A plastic screw-gear broke in my odometer. I ordered another one and I have it here. People online that replaced this same gear said it came lubricated, mine did not. The only lubricant I have is WD40. Should I use it? Or should I put it back in my dash dry? It is a white plastic.

1/21/2016 10:00:46 PM

I don't think wd40 is what you need. I've never done anything to an odometer but those small plastic gears are usually covered in a much thicker grease, that's meant to stick around for a while.


Hmm and then apparently there are self lubricating plastic gears:

http://www.odometergears.com/faq.php

No grease needed. Maybe that's what you have? They claim the grease causes some original gears to deteriorate and fail.


[Edited on January 23, 2016 at 10:36 AM. Reason : Self lube, giggity]

1/23/2016 10:33:39 AM

WD40 is not a lubricant

1/24/2016 4:35:27 PM

It may not be a very good lubricant, but you can't classify it as "not a lubricant". Water is a lubricant in many applications. WD-40 contains some kind of petroleum-based oil. One would not be wrong to refer to it as a lubricant. A lubicant is anything that reduces friction between two surfaces.

1/24/2016 8:36:46 PM

^^ holy dumb batman

1/24/2016 11:33:08 PM

#sosalty

1/25/2016 10:31:37 AM