Daihatsu Skywing - 3 M Contact Cleaner Possibly Destroyed Switch

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Tue 20 Nov 2018 11:57
Daihatsu Skywing - 3 M Contact Cleaner Possibly Destroyed Switch - edlithgow

I think I posted in another thread that my car's been limping along with squirts of contact cleaner.into the steering column switch.at intervals

I'd been in the UK and Europe over the summer so the car had been standing in torrential Taiwan rain for a few months and the headlights had stopped working.

.Couldn't find my (CRC?) contact cleaner so used some 3M stuff, which restored function.

However, the switch apparently disintegrated during yesterday's 6-monthly inspection, It was OK the day before, and possibly was roughly handled by the tester, but its ancient plastic that has been subject to high ambient temperatures for over 30 years, so I can't get too indignant about it..

I suspect the 3M contact cleaner just finished it off, but i'd suggest using it cautiously in this sort of context.

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Tue 20 Nov 2018 15:07
Daihatsu Skywing - 3 M Contact Cleaner Possibly Destroyed Switch - Railroad.

Many solvent based aerosol cleaners are not suitable for use on plastics, which can melt when the product is sprayed on them.

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Tue 20 Nov 2018 16:12
Daihatsu Skywing - 3 M Contact Cleaner Possibly Destroyed Switch - Brit_in_Germany

Environmental stress cracking is a known failure mechanism for plastics exposed to solvents.

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Thu 22 Nov 2018 00:44
Daihatsu Skywing - 3 M Contact Cleaner Possibly Destroyed Switch - edlithgow

Stuff I used before claimed to be, and apparently was, compatible with plastics, and I assumed this was too. Big mistake.

There was a hard-to-remove sticky Chinese label over the English instructions, which for 3M products are usually a message from our corporate lawyers denying everything, especially the C-word.

When I belatedly checked the Internyet it says "Compatible with MOST surfaces" (my emphasis). Most surfaces are ocean, so that's probably correct..

Doubt its repairable, unlikely to be in a scrappy and it'll likely be very expensive or unobtainable as a new part. Could be journeys end.

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Thu 22 Nov 2018 09:32
Daihatsu Skywing - 3 M Contact Cleaner Possibly Destroyed Switch - Andrew-T

Many solvent based aerosol cleaners are not suitable for use on plastics, which can melt when the product is sprayed on them.

Melt - no. Soften - possibly or probably. Dissolve - maybe. Whatever the cause, any metal parts held in place by the plastic may well be dislodged.

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Thu 29 Nov 2018 09:35
Daihatsu Skywing - 3 M Contact Cleaner Possibly Destroyed Switch - edlithgow

GF nagged me into very reluctantly handing it over to a Taiwan mechanic, since I'm short of time ATM, writing her Masters thesis among other things.

They scored a second hand switch, GF scored another one independently through guanxchi, , and I kept the old one, so now I have three.

That , and not using mystery solvents, should ensure nothing goes wrong in that dept ever again, though of course an unrelated fatal _____ up is now more than ever the way to bet.

Bill had some mystery items on it that were to much trouble to query in Chinese, but still not horribly expensive, (about 65 quid excluding re-inspection fee) and its through inspection for another six months, so a result.

Still don't like doing it though.

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