Internal door lubrication

Arde

Arde

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Looking for the latest thinking on how to clean and lubricate all door lock and handle parts once the door cards are off and one has access to everything. I am excluding window lubrication, that topic is well covered in other posts.

The mechanisms of interest are:

A) Door latch
B) Door handle
C) Lock cylinder
D) External door lock (key side)
E) Tumbler assembly
F) Actuator mechanism/rods

and the materials mentioned often are:

1) Brake cleaner
2) PB Blaster
3) Grease
4) White silicone grease
5) Compressed air
6) Graphite spray
7) Graphite powder

Your job is to associate letters with numbers, and a letter can have more than one number in the order applied.
Once the ballots are in I will be the guinea pig for the winning combo. Ride in candidates are welcome.

PS: My plan so far is

A24, B4, C6, D14, E4, F3
 
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Ahhh, what of the new "dry" lubricants which are all the rage for bicycles. That's what I used on many of the parts you describe. Sorry for not following your instructions, had flashbacks to the SAT's so just could not go there.
 
bavbob said:
Ahhh, what of the new "dry" lubricants which are all the rage for bicycles. That's what I used on many of the parts you describe. Sorry for not following your instructions, had flashbacks to the SAT's so just could not go there.
Click to expand...
Definitely the dry lube for the internal lock cylinder so it doesn't attract dirt and grit
 
My e9 is already a big puzzle, so forgive for not following yours.

Being in automotive, and designing interior plastic parts for ~25 years, I have my personal favorite.
I use MolyKote G4500 for nearly everything.
It's non hardening, smooth running, works on plastic and metal in all combinations. Buy a 1 liter pot, and be done for the rest of your life.
www.dupont.com

MOLYKOTE® G-4500 FM Multi-Purpose Synthetic Grease

Aluminum-complex-thickened, uses white solids and PTFE as solid lubricants. Also, H1-certified through NSF for incidental food contact.
www.dupont.com www.dupont.com

The only exception is locks, where dirt can easily accumulate due to space restrictions. There I use graphite powder (ground lead pencil). Works amazing.
 
Thanks! Changed 6 and 7 to graphite, and will look at Molykote as the new olive oil...
1 and 2 are for the cleaning phase, not lubricants.
 
in case you do not find the molykote
this has worked for me for more than 10 years

1679318621705.png


general mechanisms, window rails, and so on
 
Brake fluid? You've got to be kidding! That stuff removes paint better than, well, paint remover. Applying it to the key side of a door lock risks having it run down the door's exterior surface, which would produce disastrous results.
 
jmackro said:
Brake fluid? You've got to be kidding! That stuff removes paint better than, well, paint remover. Applying it to the key side of a door lock risks having it run down the door's exterior surface, which would produce disastrous results.
Click to expand...
Aha!
You saved me, I meant brake cleaner, and it came from this car system engineer:
watch around 3:30 into the video
 
Arde said:
Aha!
You saved me, I meant brake cleaner, and it came from this car system engineer:
Click to expand...

OK, brake cleaner does make more sense, especially since the video is titled "Clean & Lube"; the brake cleaner would certainly do the "clean" part. Still, chlorinated solvents can make paint dull, be careful with that stuff around exterior surfaces.
 
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A through F with 6.

Clean everything. I use either Ulrasolve or Simple Green, if you have access to more powerful grease cleaners, great.

I use plain rags, medium foam swabs & fine tipped “makeup” swabs for cleaning out the dirt & grit.

Highly recommend replacing all the lock mechanism grommets to ‘tighten’ everything up.

Also, clean all the debris out of the bottom of the door. It’s amazing how much dirt, sand & small rocks get in there.
 
WD40® has many specialty lubricants from Garage Door to Graphite, neither attract dirt available at any the 2 big retailers & hardware stores.

Regarding door grommets, the ones from BMW are nylon or similar hard plastic & inexpensive.
 
When I first brought my coupe home the passenger side lock would not work at all. For both doors I pulled out the latch and lock assemblies to clean them, then used a good long lasting, but light grease on the latch assembly and graphite in the locks. All work much better.

If you have access to a ultrasonic cleaner you should consider using on both assemblies to clean. If not, then brake clean (be careful, the chlorinated stuff is the best, but is not a friendly chemical).
 
deQuincey said:
right, is like when you are a HP15c calculator lover and you come with an expert in Casio machines, no way bro…
Click to expand...
Apologies for the digression, that is great analogy. RPN notation in HP calculators becomes the way you think, you cannot convert to Casio.


I once wrote a program that plays Dominoes for the HP41C and had it play against 250 people. It got better outcomes than me playing... way before chatGPT.
 
It was great having an RPN calculator in school. People would ask to borrow it and I'd say, "Sure, but there's no equals key" and they would look elsewhere.

I can't believe how much oil and grease that Rover engineer sprayed into the lock. White grease doesn't stain?
I always thought a light touch was better, but I suppose if you aren't going to remove the lock to properly clean it, flushing it is the next best thing. Messy though.
 
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