Welcome to Autopia joestang
Quote: What’s wrong with a glossy/oily looking tire shine? I have found as long as you don’t try to drive on it within 10-15 minutes of applying it most oil based tire shines wont fling all over the place.
~One man’s opinion / observations ~
Silicone:
Silicones are primarily used to modify or improve certain characteristics; they are sometimes added as a lubricant to provide spread ability thereby making a product easier to apply. Chemical polymers that can be engineered for exceptional water repellence, gloss, and bonding properties. The myth that silicone is bad is just that, a myth, and like most myths there is a little truth in it. Silicone are basically inert, it’s what’s added to them that them bad.
The Good: Polydimethylsiloxane (PDS) is water based (usually a milky-white liquid) amino functional silicone that doesn’t migrate (dry out) the platicizers from materials, has less UV radiation absorption and dust attraction properties. Chemists also use silicones to create water-in-oil emulsions, reduce emulsion particle size, to stabilize emulsions, and to improve spreading and coverage of wax products.
Most modern silicone formulas are water soluble (no oil or petroleum), and are completely inert. The best way to describe most forms of silicone is to think of it as a man-made wax ester. Silicone is created by the reaction generated when you combine fatty acids with Poly Dimethyl Siloxane.
The Bad: a cheaper additive to Silicone is Dimethyl (usually a clear greasy liquid) it contains petroleum distillates, which are environmentally unsound and give a slick, oily finish, which attracts dust and dirt.
It also causes rubber compounds along with sun iteration to remove the micro-wax in tyres as well as its carbon black (it’s what gives tyres their colour) they are often mislabelled as modern /synthetic polymers by manufactures.
The Ugly: Silicone is an active ingredient in sun UV amplification.
As a low quality silicone dressing evaporates away, the silicone oil is left behind, the sun then amplifies these residues, and the drying process is accelerated, all this causes rubber, EDPM, vinyl and plastics to dry out, which turns them grey or brown, losing their flexibility and prematurely fail. Water-based dressings do not contain oils or petroleum distillates and provide a non- greasy, natural looking satin finish.
For a Few Dollars More: Petroleum distillates can be further purified, re-distilled, reacted and combined with various other chemicals to produce a wide range of environmentally safe and useful products. This is rarely done in the automotive industry due to monetary considerations.
In conclusion, to group all silicones into one category and label them harmful, environmentally unsound
and / or dangerous would be both unscientific and without foundation.
~Hope this helps~
Experience unshared; is knowledge wasted…/
justadumbarchitect *so I question everything*
