It’s been six months since I bought my first-generation Porsche Boxster, and while I’m over the moon with it, I must admit that it’s not free of minor annoyances. Hey, it’s a 25-year-old car, don’t expect perfection. Opening the passenger door? Almost as quiet as leaves rustling. Opening the driver’s door? It squeaked like a particularly pissed-off desert rain frog. Talk about messing with the vibe, am I right?
Fortunately, the Germans have already thought of this, and come up with a product called Gummi-Pflege, which is German for “rubber care.” While the popular Nextzett Gummi-Pflege Stift is highly regarded among owners of creaky German cars, Canadian availability is mid at best, so I opted for what seemed to be like the next-best thing – Sonax Rubber Protectant.
At first glance, the labeling appears slightly different from what I’ve seen elsewhere, but I bought it through Sonax’s official Amazon page, so I figured I was good to cross my fingers. While some might be afraid to potentially damage what could be serious money in seals, I looked at it this way: My seals are already aged, so the only direction was up.
Trust In The Process
Upon popping the driver’s door, the culprit was easy to spot. If you examine this photograph closely enough, you’ll actually see striation on the upper door-side seal on my left door from where it’s been grinding up against the body-side seal like it’s last call in the club. If there’s any place to apply a touch of lubricity and restore a touch of flexibility, it’s here.
First, because I was at home and knew I wasn’t going out on a Tuesday night, I grabbed a beverage and cranked up the tunes in my headphones. Hey, it’s the start of Spring, might as well unwind and savor the car care experience. Immediately after that, I spritzed a little bit of all-purpose cleaner on a microfiber towel and prepared both the door-side surface and the car-side surface. Wipe on, wipe off, let any dirt come with it. If you’re conditioning seals, you want them to be reasonably clean, because it just makes sense.
Next, I took the cap off of the rubber care bottle and plunged it gently onto the surface to dispense a little bit of the product. The applicator’s a bit dirty in the photos because I didn’t quite have the tools to get all the way into the upper seal, but good enough is good enough, right? If you’ve ever used Vans shoe cleaner, this bottle works in a similar way — just plunge and spread around.
After letting the product dwell for a few minutes, I wiped off the excess with a microfiber towel and closed the door to see if the situation had improved. Guess what? The squeaking when opening and closing the door was gone. Vanished, banished, presto. Admittedly, I shouldn’t be surprised, but if a $12 bottle of product can fix an aggravating squeak, that’s well worth the price tag.
The Fine Print
While this cheap and cheerful rubber care product worked brilliantly at stopping my Porsche from squeaking, there are two things to keep in mind. First, the long-term effect on the surfaces you apply it to; looking at the material safety data sheet for this product, we can see that it features a lot of silicone, which is usually a good thing given how many automakers recommend liquid silicone for conditioning weatherstripping. The bad news is that liquid silicone doesn’t work nicely with all weatherstripping. While most thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) weatherstripping shows remarkable resilience against liquid silicone, some products made of TPE don’t do so well with repeated, prolonged application of the stuff. Check your owner’s manual; if it recommends silicone for weatherstripping care, have no fear when using this rubber care product.
The second consideration is the applicator; the flat foam disc that doesn’t do the best job of getting into all the nooks and crannies of complex weatherstripping. Using cotton swabs to apply the product in tight spots might be a good idea.
If you have a car with squeaky windows or doors – Porsche or otherwise – and want an easy remedy, this cheap Sonax rubber care stuff is absolutely worth a shot.
(Photo credits: Thomas Hundal)
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This post contains an Amazon link for a $12 bottle of Gummi-Pflege and if you click that link and buy that (and then, maybe, 13 PS5s) we’ll potentially get a commission.
I haven’t tried the Sonax product, but I can vouch for the Gummi-Pfledge on my BMW. Does anyone else love the smell of Gummi-Pfledge? I’m probably a weirdo in the minority, but I think it smells so good!
Thomas, as a Canadian, you should have headed over to you local Canadian Tire and bought a can of Jig-a-Loo.
Basically a silicone spray without an oily carrier.
https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/jig-a-loo-invisible-all-around-multi-purpose-lubricant-spray-can-311-g-0381551p.0381551.html
Genuinely any bottle of silicone spray would do the job with a soft cloth to apply it (which could be washed once done, so it’s not a grungy mess afterwards like that applicator)
Sonax is decent. I use dielectric grease/”silicone lubricant” for the same thing. Comes in a bottle with a brush in the cap kind of like old glue containers. Works great on my Miatas and it works for things like spark plugs. They even claim it works as antiseize but I have never used it for that.
I’ve been a big fan of using Gummi Pflege on my old BMW’s, it makes them considerably quieter, especially when going over bumps. I also use some sprayable white lithium grease on the door hinges and latches, as that’s another common source of squeaking and clicking when driving around.
When I bought my project e28 a couple years ago I couldn’t believe how much low key old car crappiness I was able to fix with judicious application of either white lithium or wd40. This is a good reminder for me to get some Gummi Pflege as my windows squeek when going up and down from the rubber being dry.
there are two things to keep in mind
Three: How long will each application last? Daily? Weekly? Monthly? Forever?
Now if they could just come up with a $12 bottle of something to stop Subarus from rattling…
When they stop moving, most rattling also stops.
only about 120k miles!
I keep napkins in the glove box and take them out as-needed to shove into various nooks and crannies around the cabin to silence the rattles. That’s just Subaru life.
It’s what makes a Subaru, a Subaru
At one point three of my buddies had the same gen WRX – they gave pointers on where to jam napkins – pretty comical
I wish a rattle fix came in a bottle, but it actually comes in a roll! Felt tape is a suggested rattle fix across pretty much every OEM, and it’s cheap online.
I learned about felt tape with my Volvo V70R years ago. I wish I had known about sooner.
Pieces of neoprene, felt, and thick double sided trim tape. Hardest part is finding where to put them. Another thing that worked really well on my ’90 Legacy wagon was a rear strut bar. I preloaded it and eliminated almost all the 200k+ mi. rear squeaks and creaks in one fell swoop.
I put Gummi on both my cars twice a year just to keep them nice a soft. I hear it’s also good for cold weather but we don’t have that here.
As an alternative, I have used ShinEtsu grease for rubber seals and squeeks of all kind. It’s a miracle paste. I would marry it but that’s not legal in the US currently.
Shin-Etsu is a miracle, but I try to keep things strictly platonic.
I use dielectric grease instead of ShinEtsu. Way cheaper and seems to be functionally the same.
I love Shin-Etsu. Keeps my NA top seals supple and my windows roll up/down about 50% faster since I cleaned the window seals and applied.
I bought a tube of this years ago and found it to be useful for dozens of things. I’m on my second tube now. Anytime you need to lubricate a rubber part without degrading the rubber, ShinEtsu silicone grease is great.