CAN OF ACTION
This is going to sound like a shameless piece of product placement, but I can assure you that I have no vested interest in the substance in question – other than what it has enabled me to achieve since I started using it.
A few weeks ago, I was at Porsche-torque in Uxbridge, Middlesex, photographing a far-reaching clutch replacement in a 997 Turbo. Proprietor Sid Malik uses Würth consumables, among them the company’s Rostlöser auf Graphit-basis – or graphite-based penetrating oil to we English speakers. Seeing how effectively it seemed to work, I mentioned that I ought to get some for myself, whereupon Sid generously gave me a brandnew can from his own stores.
I have used many such fluids over the years, with varying degrees of success, but seriously, this stuff is truly remarkable. So far, I have not had cause to try it on any particularly stubborn Porsche fixings, but I am in the middle of recommissioning my longdormant 1972 P6 Rover 3500, and for that it has been a genuine godsend.
Rover, in its wisdom, saw fit to use throughout the bodywork mostly finely threaded UNF nuts and bolts, with the latter often far longer than they needed to be. Undoing them in the face of the inevitable corrosion takes herculean strength, massively long extension bars (or both), and frequently culminates in either rounding off the flats or a breakage, or simply having to grind off or cut the damned things.
I have no idea what’s in the Würth stuff (apart from the aforementioned graphite, of course), but it seems genuinely and quickly to work its way into even the concealed threads, and then almost to dissolve all but the worst of the exposed rust. You might still need some hefty tools, and it will always help to wire-brush any exposed threads, but I would go as far as to suggest that you are stacking the odds perhaps 80/20 in your favour.
No less usefully, a quick squirt on nuts and bolts to be reassembled – whether new, or even the originals, cleaned with a wire brush – enables them to spin together with reassuringly little effort, without leaving an overly oily residue. For that reason I have started using a very small amount of the spray on wheel nuts and studs, where conventional anti-seize agents invariably end up being more trouble than they are worth (no pun intended).
Annoyingly, and frankly inexplicably, there appears to be no retail sales network for this or any of the many other Würth products – although a significant number are listed on Amazon. The company’s own website is apparently ‘trade only’. Where that leaves you – or me – is hard to say. You could try registering as a professional mechanic and seeing where that gets you, or perhaps find your own local Porsche specialist who uses the stuff, and would be prepared to sell you the odd can.
It seems ludicrous that you have to go to such lengths, though, so if anyone – and not least Würth itself – has any smart ideas I’m sure we would all be delighted to hear them. Either way, as a DIY enthusiast rather than a busy professional you will most likely not be using that much of the product over the course of a year – or even a lifetime – and if it saves you the hassle of even just a couple of broken screws then it will surely pay for itself immediately.