I'm starting to see the value of wheel and tire cleaners

Desertnate

Desertnate

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Years ago when I owned a BMW, I learned the meaning of dirty wheels. In an attempt to keep ahead of German Break Dust plague, I used P21S wheel cleaner and P21S Gel. At the time I found those products worked no better than the soap in my wash bucket, so I quite buying wheel cleaners. I wasn't about to try anything stronger and risk damage to the clear coat on the wheels.

Fast forward nine years and I decided to try a wheel cleaner again, so I picked up a bottle of Mothers Foaming Wheel Cleaner, just to see what would happen. My first application was to fairly clean wheels, so again I wasn't too impressed and a little miffed at using nearly half a bottle on one car. I did however, like the way it cleaned up the tires.

Everything changed this past weekend. I took advantage of some warm weather to wash the family cars for probably the last time until Spring. When I got to my daughter's car, I saw that several weeks of commuting to college, rain, and two snow storms had not been kind. The wheels were surprisingly filthy. On a whim I broke out the Mother's wheel cleaner again with the intent to kill off the bottle and free up shelf space. After applying to the wheels and tires, I was again impressed by how well it cleaned the tires, but also very impressed by how well it broke through the grime and break dust on the wheels. It took far less agitation and effort to get the wheels clean and they appeared cleaner and felt slicker than when using wash soap in the past. This was the "ah-ha" moment.

I now realize why folks swear by their choice of wheel cleaner. It not only make them easier to clean and reduces effort, but it also provides a "deeper" clean than I was probably getting from a gentle car wash soap, yet I still don't have to worry about damaging the wheels if I use it right.

Now, if I could only a bottle go farther...
 
Wheel cleaners have their place, but if it's your own vehicle - the real trick is to come up with a system so dirt doesn't stick to the wheel in the first place and there is just less brake dust to begin with:

1. Switch to low dust / ceramic brake pads.

2. Coat wheels with a coating. Top off with Permanon / Hydro 2 every so often.

If you do those two things it's really a non issue. The wheels are as easy to clean as the paint. Now I know not everyone is working on their own vehicle, but purely from a cost perspective ceramic pads will pay for themselves sooner than later in money saved from not buying bottles of wheel cleaner.

The coating of the wheels just makes it faster and easier, as you don't want to have to clean off dirt that can be just rinsed off.
 
Desertnate said:
Now, if I could only a bottle go farther...
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Mothers Foaming Wheel & Tire Cleaner, chrome wheel cleaner, aluminum wheel cleaner, Mothers wheel cleaner


It's funny back in the day when I used to use P21S on my wheels at every wash, I would scrub around what ran down onto the tire, and it did a pretty good job as a tire cleaner, and I've recently tried using the regular Griot's which is a similar product to the P21S (in concept), as a tire cleaner, and it did pretty well, too.

Agreed that a dedicated wheel cleaner really helps for neglected wheels, but if you clean them regularly and they have some LSP on them (and you had prepped them properly for the LSP so they were good and clean), then car wash soap seems to do fine, unless you have a car with really nasty brake dust (and as Swanic noted, you can usually do something about that with your pad selection).
 
Ever tried diluted APC? On coated wheels this seems to work great to get the last 10% that pressure washing alone doesn't get, and I don't need a dedicated expensive foaming product when a 1:10 ratio of OPC does the trick for me.
 
I do like the color changing ones for bad wheels, but for everything else I use APC in a recycled tire cleaner bottle due to the foaming trigger.
 
Switched to dedicated wheel coatings 2-3 years ago.

Switched to tire coatings last year.

Threw away all my wheel/tire cleaners (kept 1 of each just in case) and never looked back. When I need that final 10% cleaning of the wheels a MF + UWW or a QD does it for me.
 
Lots of great feedback. Thanks, guys.

In the warmer months, maintaining the wheels really isn't an issue. In the winter when washing is less frequent and the weather is bad for long periods of time, they get pretty dirty. What has surprised me is the brake pads on that Mazda dust more than my Toyota or VW. They don't dust to BMW or Audi levels, but more than other Japanese cars I've owned. I will certainly use ceramic once this set of pads wear out. There was night and day difference on that old BMW.

I currently use either 845 or Klasse SG on the wheels, but may look into a coating. Heck, I'm thinking of a coating for that car anyway since it gets driven so much. Only applying an LSP once a year...or longer...would be nice.

I may try using APC. I've got a couple of bottles of Poorboys APC mixed to different ratios. I'll give it a shot the next time I get a chance.
 
jmsc said:
Switched to dedicated wheel coatings 2-3 years ago.
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Do you use a dedicated wheel coating or just any paint coating? If it weren't for the heat I could see any paint coating being workable.
 
I usually go for brown royal as it is very cheap and works well. Dub by meguiars is also good for a deep clean.
 
Bill1234 said:
I usually go for brown royal as it is very cheap and works well. Dub by meguiars is also good for a deep clean.
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I'll have to look for Brown Royal. The Dub line is not available in my area.
 
expdetailing: yep, trashed them!

Desertnate: used wheel coatings per se but read that any paint coating will protect/cleanup wheels well. as long as I get 1 year or close to that I'm pleased.
 
+1 on diluted OPC. But I use anywhere from 1:3 to 1:1 dilution. Even on tires and wheels that's been neglected, it works wonders.
 
No need for a dedicated wheel cleaner unless you're dealing with an aluminum or other delicate finish. A quality APC will clean wheels every bit as good as the mother's foaming wheel cleaner.
 
I don't have much probl with painted rims (I coat with Permanon which is not affected by heat and easy to apply). My problem is the tires. I've been using different products with my DA and a fabric brush. They all seem much the same (have not used the Brown Royal that I have used very successfully on the rims-have to give that a try). Tire dressing seems to be the key item. What dressings would recommend for the satin black finish?
 
In the past just used general degreasers because I thought all wheel and tire cleaners where like Armor All products, which I hate, but recently tried Mothers and I, now too, see the benefits of a quality dedicated cleaner.

Just like the OP I used half a bottle on the first vehicle, but thereafter quickly learned that 4-6 sprays per wheel and some brushing works well enough to clean the wheels and remove rubber blooming.

Actually, 4-6 sprays was all it took to remove some one year old wheel grease (don't judge) left over from an accident repair and removed four years of rubber blooming. All that and it leaves a real nice matt finish, too.

No doubt there is better out there, but the Mothers cleaner really did wow me.
 
wheel cleaners do have their benefits. However, Larry Kosilla of ammo nyc makes a good point, when cleaning the inner part to wheels, spray from the top and let it dwell. It makes it a bit more efficient and less work scrubbing. For example, dub need time to dwell to turn purple and actually start dislodging iron particles
 
Crispy said:
Tire dressing seems to be the key item. What dressings would recommend for the satin black finish?
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I think there are 3 or 4 key items, the tires, how clean you get them, what kind of cleaner you use, and the dressing.

Certain tires react differently, based on the brand/model/rubber compound, their age, and the types of dressings and cleaners that have been used on them.

Getting them really clean is critical to good dressing success, and even more so for coatings.

I am convinced that certain cleaners cause more tire browning than others, this may be an ability to pull the antiozonant to the surface of the tire.

I have also observed that certain dressings, cause more browning of tires than others (I know this seems like an oxymoron, a dressing causing browning, but I'm talking about as the dressing wears off). Some of this may be related to the point above about cleaners.

Currently I have found that using Optimum Power Clean diluted 1:1 for cleaning, and Optimum Tire Shine or Opti-Bond, or Duragloss #253 Tire and Mat Dressing, results in minimal to no browning. If you want a satin look one of the Optimums is your best bet, the Duragloss is really shiny.
 
jmsc said:
Switched to dedicated wheel coatings 2-3 years ago.

Switched to tire coatings last year.

Threw away all my wheel/tire cleaners (kept 1 of each just in case) and never looked back. When I need that final 10% cleaning of the wheels a MF + UWW or a QD does it for me.
Click to expand...

Next time try it with a white cotton terry towel, instead of MF
 
Setec Astronomy said:
I have also observed that certain dressings, cause more browning of tires than others (I know this seems like an oxymoron, a dressing causing browning, but I'm talking about as the dressing wears off). Some of this may be related to the point above about cleaners.
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I'm glad to know I'm not the only one to observe this. After some discussions on "blooming" here, I thought I was crazy.

For a while I was using Meguiars Hot Shine tire spray on our vehicles. It would turn all the tires a brown-ish color rather quickly. The Firestone A/T tires on our SUV would actually start turning a rust color! It drove me nuts.
 
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