Salt

I have a salt problem...The floor vents are coated with salt(chunks). I kick my feet off at the door evertime and my foot rests nowhere near the vent and I have winter floor matts. Of course GM tells me that it's from my feet..Bull!. I've had many vech's and minivans and this is a first for me. I just wish I could post the pics I have.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Sorry all that and I forgot to tell you what my car is...it's a 2003 Montana Van

it is from your feet... the salt from the road melts and "wicks" to the carpet in front of your vent. There the heat drys the water and leaves the salt. the salt will build up till it looks like rocks.

If you stop using the heater on the floor you will notice a decline in the salt there.

it is from your feet... the salt from the road melts and "wicks" to the carpet in front of your vent. There the heat drys the water and leaves the salt. the salt will build up till it looks like rocks.

If you stop using the heater on the floor you will notice a decline in the salt there.



Thanks for the reply...I hear what you saying but why does this happen with the Montana and not with my other vech's, which included a 98 Grand Voyager? My driving habbits have not changed!

because the other m/vans don't have the vent right on the carpet like the Montana. If they are then they would be angled up more than the Montana.

The salt problem is definately not from your pants and if you remove the centre console and check the centre duct in the middle of the van you will find a very large accumulation of salt that is definately not from your pants. My van is extremely corroded in this area and I removed large chunks of salt. The salt is definately coming from the fresh air intake.

I have 99.

I have not seen this problem and we have quite a bit of snow here in PA. Most of our driving is 45mph or lower and not really that much traffic. I do see some salt spray on the outside of the vehicle, but none on the heater foor vent -- our floor wet frequently - yuck!

I would tend to beleive that the issue is with road salt spray throught the fresh air intake. Do you do a considerable amount of highway driving with wet roads with salt/calcium solution on it?

This certainly makes sense more than the wicking... We do get some salt on our carpet floor mats but not the heater vents. Maybe the real reason is they are well protected by the layers of soda pop residue from the kids!

Ok, this will only be my guess since we don't have any pictures to go on. Check to see if you have a cabin air filter, it is located in the back of the glove box. You will have to remove the little plastic door( inside of glove box) and put your hand in there and feel, you should have two filters. If you do have cabin air filters take them out(if I remember one pulls out and the other slides to the right and then out) look at these filters for any salt. If you have a cabin air filter system I doubt that the salt spray would be able to pass through these filters. With out them, I guess anything is possible.

Since you said that you have winter mats, are they the same shape and size as in your past cars? I have winter mats with deep channels to hold the melted snow. It doesn't take much snow to fill up the channels with water which contains salt that might overflow the edge of the mat during turns or take offs. Since the heater outlet has slots any salty water might stick to the corners of the vent and build up over time.

You could also try to shine a flashlight in the heater vent and see if you see a salt build up inside the vent by the floor.

Hope this helps you find out the problem you are having. I really can't think of another possibility other then salty water running off of the mat in the area of the vent.

Let us know what you find out. Good Luck

Water does get in under the carpet, from where I don't know. I was getting an airbag trouble light, I removed the front carpets and dried the floorpan and carpet,can't see where it was getting in though.