I wanted to share a easy method I recently used for restoring one of the hardened rubber intake hoses/ducts on my FJ62. These hoses, as many of you know, harden and crack over time. On my truck, the hose that attaches to the throttle body was badly cracked, so I replaced it with a new one courtesy of beno (even with his generous discount, the price is ridiculous for what it is). However, the other hose (the one that attaches to the MAF), is NLA. Mine was in perfect shape with no cracks, but it was hard as a rock. It was only a matter of time before it failed.
So, I started doing some research on whether it was possible to re-soften hardened rubber. It turns out an old trick is to boil the hardened rubber part in a mixture of water and natural wintergreen oil. I'll spare you the chemical explanation, but apparently there is a chemical compound (methyl salicylate) found in wintergreen oil that restores the elastomeric properties of rubber. When you boil the hardened rubber part, the rubber opens up so to speak, absorbs the compound and re-softens.
After reading reports of success all over the internet, I decided to give it try. I bought 8 oz. of wintergreen oil on ebay for $11.00. I filled a big pasta pot with water, poured half of the bottle in, and brought it up to a gentle boil. I then tied the hose to a bbq skewer that I placed over the top of the pot so that the hose would hang in the water rather than rest on the bottom of the pot (I wasn't sure if this step was necessary, but I was concerned that the hose might melt if it sat on the bottom of the pan). Turn on your exhaust fan unless you want the whole house to smell like wintergreen chewing gum/tobacco.
After 45 minutes at a gentle simmer, I took the hose out and rinsed it in dish soap and water. The results are simply amazing!! The hose is literally like new--soft and pliable, more so than the new hose I bought from beno. Total cost $11 plus, as an added bonus, it smells wintergreen fresh. Can't guarantee what the long term results are, but I've read many positive reports on the internet of parts remaining soft for a long time.
Hope this helps.
So, I started doing some research on whether it was possible to re-soften hardened rubber. It turns out an old trick is to boil the hardened rubber part in a mixture of water and natural wintergreen oil. I'll spare you the chemical explanation, but apparently there is a chemical compound (methyl salicylate) found in wintergreen oil that restores the elastomeric properties of rubber. When you boil the hardened rubber part, the rubber opens up so to speak, absorbs the compound and re-softens.
After reading reports of success all over the internet, I decided to give it try. I bought 8 oz. of wintergreen oil on ebay for $11.00. I filled a big pasta pot with water, poured half of the bottle in, and brought it up to a gentle boil. I then tied the hose to a bbq skewer that I placed over the top of the pot so that the hose would hang in the water rather than rest on the bottom of the pot (I wasn't sure if this step was necessary, but I was concerned that the hose might melt if it sat on the bottom of the pan). Turn on your exhaust fan unless you want the whole house to smell like wintergreen chewing gum/tobacco.
After 45 minutes at a gentle simmer, I took the hose out and rinsed it in dish soap and water. The results are simply amazing!! The hose is literally like new--soft and pliable, more so than the new hose I bought from beno. Total cost $11 plus, as an added bonus, it smells wintergreen fresh. Can't guarantee what the long term results are, but I've read many positive reports on the internet of parts remaining soft for a long time.
Hope this helps.
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