Beware--ArmorAll Tire Shine Extreme

It's not a big deal to detail an engine compartment. Even a 31 year old one. A garden hose, air compressor, along with a bottle of Armorall, and a fistful of clean rags is all it takes.

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Shiny stuff on tires and engines… 🤨

Years ago, I picked up a used Mercedes E320 4matic from the BMW dealer I’ve bought many cars from in the past. They’ve serviced them as well so I was a long time customer. They wanted rid of the Mercedes because the radiator developed a leak and it was a trade-in that they felt they couldn’t sell fast. I don’t know why.. 🤔

I got it and made the deal to have them install a radiator that I supplied (no warranty on that so my risk). They did the work and I took the car home. On the way, I grabbed a sandwich at the local drive-thru.

I heard a noise, and suddenly my air conditioning was gone and the battery light came on. I parked after getting my stuff and checked. The belt came off and shredded. So I called my sales guy, and despite the no warranty agreement, they towed it and diagnosed. (Back then, I had nowhere to fix it myself like now).

Turns out: The dealer tech prepped the car for delivery after the repairs by hosing the engine bay down with a ton of engine shine. Everything. So my belt came off the slicked up pulleys and ripped all to h#ll. To their credit, they cleaned the stuff off, put in a new belt free of charge. Including a tow and loaner.

So no shiny stuff in the engine bay, especially on moving parts. 😎
 
Shiny stuff on tires and engines… 🤨........... Turns out: The dealer tech prepped the car for delivery after the repairs by hosing the engine bay down with a ton of engine shine. Everything. So my belt came off the slicked up pulleys and ripped all to h#ll.................

So no shiny stuff in the engine bay, especially on moving parts. 😎

There is a right way, and a wrong way to do everything. Your dealer was an idiot. Pure and simple.

There is nothing wrong with, "shiny stuff on engines". As I said, my engine has looked like that for over 30 years. And I've never had so much as a single issue because of it.

But I don't, "hose my engine down with engine shine". (Whatever the hell that is). Anymore than I would apply paste wax to flat black trim, or my tires.

At some point you have to use common sense when you apply these products. And if you trust an idiot to do it, you're not going to get good results.
 
I bought some of this Armor All product based on a reference on this Forum...I haven't seen the brown stuff as reported here but when I wash my cars, I wash the tires as well before reapplying any tire protectant...I'm not a big fan of real shiny tires so just a top coat for me and they don't appear to my eyes to be very shiny without adding a second coat...

good luck with yours...

Bill
 
I've had the exact opposite effect with Armor All Tire Shine Extreme. Makes my tires look awesome, and never leaves them sticky. It came in an Armor All care care bundle my sister gave me for Christmas one time. Ever since then, that's all I buy. I've been very happy with Armor All products. I was one who was always against using tire dressings, but this one I really like and will keep on using it.
 
I've had the exact opposite effect with Armor All Tire Shine Extreme. Makes my tires look awesome, and never leaves them sticky. It came in an Armor All care care bundle my sister gave me for Christmas one time. Ever since then, that's all I buy. I've been very happy with Armor All products. I was one who was always against using tire dressings, but this one I really like and will keep on using it.
Like you, I'd never had problems with ArmorAll stuff and I've been using them for decades. My angst with them was with the way their customer service department responded to my complaint. I believe the product I had was a bad batch. I've since used another product without any issues.
 
I honestly feel customer service is basically completely extinct in every aspect of modern civilization.
It's not though.

There are companies out there where you can still get the owner on the phone for support.

You buy bottom-level stuff, you get bottom-level service. That's a choice.

Why would you expect anything else?
 
It's not though.

There are companies out there where you can still get the owner on the phone for support.

You buy bottom-level stuff, you get bottom-level service. That's a choice.

Why would you expect anything else?
I’ve never had any issues with any particular company or item, I was just commenting in generalization. Customer service (at least on the corporate level) is a thing of the past.

When it comes to consumer items, I definitely have not found that more expensive high end items are better in all cases.
 
I used Armor All on my 1974 Hondo Sprint in 1974 and it did the brown thing on the vinyl seats . That is the last time I used ArmorAll.
Used it on my Honda CL350 way back in the day. Next ride ended up with only 4 fingertips on the handlebars (2 on each hand) and my rear end 80% off the end of the seat. Couldn't back off on the throttle without letting go of one side of the bar and going into a death spiral. Fortunately, acceleration decreased enough to scoot back onto the seat and back off the throttle.
Learned my lesson about putting Armor All on something that relied on friction.
 
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