Originally Posted by
easyupbug
WD-40 for anything other than general household use for non-mechanics amazes me. WD is lubricants w/ anti-corrosion agents, penetrants, water displacers and something for cleaning(50% OMS). A gal of OMS and a spray bottle will clean and not leave anything on your rims or rotors like WD does and cost much less than a gal of WD and if you buy spray cans of WD you will spend 5 or more times as much.
What people think is and, more importantly, isn’t in WD-40 is what amazes me. It’s fairly simple to find out. WD-40 is an oil in mineral spirits in about a 25/75% ratio. That’s it. That also happens to be about the ratio of oil to solvent in most chain lubricants. The identity of the oil in chain lubricants isn’t all that different from the oil in WD-40 based on the CAS number of the oils. Here’s what’s in it.
WD-40 is only “water displacing” in that it’s an oil that sticks to the metal. A bit of water and the action of moving the chain will churn that mixture up and displace the oil with a layer of water on the metal since metal has more affinity for the water than oil does. But that happens with
any oil based lubricant.
I agree that it shouldn’t be used as a cleaner, just like TriFlow shouldn’t be used as a cleaner for fairly obvious reasons.