Brake cleaner on plastic

[burakol 462]

It says safe on most automotive plastic, but I wanted to know if anyone have actually tried it. I'm trying to clean all the old grease and gunk left inside the diff case of the Orginal Hotshot I'm trying to refresh. Thanks!

[SupraChrgd82 1425]

Brake cleaner often contains harsh solvents than can melt plastics.  I suggest using cream-style automotive hand cleaner (without pumice) and a soft brush.

[David B 66]

I've used Simple Green to de chrome plastic parts and it is biodegradable.

[EvilSpike 294]

I use brake cleaner on literally everything. Need to clean the brakes on my motorbike? Brake cleaner. Suspension linkages got grit and old grease in? Brake cleaner. Flies, dirt and road grim on my helmet visor...

You get the picture. It is the only thing that has gotten the biro off the painted doors in the holiday flat when my two year old decided he wanted to draw on them :/

It's such a high flash solvent that it disappears in seconds supposedly leaving nothing of itself behind to contaminate brake discs or pads with. It can cause surface discoloration of plastics as it removes the very top layer of oils from them, but a squirt of gt85 on plastic part puts back the sheene.

I've not done exhaustive testing over years on RC car parts, but it's been fine on my five different motorbikes, one I've had since 2007...

If you do use it, a500ml aerosol is about £4 a can, but a five litre bottle plus a hand operated pump sprayer from a local motor factors will be about £10. Useful if you have children who like to draw on things they shouldn't, or clean your windscreen wipers, or get rubber marks off plastics or...

[burakol 462]

Thanks. I gave the internal diff case some spray...luckily,it melted the grease and dissipated quicky...however, it did leave a whitish residue but I'm not concerned over it since it is the inside... I will try the hand pumice I have and see if that does the trick for the other plastic parts... I ran our of simple green but that was my first choice to use... 

[SupraChrgd82 1425]

Whoa! Avoid the one with pumice.  It wil scratch your plastics.

The hand cleaner without pumice works good for cleaning old grease from parts, oily cooking dribbles from the kitchen on your shirt, and oil stains on concrete.  Not sure if you have there, but in the States, Goop and GoJo creme hand cleaners are the big sellers. It's appreciable that it washes away with dishsoap and water.

[burakol 462]

Yeah, I have the GoJo here without the abrasive feel. More like a hand cream. Btw, I am in the states too. 

[Big Jon 684]

Depends on the type of brake cleaner, really. Chlorinated brake cleaner is too aggressive for RC; non-chlorinated is ok. I use a lot of denatured alcohol for degreasing/general cleaning, because it's cheap and safe. VP's Power Wash is hands down the absolute best RC cleaner I've tried. Perfectly safe, smells great, gives incredible results fast. Spray it on, blow it off.