Carb cleaner warning.

[Kevlarr]

Decided to clean all the gunk off my engine the other day so I grabbed a handy can of carb cleaner and had at it. Cleaned the gunk off really well but after about a minute anywhere I'd sprayed with it the paint started to wrinkle up. Let her sit for a few hours hoping the paint would lay back down and it did but I think a better alternative would be to use brake cleaner.

Carb spray is best left to cleaning bare unpainted parts off the bike.

Brake cleaner would be a much better replacement for carb cleaner for doing leak tests and general motor cleaning plus it's cheaper just keep it away form anything plastic.

 

[bseelbach]

Yep- did that too :-(
Thinking about it, doesn't brake cleaner eat paint as well?
Might try WD40 or something like that next time.

 

[Kevlarr]

No, brake fluid does but not brake cleaner. Well maybe on fresh paint but it is a lot gentler on painted surfaces then carby spray.

 

[Norman]

carb cleaner is rough on your skin and real rough on your eyes. Don't get it on you if you can help it.Breathing it will make you think my cat Rufus has turned into a monster like T-rex.
Matter of fact most sprays will make you chase parked cars and howl at the moon so read the warning on the cans.
Its funny though that almost all cans say that in the state of California it will cause cancer. All the other states it will cause a state of confusion.

 

[Kevlarr]

So you're safe from cancer as long as you don't use any aerosol spray within the state of California. Got it!

 

[Rockenstein]

hmm...I've wondered more than once what I could use to clean that tacky Chinese silver paint off a motor so I have a clean canvas to do a proper paint job. I've tried a couple paint strippers I had one hand but they failed miserably. What's in the carb cleaner that ate the paint, toluene maybe?