Date: Tue, 10 Jan 2012 20:41:08 -0500
Reply-To: Derek Drew <derekdrew@DEREKMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Derek Drew <derekdrew@DEREKMAIL.COM>
Subject: What Type of Grease Lasts 20 Years?
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I wanted to grease my windshield wiper pivots before closing
everything up, and have no idea what kind of grease to put in there.
-- CV joint grease tends to be too runny, I think.
-- I don't need non-wash-off aluminum bel ray waterproof grease there.
-- As far as I can tell, Bentley changed its recommendation that you
use lithium grease on the shifter parts and changed its mind to say
to use CV joint grease (G 000 602 MoS2 grease, it says).
I have found that CV joint grease destroys rubber like there is no
tomorrow, so I am learning to keep it away from there.
As I recall, white lithium grease is among the least reactive greases
and so safest, so I would assume it might be the best all around
general purpose grease unless you are working with parts known not to
come in contact with rubber.
I assume that CV joint grease won't attack plastics or VW would not
have specified it for the shifter and related components.
I have copper grease which is said to be "conductive" that I use to
join metal connectors in harsh environments, but I have seen that
this grease does not always seem to last forever, but I could be
wrong about that.
I remember that the headlight electrical connections in my Honda were
pre-treated with what was obviously dialectic grease.
In my opinion, VW should have used copper or dialectric grease on
*all* of its electrical connections in the engine compartment and
exterior places like lighting. It comes across as simply careless
that they didn't. But then, maybe their engineers don't think of all
of their car lines as "perpetual cars" the way we think of our
Vanagons as being.
Can I get someone more knowledgeable about grease than me to blurt it out?
I even googled it, but couldn't find a good primer on greases either.
_______________________________________________
Derek Drew
Washington DC / New York
derekdrew@derekmail.com
Email is best normally but...
PHONE: 202-966-7907 (Call the number at left normally)
(alt/cell for diligent calling only): 703-408-1532
