Looking for the best lubricant for your car door hinges and latches? If opening your car doors makes annoying screeching and squeaking sound, then a simple clean and grease job will solve the problem.
There are various products that you can use to help lube your squeaking door hinges and latches in your car. Some use commercial products like WD-40, while some DIYers even use cooking oil.
While some people perceive this job as a minor one, you must know that there are negative effects of using the incorrect lubricant for your car door hinges and latches.
Risks include hinges getting corroded, rusty, foul smelling, or making your side door looks physically bad and messy.
So in this post, I’ll show you the best brand that I personally use for cleaning and lubricating car hinges and latches.
Why Car Doors Make Squeaking Sound?
Like hinges in a conventional wooden door, car door hinges and latches can also collect dirt and dust that can result to damage, corrosion, and you guess it, door noises.
That screeching or squeaking noise is equally irritating as a totally unsolicited muffler noise from a car exhaust.
As your vehicle gets older, the lubrication on your door hinges will eventually fade resulting to a metal-to-metal friction.
This metal-to-metal friction causes the squeaking sound.
The build-up of dirt and dust on your car door hinges and latches should be removed, cleaned and re-lubricated in order to provide you a noise-free car doors.
So besides from oil changes and tire jobs, you must also include door hinges and latches lubrication on your vehicle maintenance schedule.
Ways to Stop Squeaking Car Door Hinges
There are probably hundreds of ways to stop car door squeaking issues. You probably have your own solution in dealing with hinges and latches. Whatever that is, it will surely help reduce or completely stop the noise.
First thing to do is to clean every hinges on each doors, hood and rear compartment (tailgate if yours is SUV or crossover). You can use soapy water, used toothbrush and a rag.
That will remove all the accumulated dirt and dusts on your hinges and hinge pins. You probably have your own cleaning solution which can also get the job done.
Next thing to do is to lube or grease those hinge points. What are the hinge points you ask? These are the pivoting mechanism of a hinge that really needs lubrication. It does have a metal pin that enables you to open and close the door with ease.
Which is the best product for greasing hinges and latches? Here are some of the products that people use:
- WD-40
- Hairspray
- Multipurpose grease
- Silicone spray
- Paraffin candles
- Cooking oil
- Petroleum jelly
- Olive oil
But as I’ve said earlier, incorrect cleaning and lubrication can lead to a negative effect. Solutions that you’ll eventually regret doing. Why?
Let me tell you some of the reasons why the aforementioned products are not ideal for your door hinges and latches.
WD-40
This is probably the most popular lubricant that you can think off when it comes to door hinges. As a penetrating liquid lubricant, WD-40 should easily turn your old hinge into a brand new lubed door hinge!
Well, that is true to some extent. Why? Because WD-40 is only good for temporary fix. Yes, it only provide temporary lubrication, not a good fix if you ask me.
WD-40 is best used as a cleaner and water displacer, not as a lubricant. Plus, this product will attract more dirt and dust to your door hinges which is going to be a disaster.
Household Lubricants
It is economical and equally rewarding if you use products that are readily available in your home for DIY jobs. This include commercial oils like cooking oil, olive oil, hairspray, petroleum jelly, paraffin candles and many others.
Cooking oils and olive oil are great choices in stopping squeaky door noises due to bad hinges. Many people uses oil for this purpose.
But cooking oils oxidizes quickly compared to other lubricants, making it only suitable as a “temporary” lube agent.
Similar with WD-40, oil also attract dirt that will again accumulate on the pivot areas of door hinges. Why? Simply because cooking oils are sticky. So oils are not the best lubricants for your door hinges and latches.
What about paraffin candles? Well, you need to light and melt the candles first before you can soften the wax. It would be time consuming and will also risk your car paint and rubber boot from heat damage as these are commonly situated along door hinges in your car.
Silicone Spray
The second best product in my list, silicone spray probably have all the best qualities of a lubricant – non-reactive to substances, water-resistance, super slippery, heat resistant and many others. Truly the perfect lubricant for any application.
While silicone spray is good with painted metals, plastics, and rubber, it is not ideal when it comes to electronics.
It has been known that silicone spray products causes problems with electricals and are bad if sprayed directly on door locks and latches as they have electronics in them.
So yeah, this product is also ideal for lubricating car door hinges and latches, but you need to be extra careful on those electricals if you don’t want any trouble to arise with your car.
The Best Lubricant for Car Door Hinges and Latches
And the best product for this job is – White Lithium Grease!
White lithium grease is a thick, liquid-based substance that is designed for lubricating metal parts. In short, it is designed for heavy-duty lubrication while providing rust protection because of its water repelling qualities.
As a grease, white lithium grease best suits metal-to-metal joints like the pivot points in car door hinges. It is also ideal for both mechanical and electrical latch mechanisms such as those found in vehicles. So unlike silicone spray, you don’t need to worry about your electricals with white lithium grease.
White lithium grease is also visible when sprayed. So you can easily see over sprays and clean them off. While spraying can be messy, the benefits actually outweighs this single disadvantage.
Silicone spray and white lithium grease brands are available in your favorite local auto shops or hardware stores. It is also available online through Amazon.
Click here to Buy White Lithium Grease on Amazon
Below is my DIY video of cleaning and lubricating my car’s hinges and latches using white lithium grease. This video is in Tagalog language but has English subtitle. Enjoy watching!
