Does WD40 eat rubber ?

[bluedragon]

There may well be more suitable products around now (and perhaps used on this engine) but NR was widely used in the past for vibration dampers as it had unique properties the oil resistant rubbers did not have. Occasional splash with viscous engine oil is one thing...weekly (or daily?) spraying with WD40 is another. It may not be the cause of the degradation seen by the original poster, but in theory it can't be ruled out either.

 

[Piers]

I believe you will find it doesn't damage rubber, but certainly does damage "rubber products" such as neoprene.

 

[Anonymous]

I had lived in total ignorance of that until this thread. Is there a silicone spray available at a sensible price, that doesn't have undesirable solvents or propellants?

 

[whisper]

Gulp !!!!
Our engineer has advised us that a good spray of WD40 over all the electrics was to be recommended when leaving the boat for a while.

Perhaps he was looking for more work from us /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[philip_stevens]

I worked on helicopters when I was in the Fleet Air Arm, and along came Rocket WD40 - the wonder spray!!

It got sprayed on everything and anything electrical and radio.

The helos went off on practice flights and hovered over dusty ground.
Next, they went off and hovered over the salty sea.
Next - we had short circuit problems.

The WD40 solvent dried out, and left a sticky residue. The dust stuck to the sticky residue and the sea spray saturated the dust. You can work out the rest!!!

The radio and electrical bays had to be thoroughly cleaned to remove the WD40/dust/sproy moisture.

The only time that WD40 was then used was on the skin of the helo to seal joins between panels and to help prevent corrosion. It was never again used on electrical systems.

I also have another tale of WD40 giving me two hours - on a freezing cold winters night - of problems on a crane when WD40 was sprayed on hoist contactors. The crane would not stop on lowering as then contactor pole pieces were sticking together and taking seconds to "unstick". But that is another story.

The moral is, don't use WD40 on anything electrical on a boat, and if you want to use it, spray it on exposed bare mild steel. It will leave a sticky residue and protect (to a certain extent) the metal.

Sorry to be so long winded, but it has given me many problems on the electrical front over many years.