Car oil as chain oil?

[TDIfurby]

Perhaps another silly Q. Its about time the chain on my Dad's Marin IFT (original 1995 retro ) was lubed up (ooerr) and I don't have anything chain specific.

My car runs on TDI specific 5w40 oil. Could i use a dribble of this on the chain? Nothing else in the shed similar sadly....

 

[cce]

motor oil on chains turns thick and black and gooey quickly, it is the ultimate for chainring tattoos if you want one of those.

 

[nathanman]

It would work as a lubricant but you'd have issues with stuff sticking to it imho. Its definately worth investing in a decent chain lube, i use one in a black bottle with a green lid that i think is called finish line.

 

[zaskar96]

It would be fine as a temporary measure until you get some proper stuff.

 

[1duck]

yeah it would be ok, but bike oil is so cheap id just ride it to the nearest lube selling location and save yourself the cleaning job of trying to get that gunky stuff off later.

Whatever you do don't use wd 40...i walked past a child yesterday happily spraying his upturned mountainbike's chain with wd40 it made me chuckle. The whole image was perfect from the poundland sized can of wd 40 to the full suspension mountain bike that probably weighed more than the child.

 

[sancho]

cut it with mineral spirits (either 2:1 or 3:1). That's actually my chain lube of preference.

 

[dyna-ti]

motor oil on chains turns thick and black and gooey quickly, it is the ultimate for chainring tattoos if you want one of those.

I think heat and 8000 rpm might have more to do with that :?




Unless you can turn your cranks at 8000rpm :shock: :shock:

 

[legrandefromage]

diesel oil is pretty light so just a small blob on each link will be fine, but, as others have said, theres lots of exciting stuff out there.

back when I was an extremely poor student, I used vegetable oil...

not a good idea!

 

[Neil]

Perhaps another silly Q. Its about time the chain on my Dad's Marin IFT (original 1995 retro ) was lubed up (ooerr) and I don't have anything chain specific.

My car runs on TDI specific 5w40 oil. Could i use a dribble of this on the chain? Nothing else in the shed similar sadly....

Not a great idea, generally, as it tends to become on big gloopy mess.

I've often thought about using ATF, though - a drop per link.

 

[The Ken]

Lgf made the classic mistake, he chose the vegetarian option and had poor results, what you need is a pound of lard smeared into your cassette, does the job brilliantly but sometimes attracts a few flies. (I'm joking)

Finish Line is good, or if you can still get it Phil's Tenacious Oil.