Penetrating Oil Test, the results will astound you...

[Big_Willy_USA]

Have a look!

[Dan J]

Thanks for posting that Willy. Very interesting and not the best of adverts for WD40...

[Diesel Dave]

Yahbut, WD40 certainly gets the diesel motor running in the depths of winter.

[Dougy]

Yahbut, WD40 certainly gets the diesel motor running in the depths of winter.

Does it ? I'll have to remember that one !

[coachgeo]

WD-40 is NOT a penetrating solution. Problem is most just think it is. WD40 stands for "water displacement- Sample number 40" that was its name when a trial was run on "water displasment" properties. It had the highest score of all the samples thus was accepted for use by.... us military? This is not an exact historical discription but it was something like that..

Sure it has cross over properties into other areas but to test it against products "specific" to areas it is known only to slightly cross into... is not a real fair fight.

[Diesel Dave]

I remember back in the day when it was called Rocket WD40 and smelled a whole lot more interesting.

Made my Scaletrix cars run really fast.

[Stuart]

I use Plus Gas or a cheaper alternative Rapide DP-60. Local UK motor store sells a green gel like substance that positively eats rust alive and is good to use before applying any kind of freeing agent.
http://reviews.halfords.com/4028/728568/reviews.htm

Car Mechanics I know have stopped using WD-40 saying that although it displaces water, it is water based and not good for say electrical contacts long term. I've tried decanting some into other bottles but it disappears through the walls of them ! I have noted that the plastic spray bottles it comes in are overly thick, probably to stop this.
I use regular oil on cheap metal or old contacts to aid conductivity.

[espe]

I would have loved to see the results of plain diesel in this test. For this is the substance I always use to free stuck items. ATF with acetone strikes me as a pretty unhealthy mixture.

[Sphere]

I have an unused can of IMAL... oh well. Maybe I can test it some time in the future.