Wheel cleaner?

I personally use Meguiars D120 Wheel brightener, however you cannot use it on anodized or polished/bare aluminum wheels. On all bare/polished aluminum wheels and ones I question to be anodized I use CG Diablo wheel gel aswell.

Both are extremely economical because they come in a concentrate however the effectiveness of D120 is well above diablo.

Mike Phillips said:

How to determine what type of wheels you have?

Wheels are either made from a material and you're working directly on the material, examples include aluminum and magnesium. Or wheels are coated, so the wheels are either steel or aluminum and have been coated with another type of material and anytime you're working on this type of wheel you're working on the coating.


Magnet will tell you whether it's steel or aluminum, that's a pretty simple test that will tell you real fast the material the wheel is made out of. Below are some tips for testing to determine if there's a coating on a wheel.





Testing an aluminum wheel
You can do this same type of test to any wheel using either a light polish, paint cleaner or metal polish. Always test in an inconspicuous area if you think the wheel might be painted, either clearcoated or pigmented paint.

Oxidized Aluminum Comes Off Black

Wolfgang MetallWerk™ Aluminum Polishing System


This is also a chapter in my e-book but the e-book has more info and more pictures.

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This is something I used when I first started and hasn't guided me wrong. The biggest tip is if you are really unsure or its a chance its an anodized wheel or don't have any metal polish is to use the cleaner in a very inconspicuous spot for a test.

"Uncoated or Bare Aluminum Wheels - You'll quickly see black residue build up on your polishing cloth

Clearcoated Aluminum Wheels - You might see some dirt residue on your polishing cloth but it won't turn black like you'll see if it's bare aluminum.

Anodized Aluminum Wheels - Same as clearcoated aluminum, you will see a little colored residue come off, usually the color of the anodizing but it certainly won't be anything like what you'll see if you're working on bare aluminum.

Chrome Wheels - You shouldn't see any color coming off chrome except for any built-up roadgrime that didn't come off when you washed the wheel and this will tend to be kind of a dirt color, light brown. After you remove any roadgrime then you won't see any color come off the chrome at all.


Clearcoated Wheels - Since clear paint is clear, you should see no color or pigment coming off on your polishing cloth. If there's dirt or roadgrime built-up on the clearcoated wheel you'll see a little brown color coming off but that will stop once you have the roadgrime removed.


Painted Wheels - If you're wheels are painted a color and not clearcoated then if you rub a little polish onto the rim you'll see the color of the paint coming off onto your polishing cloth."

Aren't most modern wheels safe for WB?

DogRescuer said:

Aren't most modern wheels safe for WB?

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That would be correct, but you never know with used cars what types of wheels may have been swapped.

So if I rub a wheel with polish and it turns black DON'T use WB?

DogRescuer said:

So if I rub a wheel with polish and it turns black DON'T use WB?

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Correct.