# Brown rubbers



## Crackfox (Mar 17, 2019)

So I the last week painting my cam cover and various rusty brackets/bolts on the engine bay. Then today I gave it a good bit of a clean up. A couple of attacks with surfex and steam a section at a time. Then a final surfex and auto foam, followed by a pressure wash.

I thought the brown tinge to some of the rubbers was dirt at first, but seemingly not. I've tried gummi pfledge and perl as coating but no joy. Any recommendations?

Bottom left, is the worst one viable in the picture.
















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## Nick-ST (Mar 4, 2013)

Are you on about the small hoses? I think the bay looks fantastic personally!


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## Crackfox (Mar 17, 2019)

Nick-ST said:


> Are you on about the small hoses? I think the bay looks fantastic personally!


Yeah the power steering pump ones. Be happier with it if I could tidy up the exposed metal parts, slot of aluminium corrosion, but she is nearly 14. Cleaned a lot up with dremel and a wire brush bit.

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## Nick-ST (Mar 4, 2013)

I would be happy if a brand new car had a bay like that let alone one that is 14 years old!


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## WristyManchego (Sep 9, 2018)

Some variants of those hoses have a natural brown tinge to the compound or develop it rather quickly.

Newer high quality hoses should have a more blue-black base than red-black which appear brown.

There’s nothing to clean as you mentioned so the next step is to fix it with a high quality replacement.


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## James_R (Jun 28, 2007)

Try Adams Tyre & Rubber cleaner.

I've used this on the motorbike and it brought the rubber hoses up just like new.
Then I finished them with Auto Finesse Revive.


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## Fentum (May 1, 2017)

WristyManchego said:


> Some variants of those hoses have a natural brown tinge to the compound or develop it rather quickly.
> 
> Newer high quality hoses should have a more blue-black base than red-black which appear brown.
> 
> There's nothing to clean as you mentioned so the next step is to fix it with a high quality replacement.


^ This, I'm afraid. IME it happens to (especially) Alfa hoses a lot once they get to a certain age, so it also makes some sense to replace them before they risk failing.

Peter


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## vsideboy (Sep 1, 2006)

silicone replacements?

Rubber does have a natural working life, certain types are only viable for 1 year before they cannot be used in industry and need disposing of, obviously other types last longer. When they are coming to the end of their working lives they are going to deteriorate (don't we all!) so best you can do is to try some rubber and trim product as mentioned earlier but I don't think you'll get a permanent solution mate other than replacing.


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## Crackfox (Mar 17, 2019)

Thanks for the comments. I'll have a look at some silicone parts if I can. Assuming I'd just need the internal and external diameters and lengths to get something to fit. I doubt there are ones already specifically made for the car, the most I've seen in the past is coolant ones.

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## vsideboy (Sep 1, 2006)

olden days there would've been loads of stuff for the Honda mate. but yeah might be able to get something to fit (or can you get a silicone cover for the existing hoses?)

edit: just noticed the little hats you've got for the bottles, haha tidy's them up nicely those, great idea!


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## Crackfox (Mar 17, 2019)

vsideboy said:


> olden days there would've been loads of stuff for the Honda mate. but yeah might be able to get something to fit (or can you get a silicone cover for the existing hoses?)
> 
> edit: just noticed the little hats you've got for the bottles, haha tidy's them up nicely those, great idea!


Mist issues seem around it being an import only car. It was never mass produced so not as much of a market for updated parts. Some stuff can be found in the states for the RSX, but I've already been caught out by import tax once.

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