[caycep]

Just curious - read in an article re: restoring an old Mercedes from the '70s that they could not get the car up to its initial rated horsepower due to deterioration of the rubber compounds, and had to replace all the rubber in the car.


When does this occur usually in a lifespan of a modern car - are the rubber compounds better than they used to be? Do you have to worry about this in say, 100k miles or around 5 years or so? or not really?

[overcoil]

Originally Posted by caycep

Just curious - read in an article re: restoring an old Mercedes from the '70s that they could not get the car up to its initial rated horsepower due to deterioration of the rubber compounds, and had to replace all the rubber in the car.


When does this occur usually in a lifespan of a modern car - are the rubber compounds better than they used to be? Do you have to worry about this in say, 100k miles or around 5 years or so? or not really?

Definately improvements in rubber material (I'm guessing) since the 70's. Even with environmental regulations I would think rubber is better, plus with newer types of poly-compounds to replace older rubber compunds.

10 years / 200,000 miles on a car and if you minimize excessive UV exposure, body window rubber should last that long if not longer. Things like driveshaft disc-plate rubber or half-shaft rubber boots are items that just need to be inspected and replaced as needed.

With the mercedes o-rings in fuel injection distributors and even on top of valves maybe along with crank dampers, engine-mounts. all that stuff is probably old style construction.

[Maynard]

I know there were periods where they experimented with more biodegradable plastics that sometimes degraded before hitting the landfill (or tasted real good to mice ). DK if that was part of this, but I know that the rise in plastics, and complicated electrics, is going to really change the auto preservation and restoration scene in upcoming decades. Hoping that 3D printing and similar one-off manufacturing tactics keep pace (they can already reproduce most anything, but more at museum pricing than home-user.

[overcoil]

Originally Posted by Maynard

I know there were periods where they experimented with more biodegradable plastics that sometimes degraded before hitting the landfill (or tasted real good to mice ). DK if that was part of this, but I know that the rise in plastics, and complicated electrics, is going to really change the auto preservation and restoration scene in upcoming decades. Hoping that 3D printing and similar one-off manufacturing tactics keep pace (they can already reproduce most anything, but more at museum pricing than home-user.

yes Mercedes had wiring harness deterioration I think in early 1990's, after googling see it's 1992-1997 throughout the entire range.

Honda has some soybean wire insulation issues going on past few years.