Rain can be refreshing on a hot and humid day, but car owners usually don’t like it much, especially when their cars are newly-washed and sparkling. Somehow, rain has the uncanny quality of making the shiniest of cars dirty and grimy.
Here are few reasons why rain can actually be bad for your car.
Rain makes the car dirtier than it should be. The funny thing is, rain makes a clean car dirty, but makes a dirty car even harder to clean! When you take out your dusty car and drive it through the rain, some of the dust and grime are washed off, but when the rain stops and you’re still driving, expect the remaining mud to. Your tyres accumulate hard to remove mud, and even the underside of your car is caked with mud. Failure to do this will hasten the deterioration of your car. A car’s metal parts, when left underneath layers of dirt will quickly rust, therefore causing depreciation and eventual breakdown of the car body.
Rain puts added pressure on the tyres, wipers, fan belt, power steering and brakes. Rain or moisture causes a lot of car parts to slightly malfunction. Although cars are meant to be driven even through the roughest of rains, the moisture it produces makes some normal car functions to trip and cause some alarm to the driver.
The most obvious will be your windshield wipers, which take the brunt and force of heavy rain. And what will you do without them? Driving through rain with broken or malfunctioning wipers is extremely dangerous. Especially when visibility is near zero, you’d be better off parking somewhere safe, and allowing the rain to pass – this is the best thing to do when you know you have trippy wipers that could cause you major accidents. Keep you wipers in tip top shape.
Another victim of moisture is your fan belt. Moisture can cause your fan belt to squeal, especially if the moisture gets between your belt and the pulleys or belt tension.that all hold it in place. If you notice your belt squealing minutes after you drive through a large puddle or in the rain, chances are your belt is getting wet somehow. Have it checked out by a good mechanic.
If you drive a car with power steering, you know that the rain messes up with it, too. The power steering will fail temporarily (it locks up). Having your mechanic replace the pump regularly is a good idea, but rain and its moisture will somehow affect its normal function. Once it locks up, force it to move back and forth and little, the belt will finally give a little squeal and then everything is back to normal.
Another victim of rain is the braking system. A lot of cars have a tendency to make brake-grinding noises for the first few stops after they’ve been parked in the rain or mist. It’s because brake discs rapidly get a very light coating of rust from the moisture. Using the brakes scrapes the rotors clean again, and the noise goes away pretty fast. Your brake rotors can rust very quickly. They can make a grinding noise when you first drive your car after the rotors get wet, but it will go away after the rust gets scraped off by the brake pads.
Acid rain. Defined by automakers as environmental fallout, it is a term used to describe the deposit of damaging pollutants, whether wet or dry. These pollutants are released by burning fuels and react with other elements in the atmosphere and become acids. Rain itself is not the culprit, but when the rain dries, it leaves the concentrated acid part. Paint acts like a sponge and it keeps collecting all that acidic material.
How to avoid damage on your car – Repeated exposure is bad. If you consistently park your car in a covered area, garage or carport, you can avoid some of the worst effects of acid rain. Some manufacturers used acid-resistant paints, which costs a lot less than it might cost you to fix a problem afterward. To avoid permanent scarring, have your car washed and hand-dried frequently. Light-coloured vehicles seem to suffer less obvious damage; darker-colored vehicles will show wear sooner.
And when some paint damage has already happened, there is still hope. Hire a professional to have your contaminated paint cleaned up. A high-quality polymer paint sealant also has co-polymers and amino functional resins that will fight future acid rain while resisting the effects of soap and sun.
Rain is a natural phenomenon which brings life and helps maintain the environmental equilibrium. It may not be kind to man-made machines, but there are ways to make your metal babies survive even the harshest rain weather. The prime factors are care & responsibility but maintenance is the key.