[Closed] Petrol or diesel for chain cleaning?

You'd have to be an idiot to want to clean your chain in petrol.

Do you smoke?

nothing wrong with cleaning the chain in petrol.

I put it in a jar, give it the ol' Tom Cruise shuffle and then hangit off a nail in the rafter of the shed.
Give it a wipe down and let it dry then trickle lube of choice down the chain. let that linger and then give it a wipe and youve got a chain ready to go.

Are you an adult 🙄

Didn't realise people were so scared of flamable things. Hope they don't have gas cookers 😯
Nice thing about a soak in lethal fluids is that it must displace all the water from between the links.

Using petrol is pretty dangerous- the vapors will be extremely flammable.

Purpose bought degreaser is safer!

Seriously I hadn't thought of the safety issues. I've usually got a jerry can of the stuff lying around and use it to fuel strimmers, mowers etc as part of my work, have done for many years. I pour about 200ml into a container outside my back door and give the chain a swill in it. It's highly unlikely that it'll burst into flames, I mean for Christ sakes you merily squirt 50litres of the stuff into a hot car surrounded by people doing the same without worrying about it.

This thread has gone in an unanticipated direction.

Didn't realise people were so scared of flamable things. Hope they don't have gas cookers

Light the gas cooker with your face about 2' feet above the burner and see what happens. Then if your still confident that petrol is no worse light a jar of petrol with your face over it.

If you don't report back then we know you've tried it.

I have a jar at work that is a mixture of diesel and engine oil that my chain gets dropped into every week or so, it then get hung on a nail and drains back into the same jar. Two birds with one rather grubby stone. Think petrol is a better cleaner than diesel but this isn't from experience.

light a jar of petrol with your face over it.

Top tip: Dont light a jar of petrol with your face over it. In fact better still dont allow any sources of ignition near petrol fumes. It's a miracle we havent all already died. 🙄

jeez, let's all give up and hand our lives over to the State shall we.

I dont like cleaning with diesel as the residue can go quite sticky.

Full marks to Stoner for giving me a sensible reason why not to use diesel rather than getting hysterical.

Petrol is just a much lighter fraction than diesel and will do the same job. However being very light it evaporates fast and fills spaces like garages with flammable fumes. When I was a kid I knew a garage mechanic who sparked up a ciggy in the pit under a car with a petrol leak... he died with over 40% burns.

You may think you're safe messing around with petrol but it stinks and there's no accounting for accidents. Diesel takes much much longer to evaporate, many days in fact so why not just use paraffin or white spirit as a safe and cheap half-way alternative?

Diesel (cleans as it lubes as it lubes as it cleans).

Never use petrol: highly explosives fumes.

I've been in a petrol fire/explosion...needless to say I survived (extinguisher near to hand), but it might have ended very differently. I've never used petrol for chain cleaning since.

Heating oil (kerosene) is good too, and the cheapest of the lot.

Use white spirit, chain in an old water bottle [wide top] shake well save the fluid and the shit settles out and you can use it again and again and again........

Second the Kerosene option superb cleaner.

jiza, is the stuff to use. saying that Im 50 years old and have cleaned up plenty of engine part etc in my life with small amounts of petrol and its really never been an issue. 😯

It just seems silly to me to have such a volatile substance for cleaning a bike part, white spirit is much more stable and works fine but there's also plenty of degreasers out there without using petrol or diesel.

Food for thought. As I said never really concerned me. Obviously never used it inside as it would stink the house out but guess there may be a few fumes from the chain after I've brought it in.
May try heating oil as can get hold of that easily.
Used petrol in the first place as had a can handy and thought I'd try a bit. Really does get the chain shiney in seconds with absolutely no mess/hassle.

rather depends on what you have around. If you have stores of petrol for mowers/chainsaws/brushcutters/jennies then there's nothing wrong with using a dash in a jar for cleaning a chain. Why the need for arms in the air a'wailin' an a'gnashin' of teeth I dont know.

That makes sense Stoner, I've had it stored in my garage before but not in a jar of course but a proper petrol can.

I've seen the consequences of petrol and It'll be alright, it makes an effective job.

Heath and safety warning as it seems some people struggle with dealing with petrol.

Petrol fumes are flammable*, only use in a well ventilated area away from source of ignition**.

*Flammable means it burns.

**A source of ignition means something that is very hot with a plentiful supply of air. Something like a flame, or a arcing switch.

air is that stuff you breath.

If adhering to these guidelines is something you feel unable to achieve, please consult a suitable qualified professional.

If you're going to these lengths then paraffin is the stuff to use. When I was an apprentice paraffin was the cleaning and degreasing agent widely used in industry and I spent hours with my hands in paraffin cleaning parts and it is great stuff (make sure you use gloves), nothing better, other than MEK, but that is highly carcinogenic so best avoid. A bit of overkill either way for a bike chain though.

Nowt wrong wi a bit of petrol to clean the chain.... Too many patronising folk on this site.
I don't think he's going be cleaning it in the house next to the fire while smoking a cig...jeez, what do u stw massive do gooders do when it's bonfire night? I hope u don't handle fireworks as they can be highly dangerous especially in the wrong hands! Crying out loud, some of u are pathetic!

There are a couple of reasons not to use petrol

The additives in it are nasty campers in the know will not use it.

Its very flamable and even if you dont have a naked flame in the shed/garage a light switch or somebody walking past lighting up could ignite the vapor. A lit cigarette will not ignite it but a static spark from your clothes could.

Use parrafin instead or hot water and washing up liquid and a sonic bath.

Any 'danger' aside, what do you do with the dirty petrol? Down the drain is not very responsible. Never had a problem with the natural solvents that bio-degrade TBH.

I have a special container for dirty petrol/oils/diesel/thinners etc for starting bonfires. Never have more than a pint in there. Use it to drench a rag in the heart of the fire.

what do you do with the dirty petrol?

burn it.

So what about 100% IPA? Any good?

Only to drink on hot summers day.

Yeah I work with the stuff on a daily basis, goes down pretty well at the end of a shift...

I never found diesel to be a very good degreaser.

[stw answer]neither. wipe the chain clean, oil the inside of the links, then wipe off excess. if that's too hard for you go for a synthetic dry lube.[/stw answer]
😉

+1 for dales rider method

Ok I've just bought a petrol lawnmower and I'm storing plastic petrol can in my bike shed rather than green house as didn't want the plastic to perish in sunlight. Slight smell of petrol each time i go in the shed, is this a ticking time bomb and going to blow up when I hit the light switch before setting off on a night ride.

white spirits > jam jar > shoogie > wipe > lube.

but petrol is just as good.

I doubt it, I store petrol in a plastic container in the garage too. The petrol vapor/air mix has to be just so to be explosive.

You can easily reach that mix swilling a chain around in it though!

Just thinking about how some people may have used hairspray at some point. Now that is seriously flamable and I bet it gets used whilst holding a red hot hair dryer.

What if I'd suggested filling a plastic tank with 50 litres of petrol and sitting on it whilst travelling at 70mph with a hot engine at my feet and the potential for rather a lot of sparks if I happened to move my hands more than a few degrees.

Or a tap that if turned on would dispense explosive fumes into my house that could be tamed only if lit by a spark within a few seconds. (a gas hob btw).

Just musing how we become so accustomed to the things we are told are safe.

Has anyone seen if the GT85 we so liberally waft over our workshops is flammable? I use spray alchohol to clean stanchions; may do that outside in future thinking about it. 😀

Worst explosion I've ever created was when I poached some pears in a whole bottle of wine. Took the lid off to give it a sniff and burnt the hairs right out the inside of my nose during the resulting blue explosion of flame.
Wife still takes the piss to this day.

If you can't use petrol safely for a variety of unintended purposes. I hear that you can trade in your right to hold your head up as a man and get your virginity back.

The additives aren't a concern if you're using it as a chain cleaner, but yes they may be dodgy if you use it as a cooking fuel or aperitif.

I find diesel is better for soaking those really rusty things you need to unseize, and it's safer if you do have to store a little in a random household container.

I don't understand the obsession with degreasing bike stuff. You don't need degreaser for mud; it's water soluble. The only grease you get on a bike chain is grease you apply, i.e. lube, and if you use a decent lube it doesn't go greasy.

Anyhoo, my chain cleaning regime

[b]Regularly[/b]

Wipe/brush main cack off

Clean/lube with Rock'n'Roll

[b]Every so often[/b]

Brush/wipe main cack off

Water + sonic bath to get the grit out of the links

Wipe

Gt85 to get the water out of the links

Wipe

Let dry

Put on bike

Lube with Rock'n'Roll

No chance of setting my eyebrows on fire there.

I normally don't clean my chain but on the rare occasion when I do I use either hot water & washing up liquid, or white spirit in a jam jar. As Dales as already said you can normally decant off the clean white spirit after the gunk has settled and reuse again.

Anything which makes the chain to work.

I cant see how putting a chain into a container of petrol is anymore dangerous that using white spirit. Providing there's a lid and the area is well ventilated. If you're doing this whilst smoking then maybe darwin will kick in and chlorinate your end of the gene pool to save the rest of us.

I use diesel when I want to give it a really thorough clean (rest of the time I just use a degreaser).

Why use petrol when diesel does the same job and has 5000% less chance of resulting in a trip to casualty?

Seems some people need to watch this:

Petrol/gasoline is covered from 2:10 - don't be using it to wash your best bloomers! 😉

what about meths? would this work too?

only asking as I'm thinking of getting some to wipe brake rotors clean.
Ta

Heating oil (kerosene) is good too

+ 1

what about meths? would this work too?

only asking as I'm thinking of getting some to wipe brake rotors clean.

Would disk brake cleaner not be a better choice?

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@graham,
dunno, not what hope advised me to use for rotors.

Would [s]disk brake cleaner[/s][b]mud[/b] not be a better choice?

Seriously, who cleans disc rotors? Why?

Didn't realise people were so scared of flamable things. Hope they don't have gas cookers

The difference is 100g of petrol (i.e a jam jar) looks inocuous. 100g of gas would fill a wardrobe (then dilute into a small room to make it flamable).

100g of petrol would move your car (a few tons of metal) a few miles (i.e. that's a lot of energy), and it evaporates quickly forming an explosive mix. As for ignition sources, how about that nice synthetic cycling jersey your wearing?

Diesel is far less volatile, you'd have to hold a match to it to even get a pool fire.

Petrol is also mostly benzene and toluene, so it's VERY carcionogenic.

It's also (partialy) water soluable, so if you spill it it washes into the ground poluting the environment (one of the reasons boats use diesel is the oily film is far less toxic than petrol invisibly leaking, and it's visible).

@IHN,
its probably a good idea from time to time, you know, if there's any contamination, oil grease etc off roads and that, can perhaps reduce braking performance.

anyway, its not my idea, its advice direct from hope service dept.

back on topic, what about meths for chains- anyone? thanks 😛

[i]its probably a good idea from time to time, you know, if there's any contamination, oil grease etc off roads and that, can perhaps reduce braking performance.[/i]

One muddy ride = clean rotors

[i]anyway, its not my idea, its advice direct from hope service dept.[/i]

Pah, what do they know 🙂

[i]back on topic, what about meths for chains- anyone? thanks [/i]

If you must (but, again, a better solution is not to put greasey lube on in the first place)

Seriously, who cleans disc rotors?

Clearly not this guy:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bb7s-shimano-rotors-squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaal

😀

😆

The other thing with using petrol is it's volatile, which isn't good from a safety point of view but the volatile emmissions (VOCs) are bad for the atmosphere as well. I'm really not sure why you would want to go to hassle of using petrol when there are safe, less polluting and perfectly good alterantives?

This thread has gone in an unanticipated direction.

This surprised you? are you new here or something...

Just thinking about how some people may have used hairspray at some point. Now that is seriously flamable and I bet it gets used whilst holding a red hot hair dryer.

Clearly not this guy:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/bb7s-shimano-rotors-squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaal

Well exactly, what he needs to do is take them for a godd muddy ride to get them all bedded in properly. 🙂

Petrol is also mostly benzene and toluene, so it's VERY carcionogenic.

Petrol is mostly short chain hydrocarbons up to about C10, but mainly Octane (C8H18) and Heptane (C7H16). Benzene is limited by law in Europe to be less than 1% of petrol by volume.

But yes its nasty stuff.

Toluene is much safer - but it still wouldn't spread it on my toast.

If I had petrol lying around it wouldn't bother me using it to clean a chain but other solvents are available that are cheaper and safer

My mistake, I was thinking gasoline as we use it on site (which is about 40:40:20 benzene, toluene, other), still, 1% is still more than as you put it I'd "spread it on my toast."

I went to the garage to fill a small jar with diesel the other day, for chain cleaning duties.
I was stressed, in a rush etc etc, and accidentally put petrol in it - Oh how I was embarrassed.

Needless to say I knew not to start washing the chain, but instead I rang 'the man' who came by, syphoned out the petrol, cleaned the jar, and put 'special diesel' in it.
A mate of mine said I could have just topped up the jar with diesel, but I thought this only worked for older chains??

Anyway - I haven't told the wife yet as she'll no doubt give me hell.....

DrP

which is about 40:40:20 benzene, toluene, other)

Thats a seriously high octane mixture (Honda ran its turbo era formula 1 cars on something like 80% toluene 20% other and they could make about 800bhp per litre 8O)

What are you running on that?

Petrol... if you can smell it then your clothes are already impregnated with the fuel air mix. Lethal stuff, just turning a light on or off can ignite it - avoid it like the plague...

Diesel.... Leaves sticky residue when dry as already mentioned as Diesel contains a lubricationg agent naturally. So is brilliant for cleaning combustion engine internals, gearboxes, differentials etc. where the lube residue will be diluted by other oils. Flushing oils used to purge manky engines that have gone too long between servicing tend to use a diesel derivative/engine oil mix.

Kerosene/pariffin... think diesel but without the lube agent (ergo why it's not good to run your diesel car/van on heating oil as the injection pump [b]will[/b] sieze(eventually)) good for cleaning.

Water .... brilliantly effective de-greaser when applied at high temp (80degrees plus)... even better when that is combined with high pressure (aka steam cleaner)! Particularly effective when used in conjunction with a detergent like fairy liquid kit needed... [b]plastic tub capable of holding boiling water, kettle, brush[/b].

Won't explode (unless you are really, really, really clever) is eco friendly-ish - as long as you only put on the reccomended amount of oil onto the chain in the first place then there shouldn't be that much coming off down the drain should there? 😛

Only disadvantage is you need to dry the chain [s]thourorly[/s] [s]thurerley[/s] [s]thourgh[/s]... completely, I normally chuck mine in the oven after it's been used.

[i]Water .... brilliantly effective de-greaser when applied at high temp (80degrees plus)... even better when that is combined with high pressure (aka steam cleaner)! Particularly effective when used in conjunction with a detergent like fairy liquid kit needed... plastic tub capable of holding boiling water, kettle, brush. [/i]

So if I pour boiling water in my sonic bath thingy when I'm cleaning my chain it'll be even bettererer?

So if I pour boiling water in my sonic bath thingy when I'm cleaning my chain it'll be even bettererer?

Bettererererer...ererer..er.. than the bestest best best thing ever... er

hmm warm water and sonic bath = no elbow grease = cheating... bah humbug! 😕

Not all of us can afford Sonic Baths..... I remember when we were living in a shobox in the middle of the M62 me dad had to suck on a polo mint to get the bath water warm...

...ha we couldn't even afford the "e" on the shobox!

richmtb - Member

which is about 40:40:20 benzene, toluene, other)

Thats a seriously high octane mixture (Honda ran its turbo era formula 1 cars on something like 80% toluene 20% other and they could make about 800bhp per litre 8O)

What are you running on that?

second that - what the hell you doing with that, are you on a refinery and actually refering to reformate? - i see no logical use for Benzene at that volume unless it's being further processed, as Rich said, Benzene is limited globally now.

[i]Not all of us can afford Sonic Baths..... [/i]

It was a tenner from Aldi 🙂

[i]I remember when we were living in a shobox in the middle of the M62 me dad had to suck on a polo mint to get the bath water warm... [/i]

A shoebox? A shoebox! Eeeh, luxury, we lived in inflated pigs bladder and we longed for Sundays when father would beat us as that was the only way we kept warm.

my cleaning tips for 0 effort and time:

run cheap 9speed
dont waste hours over the years cleaning chain or buying cleaners or steamers or setting yourself on fire by accident...
wait for 60% CRC sale.
buy 9speed chain for 9.99 and sram cassette for 20quid
replace chain and cassette together
repeat process in 1 year.

I know it pointless...but if it saves just one...

You only have to look at petrol vapour explosions/fires on open petrol station forecourts to see that being well ventilated and avoiding sources of ignition IS NOT as easy and/or obvious as it sounds.

And I like guns (so do my kids), don't wear a cycle helmet (neither do my kids), and once dated a girl from Croydon...hey, I look danger in the face and laugh.

A lot of people on here have serious issues. WTF is wrong with using petrol to clean something? Just don't be a fud.

Sadly it is remarkably easy to be a fud even if you think you are being careful.

Petrol vapours spread far and are easily ignitable (i.e. as someone mentioned even static from your clothes could potentially be enough).

Yes clean my chains with petrol it works a treat..

Just don't be a prat with it , mind your eyes , no smoking, well ventilated area etc and store in a suitable container..

Common sense rules.

Buncfield - the result of a tank that leaked over causing a small flood of gasoline. Said gasoline created extreme vapour residue over the entire site, and coupled with a slightly odd atmospheric pressure reading that night resulted in a 2 meter high vapour cloud (from deck) that covered the entire site - -it went BOOM when the alarms were triggered (they were the spark source). It was all reported to the authorities before it happened by one of the neighbours.... Remember kids gasoline vapour is dangerous, diesel becomes similar at around 55-64 celcius as well.