CVA oil renewal or reuse?

[alvinlwh 5888]

Having built a few CVAs, I now have a full bottle of yellow shocks oil and a bit more spare. This got me thinking. 

Is there a need to renew the oil in our CVAs? Far as I am aware, that is one of the few oil in real cars that never need renewing. Whole shock got toasted and tossed. 

Also, a while back when I rebuilt a TT01, I sucked up as much as possible of the oil in the shocks to be reused. Should I have dumped them instead or does it not matter? 

[Frog Jumper 3656]

I try to reuse by sucking it up into an old bottle and then re-squirting it into the shock…

[Willy iine 18804]

Unless it's like new oil I just put in where I need to change the valving, I usually just dump what's in the damper and refill with new.

I capture it in a small glass dish.   (I think it's for candles or something, not sure).

[alvinlwh 5888]

23 minutes ago, Willy iine said:

Unless it's like new oil I just put in where I need to change the valving, I usually just dump what's in the damper and refill with new.

Thing is, my 12 years old oil still is golden yellow, like new. 🤔

[hIghQ 149]

Usually after some use (especially on off-road cars with aeration shocks), the oil in the shocks accumulates some dirt/dust and gets dirty. When you see that, replace it by fresh oil.

[Wheel_Nut 322]

The potential problem is dirt contamination.   It will become abrasive, so its probably not very helpful to maintain the life of shock seals.

[alvinlwh 5888]

OK, thanks. So it is meant to be renewed, guess that's why Tamiya gave me so much that I now have nearly 2 full large bottles of yellow spare. Nice of them. Now if only they will give more of their grease in the kits as well. 😁

[Jonathon Gillham 4605]

I never reuse oil, it always looks dirty. I rebuild my offroad racers shocks every few months and the oil is always filthy. The onroad cars get done every 6 months (I probably should do them more often, but you know, lazy and maintaining 10 race cars is a lot) and the oil is cleanish but I still replace it

I have a big range of oils which hurt when I bought them but they last ages as you don't use much so it isn't actually a big cost to replace the oil. 

In saying that, I have cars that were built 4 years ago and I haven't had to do anything as they are still running fine. I expect the oil in them will be pretty clean but if I check then I have to rebuild the shocks so, you know...

[FoxShot 280]

You should have seen the oil on my shocks on the FoxShot when I rebuilt it after standing for 28+ years. It had seen "quite" a bit of use in its old days too!! Just a little grey!!

[ad456 329]

On 10/22/2021 at 1:57 AM, alvinlwh said:

Now if only they will give more of their grease in the kits as well. 😁

If you want some extra grease then give me a shout, I use Labelle 106 so have a spare tube or two somewhere. 

[alvinlwh 5888]

6 minutes ago, ad456 said:

If you want some extra grease then give me a shout, I use Labelle 106 so have a spare tube or two somewhere. 

Thanks but it is probably ok for now as I also saved some from building my Mini 4WDs (small gears don't need much). I have quite a few types of sprays and grease, I just need to know what to use where.

I remember someone (was it you?) saying that ceramic grease grinded down the metal diff, so I know not to use that on metal gears. 

AND what I really want to know is what are the AW grease alternatives? I can buy big tubes of copper, anti-seize grease on Amazon, which is said to be the same as AW grease?

I had asked the question before, but it seems that different people use different things. I had seen bicycle/motorcycle chain wax spray being used by some as well.

[ad456 329]

There’s a really good thread on here about different greases, it’s my handbook basically. You have to be careful of automotive greases and lubes as they will often eat plastic over time. 

I use WD40 for degreasing only and wash it off afterwards as that stuff is evil. Labelle 106 for plastic and an rc moly grease for metal to metal. To stiffen diffs I used to use Tamiya AW then switched to 3Racing 2 million Wr diff oil and am planning to replace that with putty when I can get the energy to rebuild all gearboxes. 
 

I try not to be too worried about cost of greases/lubes as you don’t really need much and if your going through it too fast you either have way more models than my 15 or so, or are being far too liberal with application. 
 

I tend to use graphite powder for locks as a dry lube on my CVDs/XVDs etc on my clods and things as I’m only just getting my head round dry lubes. 
 

edit :- 3in1 old school oil is great on motor bushings and bearings too, less wear and bound to be a couple more rpm. 

Edited October 28, 2021 by ad456

[c64orinoco 667]

On 10/22/2021 at 11:23 AM, alvinlwh said:

Thing is, my 12 years old oil still is golden yellow, like new. 🤔

I have half a bottle of Tamiya shock oil from 1983 and it still looks like new.

[alvinlwh 5888]

1 hour ago, c64orinoco said:

I have half a bottle of Tamiya shock oil from 1983 and it still looks like new.

In the shock not the bottle I mean. 

[Willy iine 18804]

3 hours ago, c64orinoco said:

I have half a bottle of Tamiya shock oil from 1983 and it still looks like new.

I used some ‘old’ yellow oil from the late 90’s I found the other week.  As far as soft damper oil with standard CVA-Mini one hole valve setting, it still worked just fine.   

I’m concentrating more on not leaving air inside the damper housing, I suppose.  

[Dakratfink 965]

On 10/28/2021 at 4:15 AM, ad456 said:

:- 3in1 old school oil is great on motor bushings and bearings too, less wear and bound to be a couple more rpm. 

I use old schools 3in1 on brushed motors all the time , and wheel bearings ( blow off excess with air gun ) 

recently I found 3in1 makes a formula for electric motors so I bought that when my last of regular formula ran out. So far so good. 

[SlideWRX 781]

If they are the 'basic' CVAs with the metal one piece shaft/damper, the coating can wear off and go into the oil.  My DT-03 is ~5 month old and I decided to change up the shocks with better o-rings and different oil viscosity.  I popped the fronts (minis) open and they were fine, and I saved that oil.  The rears (shorts) had a lot of particulate floating around in them.  I didn't save that oil.  You could see that it had worn off of the shaft.