How Best to Maintain Rubber Hoses??

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Well one of my crankcase ventilation rubber hoses has started to become brittle and will need replacing. So it got me thinking what would be the best oil or grease to apply to rubber hoses in the engine bay to keep them up to scratch for longer??

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I appplied the following lithium based grease to some hoses in my engine bay. It has a colour similar to vaseline.















In the first pic below, it has remained as a grease, the hose looks shiny, but ofrcourse ended up attracting some fine debris and dirt.

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In the 2nd pic, this hose is going in to the top of the radiator and so gets quite hot, and the grease looks to have have dried out and gone a milky colour, and this hose actually would be in the firing line of water spray from if i'm follwoing another car in the rain (i read in the sticky the milky change can happen with Li based grease).

So what is other peoples opnion? Or would something like WD40 be better just wiped on with a cloth??


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Worth makes a good product called "rubber care" that seems like it would work well on hoses. The thing is these days I see hoses last hundreds of thousands of miles. so I don't know how important it would be?
 
Grease is not at all good for rubber hoses. Standard grease is just an oil in a carrier base (such as a lithium complex), and oil can and does damage certain rubber compounds. For example if you use a water rated car hose for an oil application, the rubber will degrade (sell, crack, etc)

I honestly don't do anything to my rubber hoses.
 
Hoses are of two types of rubber. For radiator hoses, EPDM rubber is typically used (ehtylene propylene diene rubber). This holds up great to hot water and antifreeze but does not like oil/grease. For applications where oil is carried, nitrile rubber is typically used.

If you want to protect rubber hose, do not use oil or grease. Better to use silicone products if you feel you need something on them. Otherwise, leave them alone. They will typically age faster on the inside than the outside anyway.
 
I resurrected a motor with oil in coolant. Despite cleaning the rad system with dish detergent and repeated flushes, oil would "sweat" out the hoses. I'd clean the outside of the hoses, go for a drive, and the heat would make more oil appear from inside out. They were also somewhat gooey.

If you cut open an unadulterated reinforced hose that's been in service for 15 years you'd probably be pleasantly surprised at how good they are inside.

The old cop caprices had green silicone radiator hoses that were supposed to be the bee's knees.
 
Cool thanks for the advice. I've wiped off the grease, and will just wipe on some silicon spray with a cloth if only to keep the hoses clean, so that any fluid or oil leakes are easier to spot.
 
303 protectant is suppose be the best on the market least i've heard that. Alot ppl spray on cv boots in older cars because of it's water resistance and ability to make rubber maintain flexiblity.. maybe worth looking into it's about 10-15 dollars a bottle
 
303 protectant is suppose be the best on the market least i've heard that. Alot ppl spray on cv boots in older cars because of it's water resistance and ability to make rubber maintain flexiblity.. maybe worth looking into it's about 10-15 dollars a bottle
 
On Cv boots, if it attracts dust then I'd say it is bad.

Saturn's owner's manual states not to get oil on the cv boots when changing the filter. Why, grease is on the inside so why would oil hurt the outside? The oil will collect sand which combined with the rotation and flex in the boot will eat away at it. If applying armor all type protectant to the boots, I'd be sure to wipe it off quite well.
 
Hoses have to be changed on a regular / as needed basis . Age heat and chemical reaction does the hose in . Sometimes the material lasts a long time sometimes not which depends on the quality of the rubber/neoprene/plastic/nylon silicon etc what ever it really is made of. Sometimes form the inside of the hose.
 
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