Seawater is a disaster for car owners

Living with the constant threat of tidal flooding is hard enough for residents of North Jakarta’s coastal areas, but adding to their woes is the damage that the seawater is doing to their cars.

For car owners in North Jakarta, many areas of which are lower than sea level, keeping their vehicles in good shape is a relentless struggle against the elements.

Typical maintenance involves regularly washing their cars with fresh water and applying anti-corrosion coatings.

Desi Lie, a resident of the Pantai Indah Kapuk housing complex, said that although she and her neighbors took such measures to protect their cars, many car owners had trouble selling their vehicles in the second-hand market.

“The truth of the matter is that our cars are easily damaged by the salt. The metal also gets rusty and dirty easily,” she told The Jakarta Post recently.

Desi’s car has been damaged by salt water, even though she had the car coated in an anti-corrosive chemical immediately after she bought the car.

In the end there is little she can do. After all there’s just too much salt; on the roads and in the air. And the problem extends to beyond her motorvehicle. Parts of her house, including the windows and curtain railings, have also been corroded by salt in the air.

“If parts of my house get corroded, you can imagine what happens to cars traveling through salt water,” she said.

The situation is a chore for drivers too.

Abdul Aziz, a driver in the Pluit Putri housing complex, said he washed his employer’s cars three times a week during the rainy season.

“The cars pass through a lot of muddy puddles during the rainy season and the salt gets into the engine,” he said.

Aziz also regularly applies an anti-corrosive varnish to the cars.

The problem has led car dealers to take extra steps during a car service.

“Sometimes, car buyers who live in this area ask for full [anti-corrosion] coatings,” Dedy Kusdiana, a salesman at a car dealership in the area, said.

The coating is applied to the interior and exterior parts of the chassis.

He said corrosion devalued the price of a car. “If there is corrosion of 30 to 40 percent, the price will drop 50 percent.”

Wito Setiadi, a salesman at a dealership in the area, said car owners should wash their cars regularly with fresh water.

“If the cars have welds from modifications, they will be prone to corrosion because the high temperature from the welding will induce corrosion,” he said.

“The salt carried by vapor that sticks to the cars will accelerate the corrosion process because of the high car temperatures. So, it is important to wash the car with fresh water regularly,” he said. (map)