Hey everyone!
recently moved to a very arid desert area and have noticed that the insulation and rubber seals on wiring harnesses and window seals getting very brittle and cracking on cars and bikes only 2 or 3 years old! Insulation just cracks and falls off, never seen anything like it on such new equipment! any suggestions on what I can do to slow or stop the effect would be great! I think armour all treatment would work, but not sure if its safe to apply to wiring or if there is something better. Ride safe!
B

Yeah, move back from whence you came....sorry Bruce, I could not resist it.

I can understand it happening but alas I can't help. What do the manufacturers of the late vehicles say? I would ask them.
Take care,
Ajays

WURTH; Made a rubber conditioner I have used it in the past to keep seals, and trim supple worked a treat.

BIG D

cool! willl try it out! couldn't believe the rot in it after only a couple of years, the 86 K had wiring in better condition than that! as for going home, can't afford it, gotta make some dough until the sugar mama shows!!

The product which is most popular for this on the Mercedes list I inhabit is called 303 Aerospace Protectant and it works well to protect rubber and plastic from breakdown.
Regards,
K-BIKE

Use the 303 stuff and you won't go back to the dreadful Amor All.

Have a look at the 303 website.

Armor All is banned in my house!

Some time ago Armorall got a reputation for chemically hardening plastics, which led to them breaking apart when flexed or when they were exposed to variations in heat and cold, such as occurred with dashboards (About 10 years ago, my neighbor's dashboard split in 1/2 on its 2 years old car) My wife's previous car had been treated with Armor all, and every piece of vinyl had turned grayish. You could scrapped the dry vinyl with your finger nail.

Apparently, Armor all have changed the formula, and there are good reports about it now but ..... I do not trust this product anymore. The older one, should definitely not be used.

I was given a vinyl covered chair which was at least 20 years old very high quality. I took it home and gave it a clean and a treatment with Armorall and over the next six months the vinyl shrunk so it looked like the cover was being cinched down from underneath and eventually split right across from the strain of the cover now being too small to cover the chair all because of that treatment!
Regards,
K-BIKE