Wear To Use Grease On An RC Car

The RC Car and Radio Control Racing Web Site

IS GREASE MY FRIEND?

Grease is amazing stuff. It makes everything move smoother and with less friction. It reduces wear on moving components and helps maintain the tight tolerances set in our advanced radio control cars. Grease is so good, we should use it on all moving parts in our vehicles right? No!

There is a time and a place for the use of grease on our radio control cars. Grease, or any wet lubricant should NOT be used anywhere externally on your car. By externally I mean any place in which dirt is exposed to. For example, your external gears like between the pinion gear and the spur gear (or clutch bell and spur gear for gas cars), on drive shafts, ball links, hinge pins, or axles. If we lived in a perfect world where there was not any dirt or dust than grease would help smoothen up all of the above mentioned areas. Unfortunately we do no live in a perfect world so we have to deal with dirt and other debris.

If an external area is lubricated with oil or grease, dirt will adhere to the surface and wear away the components quicker than if the surface had been left dry. Compare it to sandpaper, if you mix grease with sand you will make sandpaper which will wear out your moving components very quickly. Any advantage obtained through the use of wet lubricant will be more than lost once your car hits the messy race track.

Don't get me wrong, grease still has many uses. If you have a sealed gearbox it is okay to use wet lubricants (most high end cars have self lubricating nylon gears that do not require grease). Other places that grease and oil can be safely used are in a sealed differential, on shock O-rings to prevent oil leaks, or packed inside a sealed bearing. As long as dirt cannot reach the lubricated area, it is a good idea to use grease or oil.

I have seen far too many people with cars covered in grease to help it run smoother. On a clean shelf it works well but that is where the advantages end. There are alternatives to a wet lubricant. Many companies sell a dry lube. This can be brushed on to moving parts and allowed to dry. It may not lubricate as well as grease or oil would but it will not attract dirt to itself. Dry lubes are useful on any component that you would like to use a wet lubricant on but can't because it is exposed externally.

Check over your car and see if you have any grease or oil in areas that dirt can reach. If you do, clean them off. You will be better off running those areas dry than filling them with an unexpected concoction of grease and dirt.

Let's take off a few tenths per lap,

"PRO"