PB Blaster Review

I needed to do some exhaust work on my 1993 car. If you've ever seen nuts and bolts on a 16-year-old exhaust system, you know that they are so caked with rust that they barely resemble nuts and bolts. I looked at the nuts and bolts on my car's exhaust system and thought that I would have to cut them off, and cutting was going to be a LOT of work.

Then my wife convinced me to look at penetrating lubricants and I found PB Blaster "penetrating catalyst." I bought a can, sprayed it on the rusty bolts and -- unbelievably -- I was able to unthread them. The bottom line for me is that a $6 can of PB Blaster saved me an hour or more of physical work, cutting bolts in a very cramped space. In fact, two of the four bolts I needed to remove were in good enough condition that I was able to re-use them. In all four cases, I believe that the nuts/bolts would simply have rounded off if I had tried to remove them without PB Blaster.

How does it work?

The manufacturer of PB Blaster claims that the lubricant actually penetrates the rust and gets into the threads of the nut/bolt. There's some mumbo-jumbo about magnetic particles and such, but I'm pretty skeptical about that. However, the proof is that it worked for me and saved a bunch of time and effort. I will definitely be re-using PB Blaster, as it took very little of it to free up my four nuts/bolts.

Summary

Can you spray a liquid on a rusty nut/bolt and actually expect it to free the nut/bolt up enough to separate them? I didn't think you could but PB Blaster proved me wrong. About the only downside is that PB Blaster came in a big can. I do a lot of work around the house and garage, and a two-ounce spray can would probably last me for a couple years. The big can I bought will last for a decade!

PB Blaster works, and it is a time and labor saver. I recommend it.