DaveC wrote:



And by extension, oil is better at preventing corrosion while not sticking up
things.

This research found that simple mineral oil reduced contact resistance
dramatically:

http://www.te.com/documentation/whit...df/p154-74.pdf


** The "Conclusions" section backs up what products like WD40 have been claiming for decades.

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CONCLUSION

We have shown that all of the more commonly
used non-noble contact materials experience large increases
in resistance during fretting action (small
amplitude cyclic motion). The results of our tests were
such that a warning could be issued concerning the indiscriminate
use of such materials in applications
where fretting action could occur on electric contacts
as a result of vibration, mechanical motion, or differential
thermal expansion. Resistance increases noted
during fretting action are felt to be due to trapped
wear debris composed mainly of oxides. This process is
commonly referred do as "fretting corrosion." Lubrication
has been identified as a very good deterrent to
fretting corrosion; the important mechanisms imparted
by lubrication are postulated as: first, a reduction in
wear; second, that the treatment aids in the selfcleaning
and flushing of wear debris from contacts; and
finally, and perhaps most important, liquid lubricants
have the ability of excluding oxygen from the contact,
thus preventing oxidation of wear debris and freshly exposed
contact material.

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..... Phil