Silicone Hose Reconditioning
 

Anyone know of a good cleaner to recondition the silicone hoses. I'm cleaning up my engine bay and most of my hoses are dirty. Let me know.

ive used cellulose paint thinners before today,,,,only you gotta use very little on a rag as it brakes down certain plastics and silicone,,,but cleans just about everything including tar and oil

Generally I either replace them or wipe them down with a rag. You can't "recondition" them.

sulfuric acid....makes it spic and span

i use orange cleaner :)

if you use an alcohol based cleaner and the hoses are absorbant it will dry them out and theyll crack faster

soap and water with a rag makes sense to me if they are silicone.

Yeah....this sounds the most reasonable to me as well. I don't want to be breaking down the silicone. Would a tire shining spray give them a nice sheen (after washing) or is this going to break dow the silicone?

http://byo.com/mrwizard/1001.html

dont think you have to worry about using alcohol on it ;)

IMO, lots of people on the forum overplay how "fragile" silicone is, at one point myself included. Harsh solvents definately don't help extend the life of it, but it's pretty durable stuff. I don't know if this would work or not, but some light bodied silicone lubricant might act as a solvent w/o breaking the silicone down at all. Just be sure not to get it on painted surfaced or anywhere you want painted in the future.