4 way tire cleaner showdown - via waterless

[Eldorado2k]

I recently tried out Mothers Back to Black Tire Renew for the 1st time and it got me thinking about whether or not all other tire cleaners can be used that same way, or if there really is groundbreaking technology inside that bottle of Mothers... So naturally it lead me to do some testing, and now I present to you a 4 way waterless tire cleaner Battle Royale where only the winners win and the losers go home.

Here are the 4 participants:

Also, I know that D108 Super Degreaser and D114 aren't meant to be used as waterless tire cleaners. I have no apologizes and don't care if it's unfair. [these cheapo shop towels folded in quarters will be used for the testing]

Ok so lets get to it.. Here's the test subject. These tires were cleaned and had Meguiars Hyper Dressing applied to them this past Saturday. I know they don't look dirty at all... It's a constant dilemma with tires around here. Lol.

Mothers Back to Black Tire Renew - Before: Front drivers side tire.

I sprayed the tire with a liberal amount of cleaner, going around the tire about 2 times to ensure even coverage. Directions say let it dwell for 15secs... I gave it 30secs. and proceeded to wipe off the tire.

Loads of dirt & grime easily wiped away onto the towel. I folded the towel and even at the 4th side there seemed to be a substantial amount of gunk still willing to come off the tire. It kind of felt like I could've kept going, but I only wanted to use 1 side of each towel for this test.

After:

Mckee's Rubber & Tire Rejuvenator - Just after spraying onto drivers side rear tire:

I decided to take that before picture after spraying it because of the noticeable amount of browning that was immediately visable coming off the tire. It's hard to see in the pic, but irl it stood out. I let it dwell for 1min. per directions.

Similar to the 1st tire, this was also a positive user experience as the towel glides rather easily across the tire and loads of grime come off and there's no doubt of it's effectiveness.

After:

Megs Super Degreaser@4:1 - Passenger side front tire. I sprayed the same liberal amount as the other tires got and let it dwell for 1min.

Now here's where things begin to get hairy... Wipe off with this tire showed a clear difference between the previous 2 + the gunk seemed to almost hit the wall after 2 quarters of the towel. It dried much faster and you could tell the cleaning cycle was over sooner. Not a very pleasant user experience. There is no doubt a difference between the first 2 compared to this 1.

Things literally got hairy using D108 as a waterless tire cleaner:

After:

If you thought there was a drop off in both performance and user experience with D108, it got even worse trying to use D114 as a waterless, especially with these towels. Gunkola. It was a sticky greasy mess trying to wipe this tire off.

After: It only looks this good because I never let these tires look bad... But trust me, up close/irl this tire is not up to snuff.

Ok here's each of the towels afterwards.

Mothers. Great job. This stuff lives up to its hype. This pic almost doesn't serve its true justice.

Mckee's. Also very good. I'd rate it just slightly under the Mothers, but that margin could've been due to it being the rear tire not having the as much gunk to clean off as the front? But it wasn't enough to make it a clear factor and this still did an excellent job.

Btw, I placed every towel in these after shots in the same direction with the 1st sides used on the bottom and final wipe side on top. I try to remember the small details for equal test results.

Meguiars Super Degreaser@4:1

You can clearly see where it hit the wall as the top 2 sides don't have much on them... I'm actually surprised the the 2nd quarter of the towel the towel has as much as it does. Super Degreaser isn't recommended to be used as a waterless tire cleaner and it's obvious why. Its best to stick to the manufacturers recommended directions for D108.

Meguiars D114.

This isn't a tire cleaner, never claimed to be and I never said it was... However I've had positive results using it to wipe off Coated tires. Trying to wipe off dressed tires was a totally different story. Poor results in every way. You can see how it quit cleaning by the clean 4th quarter of the towel.

I thought I'd share these results for anyone/everyone who's wondered if dedicated tire cleaners can really make a difference or not... As you can see, they do. Thanks for reading.

 

[MattPersman]

I️ like it eldo! Great way to do that comparison test.

Only weird thing I️ have seen in past threads is people wanting to use the Mothers with water like spray it on and hose it off after scrubbing like a normal cleaner which is the opposite of how it is supposed to work

My only thought after any of this testing is to wonder if the mothers and or mckees would effect longevity of dressing at all. I️ have the mothers and like it and it even leaves tires looking good after but one wonders if it is leaving something that could interfere with dressings

Like I said great post and comparison thanks for doing it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Pats300zx]

Awesome comparo Eldo. I love it. I have been reaching for Mckees's Tire and Rubber Rejuvinator more and more especially when doing rinseless washes. I was always worried about using something like Super Degreaser or Super Clean and not rinsing it.

 

[osiapstndp]

It's neat to see that the Mother's product did so well. I'm a complete convert to McKee's 37 Tire and Rubber Rejuvenator and this year it has been the only tire cleaner that I used. I'm running low so another couple gallons will have to be ordered soon.

D114 and N914 make for good maintenance cleaners for well kept wheels. The other day I did maintenance on a Challenger that I previously coated with CSL. N914 at 1:128 practically melted off everything on the wheels.

 

[Cruzscarwash]

so I use D114 as a tire cleaner at a stronger ratio and I use a tire brush then wipe. it does dry fast though. the mothers looks really interesting.

 

[JustJesus]

Thanks Eldorado. Good review, sir.

 

[BadgerRivFan]

Thanks Eldorado2k. I've been a fan of Mothers B2B Tire Renew for some time. I follow up the Mothers with BLACKFIRE All-In-One Trim & Tire Protectant. The two products make a great one two punch for cleaning and dressing tires without the use of a hose.

 

[evo77]

I used to love and use the Mothers for a while since all I do is RW to my cars. But it got to the point where wiping off the brown soil was getting into the grooves of the sidewall. And when its wet it doesn't look noticeable so you can't correct what you don't see. But once fully dried I would get these dirty brown spots in various areas of the tire, including around the outer tread.

This is more prevalent on tires that have gone a longer period of time between cleanings. There is only so much you can "lift" from the tire with a MF rag when your wiping/moving gunk around. Versus the flushing with water in the traditional way.

So I sort of graduated to a blend of both, sort of, in a way. Instead of dragging out the hose I use a garden sprayer with h2o. Spray your tire with your favorite tire cleaner. Scrub. Rinse with the sprayer. Dry with a rag. A much thorough deep cleaning of the rubber. At least in my experience!

There is obviously some runoff so maybe its not exactly a RW but if one were that concerned you could lay down on old beach towel to catch and absorb that runoff. Saw that from another member here.

My 2cents...

 

[Eldorado2k]

I️ like it eldo! Great way to do that comparison test.

Only weird thing I️ have seen in past threads is people wanting to use the Mothers with water like spray it on and hose it off after scrubbing like a normal cleaner which is the opposite of how it is supposed to work

My only thought after any of this testing is to wonder if the mothers and or mckees would effect longevity of dressing at all. I️ have the mothers and like it and it even leaves tires looking good after but one wonders if it is leaving something that could interfere with dressings

Like I said great post and comparison thanks for doing it


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks bud, as far as trying to use the Mothers like a traditional tire cleaner via spray on/hose off... I actually did it like that the very 1st time I tried it and my 1st impression was "not very impressed" lol.

But I always remind myself not to make a final judgment on any product until I follow the directions to the T.

As far as it interfering with dressings, I highly doubt it would negatively affect them.. The final look and feel from this product reminds me alot of the Mothers Heavy Duty Trim Cleaner, and I've never had the final result of that product affect a trim coating.

Awesome comparo Eldo. I love it.

Thank you. I appreciate it!

It's neat to see that the Mother's product did so well. /QUOTE]

I had the same feelings, except mine were towards the Mckee's... Even though I've had it long enough to go through almost an entire gallon, I've never tried it this way until now. I was very impressed, even more so than using it the traditional way with a scrub brush/rinse.

so I use D114 as a tire cleaner at a stronger ratio and I use a tire brush then wipe. it does dry fast though. the mothers looks really interesting.

I use D114 to maintain the tires on my daily driver, the difference being that those tires are coated.. It's a complete night & day difference as almost no dirt comes off my tires because they remain so smooth & clean, unlike all the dirt that a dressing attracts.

Thanks Eldorado. Good review, sir.

Thanks bro.

Thanks Eldorado2k. I've been a fan of Mothers B2B Tire Renew for some time.

If anyone deserves thanks it's you guys, for mentioning it enough times that I couldn't help but give it a shot to see what all the hype was about. Lol.

 

[Eldorado2k]

There is only so much you can "lift" from the tire with a MF rag when your wiping/moving gunk around.

Ok now lets talk towels... The night before I did this 4 way test I tried the Mothers B2B Tire Renew as directed, but instead of using these cheapo small shop rags I used a clean cotton terry towel from my carpet duty stack to do the wipe off.

The terry towel worked waay better than those cheap shop rags. I had a legit wow moment as far as detailing products go... That doesn't happen very often.

Close up view of the gunk.

Next tire before:

After:

Check out the amount of grime that came off of just 2 tires! [yes, I was wearing gloves]

The product paired with a proper towel [IMO cotton terry towel works best] produced amazing results. I'm also certain the terry towel works better than any microfiber towel would.. The same way a cotton terry towel works better than a microfiber when cleaning leather seats, as the microfiber suffers from its lack of bite + it tends to stick & grab onto dirt and grease, which is only intensified when trying to wipe off a dirty tires sidewall.

...However, I'm not so sure I'm willing to sacrifice 1 of my cotton terry towels in exchange for using this product...

Yea, that towel might as well be fubar. IMO it's on par with a towel that's been used to polish bare aluminum. And while I have washed and reused some of my microfibers used to polish metal before, it's borderline red flag in regards to feeling ok to use my normL washing machine. I don't want to throw that greasy grimy towel along with more like it in my washing machine... Would you?

So my question is: What kind of towels do you guys use when cleaning tires with this product? And what do you do with them afterwards? And please don't tell me this is what you use Costco microfibers for, because I can tell just from using 2 kinds of towels so far [cheapest vs. strongest] that they wouldn't be able to provide anywhere near the best user experience or results.

I also bought a roll of thick paper towels, which I have yet to try.

 

[BadgerRivFan]

I use cotton/terry cloth hand towels for wiping the grime off, and yes I also think they work the best.

I do wash them (when I have enough for a small load) along with large bath towels that I use to wipe up my shop floor with after rinseless washes. I have a HE wash machine. Sometimes I throw a little degreaser in along with the load. You do get some residue left in your wash basin, which can be wiped out with some paper towels and APC, or I will sometimes run the wash machines cleaning cycle to take care of it.

My wife does not like me washing all my my car cleaning towels in our wash machine, but she does like driving a clean and shiny car so my obsession is tolerated.

 

[MattPersman]

I️ have been using red rags and or end of life microfiber towels. Haven’t tried the terry towels yet. I️ had just been throwing them away after using the product cause like you they are nasty and they look pretty much finished.

I’ll have to use some terry towels and see how that goes


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Eldorado2k]

I use cotton/terry cloth hand towels for wiping the grime off, and yes I also think they work the best.

I do wash them (when I have enough for a small load) along with large bath towels that I use to wipe up my shop floor with after rinseless washes. I have a HE wash machine. Sometimes I throw a little degreaser in along with the load. You do get some residue left in your wash basin, which can be wiped out with some paper towels and APC, or I will sometimes run the wash machines cleaning cycle to take care of it.

My wife does not like me washing all my my car cleaning towels in our wash machine, but she does like driving a clean and shiny car so my obsession is tolerated.

What detergent do you use when you wash them? Do you add bleach?

Last time I washed my carpet mopping towels, I ended up running them through the washer twice and left them to soak with suds + bleach for a while during the 2 wash because they flat out weren't clean enough after the 1 wash.

 

[davidc]

Go to Costco and buy the package of terry cloths and yes I wash them in Persil. They may not be spotless but they are good enough for tires.

Dave

 

[BadgerRivFan]

What detergent do you use when you wash them? Do you add bleach? .

I just use the regular laundry detergent that we use for our clothes - Costco stuff I believe. Have not used bleach, but there's certainly no reason not to.

If the towels are not perfectly clean I don't worry about it too much. All I am going to do is use them to clean grime off of tires again or clean my shop floor, so no big deal. That is all these towels get used for.

 

[Eldorado2k]

Go to Costco and buy the package of terry cloths and yes I wash them in Persil. They may not be spotless but they are good enough for tires.

Dave

I've never even thought of getting them there.. I might have to check them out if they're decent quality at the right price. Thx.

If the towels are not perfectly clean I don't worry about it too much. All I am going to do is use them to clean grime off of tires again or clean my shop floor, so no big deal. That is all these towels get used for.

The reason I worried enough to run them through a 2nd time is because alot of them were heavily caked from recent interior detail jobs + the cleanest of them also double as my leather maintenance/wipedown towels for my daily driver. I need to buy more as the better batch of the 2 seems to have slowly disappeared 1 by 1. Lol.

 

[Eldorado2k]

Hey guys, just wanted to give a final update on my initial testing of the Mothers Back to Black Tire Renew using different kinds of towels to wipe off.

Earlier today I was able to do a quik test on a vehicle that was extremely dirty and that hadn't been washed in about 6 weeks. Here's the tire. As you can tell not only the tire, but the wheel is really dirty, making for a good test subject.

I wanted to test how this product would perform using paper towels, as this would by far be the most economical way to do it. I was crossing my fingers hoping it would work good enough...

But it was just flat out not a very good user experience..

I got 2 sides out of the several towels I used and that was as far as I could use that bunch before they were done. They shed alot of pieces and made a mess across the tire sidewall + the end result was poor. This was alot worse than the bad user experience using red shop towels.

I ended up re cleaning this tire with Megs Super Degreaser and the hose nozzle. Btw check out the great job Meguiars Wheel Brightener was able to do with no agitation at all. Excellent!

Final thoughts: This product, along with Mckee's Rubber & Tire Rejuvenator both works very good via spray on / wipe off to clean tires. The only drawback is you may borderline feel like thinking about trashing the towel afterwards. IME cotton terry towels provide the best user experience + results with this method.

Good luck. Thanks for reading.

 

[RippyD]

Why not a brush rather than towels? I generally use a brush first on dirty tires wheels, then follow with a towel as needed. As for cleaning, for extra gritty ones I'll pre-wash in a bucket sometimes. All also run the self-cleaning cycle if something too dirty went in the washer. I don't recall ever seeing an issue with left over residue in the washer with the exception of polish or sealants. Can occasionally still smell these in the washer, which I take as an indicator that the towels aren't clean and give them another washing.

 

[The Guz]

Why not a brush rather than towels? I generally use a brush first on dirty tires wheels, then follow with a towel as needed. As for cleaning, for extra gritty ones I'll pre-wash in a bucket sometimes. All also run the self-cleaning cycle if something too dirty went in the washer. I don't recall ever seeing an issue with left over residue in the washer with the exception of polish or sealants. Can occasionally still smell these in the washer, which I take as an indicator that the towels aren't clean and give them another washing.

Good points and you are correct that this Mothers tire cleaner works great with a brush and towel just like you mentioned. I use black microfibers so no issues with me worrying about my light colored towels getting stained.

 

[Eldorado2k]

Why not a brush rather than towels? I generally use a brush first on dirty tires

I don't plan on using this as my regular tire cleaner. But I'd like to be able to have an option for those times when hose & water isn't available, that's why I'm experimenting with different towels.