9 replies to this topic

[Dan]

I have a tale of woe to impart and at first it's going to seem unrelated to technical matters or Minis in general so bear with me. My wife has just come to me asking for help because something seems to have exploded in a kitchen cupboard. Horrible thick black gunk is all over the place, the cupboard is dripping with what looks like treacle and everything inside is stuck to each other. There then follows much cleaning and graft, and eventually I find the source of the problem. An electric hand soap dispenser thingy that we picked up in the US (Brookstone people, seriously) that has been kicking about under the counter has failed. What the mysterious black goo started as was a pleasantly scented, innocuous pale blue hand soap. The container it was in was stainless steel. So what could have gone wrong? The soap is black because of the suspension of rust it now carries, it has eaten this stainless steel pot quite aggressively until the pot has failed at a point on the rim. And then of course it has leaked thick, black rusty soap goo all over the cabinet. Why has it done this? Salt. This is the heart of the matter. I've lost track of the number of times people have advised the use of dish detergent or liquid soap as a lubricant for fitting rubber and trim to the car body. The photos that follow should explain why this is a terrible idea. Even a small quantity of the stuff left trapped against the bodywork will eventually do this. Remember that this container was stainless steel, not mild steel like the vulnerable body of your car. It's only been there a few months really, how long will you leave the screen seals in place on your car? And the soap started out in life a fairly light shade of blue!

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Do not use hand soap, washing up liquid, or anything else not specifically designed for the purpose as a lubricant, car wash, screen wash or in place of any other fluid on your car. Do not let muppets at traffic lights clean your windscreen with washing up liquid. You will probably regret it if you do.

[hawky443]

Did you taste it?

[Duncy H]

Haha my grandad uses fairy liquid in small amounts to wash his micra and wonders why all the paint has faded :L He doesn't care though cause he bought it for £200 and it just works for him.

[Dan]

I elected not to taste it no. Strangely it's not what first occurred to me.

[markxe]

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[surfblue63]

Do not let muppets at traffic lights clean your windscreen with washing up liquid. You will probably regret it if you do.

I find a quick squirt with the windscreen washers has them backing off.

by the way Good tip on the washing up liquid, don't do it. Use car shampoo for lube on body parts and engine oil for mechanical parts.

[R1minimagic]

Probably what Rover used to fit the screens on the MPi Minis!!

[ibrooks]

I have a big tub of pure lanolin in the garage that I use for lubricating stuff like window seals (and for fitting tyres). It was marketed as hand restorer but it's industrial stuff so no perfumes. My aunt was in the garage once and talking about hand creams so I suggested she try some. She wasn't impressed that I didn't tell her until afterwards that it doesn't have perfumes and she realised that her hands then smelled like a sheep.

Iain

[dave1293gt]

Haha my grandad uses fairy liquid in small amounts to wash his micra and wonders why all the paint has faded :L He doesn't care though cause he bought it for £200 and it just works for him.

£200 for washing up liquid is ludicrous. Let alone for washing a car and allowing it to fade the paint. Mind you good on your grandad for using small quantities, will last a lot longer. Maybe even longer than the car

[tiger99]

From what I now know, using washing up liquid to help fit rubber suspension bushes is a very bad idea, and I will never do it again. Last time, I used a rubber lubricant in aerosol form from Halfords, which did the job.

But curiously I did rebuild the suspension on an early FWD Cavalier a long time ago, before I hears of the salt problem, using Fairy liquid, and it ran for years without problems, despite the wishbones only being sheet metal pressings.