It might work but not very well as it's intended for cleaning the exterior of the car and not the greasy bits underneath.
It won’t work, it’ll just dilute the product to uselessness (is that a word?) for tough stuff!
Save the spray bottles that your household cleaners come in, clean them thoroughly and use them. I have lots with various lotions and potions in them including my favourite degreaser/cleaner in various states of dilution from 10% to neat. I use Viro-Sol - it’s a citrus cleaner that is water soluble and doesn’t harm rubber or paintwork. It also smells lovely.
For the tough stuff (like engines, gearboxes and axles) I use it neat. Spray it on, leave it a few minutes, agitate with a brush and then blast the crud away with the power washer. It’s also brilliant for removing brake dust and grime from wheels - I use it diluted 50/50 with water for this.
I looked up the data sheet for No-Nonsense Degreaser and it suggests not using it for rubber, plastics or wiring as it will damage these items. It seems to do a good job but you have to be very specific and particular where you spray it. And it says never on aluminium, but the diesel has a plastic inlet manifold and an aluminium rocker cover.
I will look into buying Viro-Sol, but it isn't something that I have ever heard of before. Otherwise, I have little choice, I will have to paint on Gunk Degreaser.
Pierre3.
The No Nonsense Degreaser actually smells the same as the bubble liquid in kids bubble blowing kits. I put it in the bottle on the pressure washer and use it on the underside of cars with a oil leak before taking them for MoT. Considering the block on the V8 is alloy and the engine mounts and various hoses are rubber, it hasn't done any damage to them, It also got bicycle chain grease stains out of the hem of a white dress belonging to my step daughter.....
Pierre3.
Garvin wrote:
It won’t work, it’ll just dilute the product to uselessness (is that a word?) for tough stuff!
What? You mean Homeopathic degreaser is a myth?? How can you have such a closed mind! :D
I think that I will have to put the car up on a couple of ramps, as well as being on full lift on the suspension, and just get under it with the brush.
The only thing that I am concerned about is whether any of these cleaners, whether Gunk, Virosol, or any other degreaser, will mark the tarmac on my drive. I never gave it any thought last year when I got the drive tarmaced, but it was a lot less that getting granite setts, or limestone slabs put down. Anyway, limestone needs to be cleaned every year where we live, because it goes green very quickly. The granite setts not so much so. Tarmac was only half the cost of the limestone or granite setts.
Pierre3.
It should be OK. I used the Screwfix stuff on my daughter's tarmac driveway after we'd changed the clutch on her Toyota without following the instructions in the manual to drain the gearbox oil so it all fell out of the hole the driveshaft should have been in. Didn't damage that but cleaned the pool of gear oil up well enough.
ATF does dissolve tarmac as I've seen the results of that being allowed to leak onto a tarmac drive. Screwfix do sell plastic sheets, you could drive the car over one of them and use that to cover the tarmac if you wanted to try and avoid too much marking of it. I can't see the degreaser doing much, but what you are removing with the degreaser just might.
I don’t think you should use 100% concentrate. If you’ve flushed the system with water, you could then add the 100% coolant to the pure water left in the system. Then you’ll end up somewhere in the 50% range.
Viro-Sol will not harm the tarmac. Any oil/grease coming off the engine/gearbox/axle will be mixed with the degreaser of choice and as long as the tarmac is washed down afterwards will not do any harm.
Harv wrote:
I don’t think you should use 100% concentrate. If you’ve flushed the system with water, you could then add the 100% coolant to the pure water left in the system. Then you’ll end up somewhere in the 50% range.
No need for guesswork. After flushing the system through with normal tap water disconnect the top hose and, using Mk1 lung power just blow the remnants of flushed water out of the system. Then disconnect one of the heater hoses and do the same. System will be pretty much completely empty. Reconnect all hoses and refill with 50/50 coolant/deionised water mix. Job jobbed.
You can replace Mk1 lung power (if you don’t have much puff or are too short to get at the heater hoses) with compressed air if you like via a compressor (if you have one) or a foot pump if you don’t (or even a bicycle pump).
Hi guys, thanks for all the advice. I have re-filled the cooling system with Exol Opticool anti-freeze, using 30% anti-freeze/70% water. I have been out for a couple of runs in the traffic and the temperature is nice and steady, and is maintaining the level in the reservoir. So, happy days.
Again, thanks for the advice on degreaser on tarmac. The thing is, I have a large can of Gunk, 5 litres I think, and rather than paying out more for degreasers like Virosol I will use the Gunk first. If that doesn't do the job then I will probably follow Richards suggestion and get the Screwfix degreaser as there is a branch fairly local to me.
Pierre3.
Pierre3 wrote:
I looked up the data sheet for No-Nonsense Degreaser and it suggests not using it for rubber, plastics or wiring as it will damage these items. It seems to do a good job but you have to be very specific and particular where you spray it. And it says never on aluminium, but the diesel has a plastic inlet manifold and an aluminium rocker cover.
I will look into buying Viro-Sol, but it isn't something that I have ever heard of before. Otherwise, I have little choice, I will have to paint on Gunk Degreaser.
Pierre3.
I honestly think they all say that as there is such a huge range of rubber and plastics available and they can't test against them all. I'd test on a small, sacrificial, area and see if it has any bad effects. Go from there.
I'd have thought as long as your applying it then washing it off with the hose you should be fine in any case. I've used it and would't have expected it to cause any issues really. I've used gunk once and really don't like it.