How useful would grease be as a rust preventer?

jsmoke

jsmoke

jsmoke

Soldato
Joined
17 Jun 2012
Posts
11,259
There are quick a few parts vulnerable to rust such as manifold bolts, exhaust bolts, caliper bolts and various other brackets and fixings.

Would there be any point in smearing these areas with say lithium grease to prevent rusting or would the grease wash of pretty quickly?
 
Where the manufacturer intended for things to be covered in grease there are usually rubber caps etc to retain the grease. I doubt many if any greases will withstand the heat of exhaust manifold bolts.

That said, some products are grease-like and are intended to protect metals, inc fixings, from corroding eg Lanoguard which is basically just sprayable friendly lanolin (a waxy/greasy substance secreted from glands in the skin of sheep) without being a sort of thick gloopy mess like some underbody coatings can be. Probably not advisable to coat the engine in it though...
 
Depends on their exposure. Another consideration is that grease can hold in contaminants if they get through, exacerbating and hiding the damage.

Look up ACF-50. I treat my entire motorbike with it twice a year. It is great stuff.
 
Scuzi said:
Depends on their exposure. Another consideration is that grease can hold in contaminants if they get through, exacerbating and hiding the damage.

Look up ACF-50. I treat my entire motorbike with it twice a year. It is great stuff.
Click to expand...
Could be exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks.
 
Another vote for ACF-50 here - though you do need to reapply it every ~6 months but it has been very effective in my experience at inhibiting existing corrosion and preventing new for around 6 months.
 
You need to excercise your bolts. Every couple of weeks grab a socket set and loosen every bolt a bit and then retighten them. That'll keep them from seizing :)
 
Pretty effective in my experience. As long as it's a thicker grease, it tends to work quite well actually.
 
I once tried a tip, painted used engine oil on the front subframe of my Citroen dispatch after every oil change.
The minis I used to own had front subframes like new due to the inevitable A series oil leaks.
It was always the rears that rusted through.
Anyhow, I’m not sure if it was because it was a diesel but the front subframe rotted faster than anything else.
Lol.
Van eventually got written off so nothing lost, but I wouldn’t do it again.
Grease hopefully would be better.
 
Just drive it.

Some fittings can benefit from copper slip etc when being reinstalled as a preventative measure but you are wasting your time otherwise.
 
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