WD40 - how to clean up the mess?

[Franc Zabkar]

How does one clean up the oily residue left behind when a TV chassis
has been flooded with WD40? Is the TV a write-off? In the past I have
been given a car cassette player where someone has opened the cassette
flap and emptied a can of this stuff onto the innards. Needless to
say, the unit went directly into the trash. However, this time the TV
may be salvageable - it looks like it may only have a vertical
collapse fault, and some minor rust near the front pushbuttons.


- Franc Zabkar

 

[Mark Kent]

How does one clean up the oily residue left behind when a TV chassis
has been flooded with WD40? Is the TV a write-off? In the past I have
been given a car cassette player where someone has opened the cassette
flap and emptied a can of this stuff onto the innards. Needless to
say, the unit went directly into the trash. However, this time the TV
may be salvageable - it looks like it may only have a vertical
collapse fault, and some minor rust near the front pushbuttons.

WD40 destroys a lot of rubbery & plastic compounds, in my experience,
but unlike cassette mechanisms, TV chassis don't have much in the way
of power transmission by drive belts , so maybe it's rescuable.

If the oil's got to plastic bits (front-panel trim, etc.) then it
might be too late.

Meths is excellent for cleaning off WD40, it's cheap, leaves very
little residue, is electrically inert, and will also act as a
solvent for the combined grease/oil/dust deposits that seem to
build up around high-voltage bits.

You could use a 12 year old single malt, of course, but that
would be a shame...

 

[Patch]

How does one clean up the oily residue left behind when a TV chassis
has been flooded with WD40? Is the TV a write-off? In the past I have
been given a car cassette player where someone has opened the cassette
flap and emptied a can of this stuff onto the innards. Needless to
say, the unit went directly into the trash. However, this time the TV
may be salvageable - it looks like it may only have a vertical
collapse fault, and some minor rust near the front pushbuttons.

I once had a VCR come into my shop when some bonehead sprayed WD-40 into it.
It was an expensive set & he wanted it fixed. I wound up using 2 large spray
cans of "Electro-Wash" made by Chemtronics. I finally got it cleaned out. It
was a bitch!