Sonax wheel cleaner on paint??

Um...I have never tried it but I would say probably not. Typically your better off keeping things that are meant for wheels away from the paint.

The short answer is yes you can use it on paint.

My white car suffers from iron particles and I used IronX for a while but switched to sonax for three reasons--color, consistency, and smell.

1. The color of sonax is green as most know which really let's you know (at least on light colors) where you've sprayed the chemical as compared to ironX which is completely clear and hard to see. I always ended up using too much product because I would go over areas which I wasn't sure whether I'd covered yet or not.
   
   
2. The consistency of Sonax is more foam-like which really sticks to the paint or wheels allowing it to dwell longer and let the chemical do it's magic. It also let's me use less of it!
   
   
3. Finally the smell. IronX, in my opinion, is a little stronger chemical than Sonax and possibly works better but I haven't done a head-to-head comparison. However, I have to wash my car several times over to get rid of the smell that IronX leaves--it is absolutely terrible and persistent. The Sonax is pretty bad too but is minimal incomparison to IronX.

Also it helps that I can purchase Sonax from my favorite dealer which is Autogeek.

Now, having said this, this is my experience with my paint only. You should ALWAYS do a test spot on your own vehicle. But it does and has worked for me on my paint for the last year or so with no side effects whatsoever.

And really--it makes sense. I'm sure the chemicals in Sonax and IronX are the same or very similar. Many people use Sonax on their painted and/or clear-coated wheels (although most wheels have thicker paint or clear) with no problems so it only makes sense that it would be safe on car paint as well. Both are PH neutral so you really should have no
worries using it.

I've used it and it works for me so I say try it. Product consolidation is almost always a good and economical thing

A picture of the color/consistency for those who do not know what I'm talking about:​

IronX may be a little stronger than Sonax, but it also smells worse, is "harder" to use, usually more expensive, and you can obtain Sonax here at Autogeek rops:

I never even considered Sonax to remove rail dust. But thinking abut it, it does make sense.

When I was cleaning a car with all ceramic pads there wasn't any color change, but on a car with metallic pads the whole wheel turned purple. So it should be able to "find" the iron embedded in the paint. Try leaving on a portion of a test panel for half an hour and see if it affects the paint. By test panel I mean a used hood that gets practiced on.

I remember on autogeeks sister site autopiaforums Todd Helme did a comparison on iron removers with paints and Sonax FE didn't fare to well.

I don't know this for 100% sure, but my guess is Sonax FE is basic - probably > than pH 9 or so; whereas IronX is neutral. The reason for this is Sonax is meant to CLEAN DIRT and remove iron - and IronX is just supposed to remove Iron on clean paint. Sonax probably has some surfactants in it - which won't do anything for clean paint.

I'd also guess Sonax FE may not have the iron removing strength as the class leader - IronX.

Maybe Sonax FE is a few bucks cheaper - but IronX would just be the better choice for the job it's designed to do. Also, I think Sonax FE is better on wheels - since you get zero foaming ability with IronX.

Are we sure the OP isn't talking about Sönax Wheel Cleaner Plus and not Full Effect?

While Todd did a great little test in that the New WCP in my testing has done a much better job in cleaning and in iron removal than that or the FE.

Can it do better on paint? I haven't tested it but it might.

I know Sönax now has a dedicated Iron removal product and I can say it did impress me as to how quickly it had worked.

Is a wheel cleaner safe for paint? Probably, but would I use it on paint more than likely not.

EDIT:

Well seeing this so from 2011 I stand corrected

Oops