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Sodium Silicate: Putting the Clunk in Cash For Clunkers Program

by peder.sande | July 27, 2009 at 11:49 am

3154 views | 0 Recommendations | 6 comments

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has announced Sodium Silicate will be used to disable the clunker cars in the cash for clunkers program, in order to stop dealers from reselling the car. Disabling the cars is vital in order for the car rebate stimulus to succeed. Decreasing the supply of durable goods will increase spending on the car industry, which sorely needs Sodium Silicate Solution must be put into the oil tank in place of oil and run for 7 minutes, effectively disabling the engine.

the $1 billion Federal program that will help consumers purchase a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle when they trade in a less fuel-efficient vehicle. Consumers could receive a $3,500 or $4,500 discount from the car dealer when they trade in their old vehicle and purchase or lease a new one.

Dealers in the U.S. “cash-for- clunkers” program are being forced to disable trade-in vehicles with a chemical under new rules to prevent those who take the government subsidies from reselling the cars.

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grumpytees (not verified)

at 18:38 on July 27th, 2009

This program is a joke. Not helping anyone really. Dealers hate it. Junking some cars that don't "need" to be junked. Now dealers have to "drain the oil from engine, add 2 quarts of sodium silicate and run engine until it seizes up". Then what do you do, push it out? What a joke!

The Science Guy (not verified)

at 18:38 on July 29th, 2009

The disposal plan sounds reasonable to me - the idea is to reduce the number of inefficient engines out there wasting fuel while channeling some money to automakers. Technically the cars don't "need" to be junked, but the Earth is definitely thankful to have them out of her hair.

If only the program were a bit more targeted towards efficient cars. For example, someone can trade in a 12MPG Jeep for some other 20MPG gas guzzler, which is still pretty horrid. Meanwhile I can't trade in my 1984 pickup truck (23mpg) towards a new Prius (50 MPG) because the old one is considered too efficient. Open up the program to all old vehicles under 25MPG, as long as the jump in fuel economy is at least 5 or 10MPG.

nissan tech 1 (not verified)

at 08:27 on August 3rd, 2009

"the Earth is definitely thankful to have them out of her hair. " you are a fool !!! taking running cars off the road to make money for sinking dealers. a hummer over a 15yr lifespan and poor fuel mileage will have less of an envirnmental impact than a hybrid because of the chemicals used to produce the batteries!!!!! they have a short lifespan 6-8 years and cost up to $ 7,000 to replace. do some research fool !!!!!!! the batteries are toxic, dangerous to work on and expensive.

The Science Guy (not verified)

at 09:09 on August 3rd, 2009

This program has negligible affect on the environment since the "cash" award only requires a 1-2mpg improvement.

This program will affect the recycling business which makes a major profit on recycled engines. It also make used vehicles more scarce affecting the lower income groups ability to purchase a vehicle.

It remains to be seen whether an engine disabled this way can effectively be recycled because the Sodium Sillicate may make it impossible to separate cast iron from aluminum and steel.

The gain in greenhouse gas reduction is marginal because more new vehicles must be constructed.

karenc (not verified)

at 06:21 on August 4th, 2009

Cash for clunkers will have little benefit to the enivironment and will hurt the sale of used cars, drive up the cost of car parts and hurt charities who rely on the revenue from car donation.

rodeny (not verified)

at 08:28 on August 6th, 2009

Why is it that every program that the government comes up with in the end has to benefit big business. This program would do well to contain a provision that only American made cars are eligible. Forget about foreign business. We need to build something here at home.

I also do not think that disabling trade ins is a wise choice. My brother is a Auto Tech, reducing the amount of used cars on the market will probably put people in his profession out of work. It will probably hurt people with less money in there pocket that don't want of cannot afford a new car payment. This program uses taxpayer money to support big business. It manipulates the market and is not something that we need to be spending money on considering the country's financial situation.