This $12 Product Quieted My Squeaky Porsche And It Should Work On Your Car Too

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.