 yrs way back when, even without snow tires , you'll manage. Believe me, everyone there are not on snow tires. But obviously, all that stuff helps. My old 3TC Corolla was good for about 30 below before not wanting to start. A block heater wouldn't be a bad idea though I never had one. Later on I moved to Maine for a winter with a 280ZX and found it would not start as readily, even with its fuel injection, as the carburetted Corolla & its 30weight oil.

 

Well as long as you take into account that the coefficient of friction is lower on a snow and ice covered road than on a dry road, it should be obvious that no matter what tire you have, you will lose grip in snow and ice first. Thinking that having snow tires will save you from a wreck is analogous to thinking that 4wd will do the same thing. It comes down to driver skill and PATIENCE! Number one tip for driving in the snow is don't do anything fast. As soon as you make a quick change in direction you are going to lose control. Smooth driving is safe driving in the snow. This also implies that driving slow is beter than driving fast. You are trying to limit the change in speed (acceleration) of your vehicle. This does not apply just to straight driving. Acceleration also occurs in the corners (you car is constantly changing direction in a corner). You limit the acceleration, because limiting the acceleration will limit the friction force with the road (force = mass * acceleration). Less grip in the snow means that it will take less force to break traction. Less acceleration = less force between the tire and the road = less chance of losing traction.

 

Driver skill will not overcome no traction.

My snows with HLSD allow me to drag the chassis uphill, through 6" of snow.
All seasons just spin, I'm going no where. They simply don't have the grip to move the freight, under those conditions.

And what if I have to stop quickly, due to unforseen events in front of me? How do I apply patience to an idiot that just slid into the intersection on my green light?

I used to think all seasons were the answer when I was young....before I actually tried snows.
Night and day difference, brother.

 

If you really want to be able to start your car in the morning when its 30 below zero, get engine block heaters, the kind that you remove a core plug and put it in that opening. You do one on each side of the engine. And for extra guarantee, get a battery heater. The car will start like its summer out.

 

Guy, I'm advocating snow tires. Look above.

If you are a skilled driver, you will know when you have traction or not. Furthermore, if you are going so fast thought an intersection that you can't stop, that's your fault. Additionally, skilled drivers know that tires have more traction when they are not spinning relative to the road surface (coefficient of static friction > coefficient of kinetic friction). Sounds like the HLSD is making up for a lack of skill under those conditions, and a lack of knowledge of physics .

 

You won't, trust me. I experienced so called 'black ice' first hand and only luck saved me and bunch of other cars on hwy. It was dark and people were coming home from work. I kept at least 100m distance from the car in front of me when out of sudden I saw flushes of police lights ahead. Naturally I pressed the brakes (slowly, as everyone suggested here) and - nothing, car continued to move ahead like I wasn't braking at all. ABS did kick in and it was quite depressing to keep pushing brake pedal, getting massage from ABS and not slowing down noticeably. I found it was better to just keep pushing it as ABS was doing better job of keeping it on the edge of breaking traction. Luckily cars in front of me were having the same problems. It took us at least 200m to come to complete stop from 80 km/h. It was police cruiser which was driving in front of us who turned on his lights to warn everyone behind. It turned out there was a car wreck on the hwy about 1km ahead and there were no lights, only one more cruiser standing on hwy behind the wreck. If not that police officer who warned us there would be sure pile up that night as it would be too late for the front driver to notice the wreck. We spent another hour trying to pass that spot as there were no traction whatsoever. This is the biggest danger of the winter driving - sudden change of conditions. It was the same road, time and weather. It was OK 10 km before and no traction at that place, about 2km in length which is quite enough to get into trouble.
I do keep my winter set for only one reason - my summer tires suck big time in winter . I don't drive in deep snow so all seasons on my other Max work for me just as well.