Cleaning brown tires

[Dadillac]

So I have Falken Wildpeak A/T Trail tires on my Subaru Outback. They are roughly a year and 7 months old. Tires started browning about 6 months ago and I decided I would get to them eventually. So I bought some Adams tire and rubber cleaner and a Chemical Guys stiff bristle brush. Cleaned the tires today, two times, and they are about 70% there. Still nowhere good enough. I still have more cleaner so the next time I wash the car I will probably try again.

Is there a better way or a better cleaner that will do an absolute clean? I would really like to do this only once more and be done. Someone on the interwebs mentioned wiping the tires with a rag soaked with gasoline. Does this actually work for removing the brown gunk and cleaning the tires?

Thanks

Don

 

[Eldorado2k]

Use this product if you really want to remove the browning from your tires.

Mothers Back to Black Tire Cleaner

 

[joebruin77]

So I have Falken Wildpeak A/T Trail tires on my Subaru Outback. They are roughly a year and 7 months old. Tires started browning about 6 months ago and I decided I would get to them eventually. So I bought some Adams tire and rubber cleaner and a Chemical Guys stiff bristle brush. Cleaned the tires today, two times, and they are about 70% there. Still nowhere good enough. I still have more cleaner so the next time I wash the car I will probably try again.

Is there a better way or a better cleaner that will do an absolute clean? I would really like to do this only once more and be done. Someone on the interwebs mentioned wiping the tires with a rag soaked with gasoline. Does this actually work for removing the brown gunk and cleaning the tires?

Thanks

Don

If you have a year and half's worth of gunk on the tires, it could simply take 3, 4 or even 5 rounds of the application of the tire cleaner followed by a good scrubbing with the brush and rinse to get them clean. Keep cleaning until the tire cleaner appears white during the scrubbing.

Once your tires are clean, you won't need to work as hard to keep them clean. I find that once tires are clean, all I need to do to keep them clean is to spray some ONR or Mckees 37 n914 on the tire and wipe them down with a microfiber towel. If you do this once every 2-3 weeks, they should stay clean.

 

[DFB]

So I have Falken Wildpeak A/T Trail tires on my Subaru Outback. They are roughly a year and 7 months old. Tires started browning about 6 months ago and I decided I would get to them eventually. So I bought some Adams tire and rubber cleaner and a Chemical Guys stiff bristle brush. Cleaned the tires today, two times, and they are about 70% there. Still nowhere good enough. I still have more cleaner so the next time I wash the car I will probably try again.

Is there a better way or a better cleaner that will do an absolute clean? I would really like to do this only once more and be done. Someone on the interwebs mentioned wiping the tires with a rag soaked with gasoline. Does this actually work for removing the brown gunk and cleaning the tires?

Thanks

Don

In those situations, you can use either mineral spirits or Stoner Tarminator. The benefit of Tarminator is that it doesn't dry out the rubber like mineral spirits can.






Clean the tires as you have been, then apply either product to a junk towel and rub the sidewall like crazy. This should get you there.

Both are sledgehammers, so only use this method occasionally. I would also caution against repeated cleaning cycles in one go, you will end up removing too much of the UV inhibitors in the rubber and cause premature degradation. I would stop at 3 passes. That applies to the mineral spirits/Tarminator method (you only need one pass with that) as well as the use of traditional wheel/tire cleaners.

 

[vaced]

Both are sledgehammers, so only use this method occasionally. I would also caution against repeated cleaning cycles in one go, you will end up removing too much of the UV inhibitors in the rubber and cause premature degradation. I would stop at 3 passes. That applies to the mineral spirits/Tarminator method (you only need one pass with that) as well as the use of traditional wheel/tire cleaners.

On autogeek the description for Mother’s Back To Black Tire Cleaner says

Mothers Back to Black Tire Cleaner is formulated with modern chemistry to ensure it’s tough on dirt, but gentle and safe for your tires at the same time

I realize companies wouldn’t want to say that they damage tires (if they do), but I’m guessing you have experience with tire cleaners damaging/drying out tires?

Or maybe the wiping/scrubbing repeatedly, at one time, is what causes damage?

 

[PA DETAILER]

The Mothers is a good product to strip and clean the tires.

 

[evo77]

Or maybe the wiping/scrubbing repeatedly, at one time, is what causes damage?

Unless your scrubbing tires with a wire brush, NO, this doesn't damage tires.

Damage comes from solvents and/or chemicals that *deteriorate* the antioxidants and antiozonants formulated in the rubber compound. These are designed to bleed to the sidewall to protect the tire from oxygen and UV light. Too harsh of a tire cleaner will remove this protection and expose the rubber to potential "cracking" over time, which of course compromises the safety of the tire.

When we used to own a 2015 Grand Caravan I was never able to get rid of the brown hue of the sidewall, no matter how many times I scrubbed with a tire cleaner, which at the time was Megs APC. Back then I didn't realize the nature of the antiozonants. But I have to believe that there are just certain tires with certain rubber compounds that just make it near impossible for a clean, black or black-ish sidewall appearance due to the antidegradation makeup. You'll just have to live with the brown appearance no matter how clean it is.

Here is the factory Yoko tire back when we had the minivan (scrubbed like 4-6x and nothing but white foam).

 

[Dadillac]

Thanks all. So I found a product called 3D Yellow Degreaser. Bought it and it should be here tomorrow. It got amazing reviews. If that doesn't work I will try the Tarminator.

Don

 

[Silly Rabbit]

Mothers has been talked about here. Question, how does it compare to Gyeon tire cleaner??

 

[Eldorado2k]

Lots of good info in these recent posts.^ You guys know what’s up.

As far as Tarminator, I have it, but I’ve never tried cleaning tires with it.

I find it interesting that you say it’s so harsh that you recommend spraying onto a towel and wiping the tire clean? That’s really enough? And if so, that seems to go against the whole belief [for lack of a better word] that less aggressive tire cleaners work much better when it comes to restoring tires back to black without inducing blooming once they dry. So you’re saying Tarminator is that aggressive yet doesn’t induce blooming? That’s interesting.

As Evo mentioned, most general purpose cleaners i.e. high alkaline APC’s & Degreasers will clean tires, but they’re typically so strong that the tires rubber blooms in self defense as soon as it dries, so you’re left with a clean yet brown tire no matter how many times you clean it. That’s why if you’re looking to achieve naked black clean tires, a degreaser isn’t typically the best choice.

That Mothers Tire Cleaner isn’t like traditional old school harsh tire cleaners, that’s why it’s able to clean without inducing blooming. Another tire cleaner that’s on par is Mckee’s Tire & Rubber Rejuvinator. I’ve used them both and they produce the same results, only reason I tend to recommend the Mothers is because it can be purchased almost everywhere and you don’t have to buy a whole gallon at a time so it’s cheaper.

 

[Rsurfer]

Thanks all. So I found a product called 3D Yellow Degreaser. Bought it and it should be here tomorrow. It got amazing reviews. If that doesn't work I will try the Tarminator.

Don

Save some elbow grease and get a drill brush.

 

[Danube]

I thought that dedicated wheels (& tire cleaners), such as Gyeon Iron Wheel Cleaner or Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Hyper Foam Wheel Cleaner & Tyre Prep are specifically made for cleaning tires.

It always worked fine, in my case at least.

I see no reason to experiment with off-label products for this simple task of removing tire's browning.

Besides, tire browning comes from the tire (at least 80%) and is not outside dirt from the road or elsewhere.

 

[DFB]

On autogeek the description for Mother’s Back To Black Tire Cleaner says

I realize companies wouldn’t want to say that they damage tires (if they do), but I’m guessing you have experience with tire cleaners damaging/drying out tires?

Or maybe the wiping/scrubbing repeatedly, at one time, is what causes damage?

evo77 summed up what I was attempting to convey, that the physical scrubbing is not causing damage, rather the removal of anti-ozone agents causing longer term deterioration. As such, cleaning tires is perfectly safe, no matter what product used to do it. But doing 3, 4 or 5 repeated passes in one go will work against you.

Unless your scrubbing tires with a wire brush, NO, this doesn't damage tires.

Damage comes from solvents and/or chemicals that *deteriorate* the antioxidants and antiozonants formulated in the rubber compound. These are designed to bleed to the sidewall to protect the tire from oxygen and UV light. Too harsh of a tire cleaner will remove this protection and expose the rubber to potential "cracking" over time, which of course compromises the safety of the tire.

 

[DFB]

Lots of good info in these recent posts.^ You guys know what’s up.

As far as Tarminator, I have it, but I’ve never tried cleaning tires with it.

I find it interesting that you say it’s so harsh that you recommend spraying onto a towel and wiping the tire clean? That’s really enough? And if so, that seems to go against the whole belief [for lack of a better word] that less aggressive tire cleaners work much better when it comes to restoring tires back to black without inducing blooming once they dry. So you’re saying Tarminator is that aggressive yet doesn’t induce blooming? That’s interesting.

Correct, spray Tarminator onto a towel then start wiping, this is more than sufficient. It's actually really interesting to see it in action. Because this product is a solvent, it cuts through build up almost instantly, but the citrus oil in it seems to prevent drying the rubber out and create a sound base for a dressing. Personally, I have not witnessed Tarminator causing blooming after treatment.

I always point out that using Tarminator on tires is an occasional thing, not to be used for weekly cleaning. That doesn't mean its unsafe, rather you shouldn't need that sort of cleaning on a regular basis. I use it to prep brand new tires or deal with tires that are being resistant to traditional cleaning methods. For tires cleaned regularly, you may never need to use Tarminator. On the other hand, I have a set of Michelin PS3's that WILL NOT let go of tire dressing, no matter what tire cleaner I use (Brake Buster, Wise Guy, Adam's Rubber Cleaner, Turtle Wax Hyper Foam, Adam's Wheel & Tire Cleaner, Carpro ReTyre, Gyeon Tire Cleaner, none are effective) or how many passes I undertake. And that's from using water-based dressings exclusively.

In fact, I needed to use Tarminator on those PS3's today. After cleaning with ReTyre (no blooming or browning at all) and then dried, you can see the dressing remains..............




After a pass with Tarminator and back to matte/bare rubber -






A video of it in action -

I don't normally like using products off label or mixing up my own chemical concoctions, and I generally like having products dedicated to each task. Using Tarminator to deal with difficult tires is the exception to that.

 

[Coatingsarecrack]

Save some elbow grease and get a drill brush.

This…. The drill brush is a must have. If the 3D doesn’t work I would get the pbush before tarminator.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[opie2]

Thanks all. So I found a product called 3D Yellow Degreaser. Bought it and it should be here tomorrow. It got amazing reviews. If that doesn't work I will try the Tarminator.

Don

Ive have went thru atleast 3-4 gallons of 3d yellow degreaser. That is my regular wheel and tire cleaner. Normal maintance washes for me is a 1:10 mix and for really neglected..1:4 or 1:3 works best for me.

I just used tarminator and a drill brush to give my tires a fresh surface for trying out 3d matte tire dressing. Worked well.

Sent from my SM-S901U using Tapatalk

 

[Eldorado2k]

I have a set of Michelin PS3's that WILL NOT let go of tire dressing, no matter what tire cleaner I use (Brake Buster, Wise Guy, Adam's Rubber Cleaner, Turtle Wax Hyper Foam, Adam's Wheel & Tire Cleaner, Carpro ReTyre, Gyeon Tire Cleaner, none are effective) or how many passes I undertake. And that's from using water-based dressings exclusively.

Dealing with the Same exact problem at the moment. I believe I caused it by being lazy 1 day and instead of cleaning the tires like I usually do, I just sprayed more Hyper Dressing on top of the layer it already had, I don’t even think I rinsed the tires. 1 thing I know for sure is I sprayed it on and didn’t use my brush to apply because I didn’t want to get my brush dirty. So about a week later I noticed the tires turned info a sticky mess, not necessarily visually because they still look ok, but when spraying tire cleaner on them and trying to brush them clean it’s like trying to clean off molasses. It just goops up my tire brush and turns it black.

So last night I decided to try a few things including Tarminator to finally get to the bottom of this mess and get these tires clean once again.

This is what they looked like. As you can see, visually they look ok. Looks can be deceiving.

Here’s the front tire which I used Megs D143 @1.2 to clean.

Here’s the rear tire.

I quickly became exhausted trying to clean the front tire with D143. It simply wasn’t cutting it. I did 3 maybe 4 attempts at it going 2x each time using 2 different brushes and spraying twice each time before rinsing and it was still turning the brush black. It almost got them fully clean at the end of the 4th time, but I ran out of patience and moved onto the next tire.

On the rear tire I used LA’s Totally Awesome straight undiluted and wow what a difference it made. This is way better at cleaning tires. It actually got all the gunk off fully clean after 2 or 3 cleanings [it’s hard to remember since I was hitting it twice with 2 different brushes each time]

But it got it clean.

Now here’s where it gets a bit interesting.
This is the same tire I cleaned with LA’s Awesome. But on the right half I had just finished spraying/wiping clean with Tarminator. Visually no difference. [with the exception of the innermost part of the tire being bone dry/clean]

But it did pull off all this grime onto the towel. I find it interesting to see all this gunk yet hard to tell any difference to how the tire looks and feels.

So I decided to try a different method on the next tire. I figured to see if I could cut to the chase and save time & energy + save from ruining a towel and simply spray Tarminator onto a fully dirty sticky tire and rinse it off with the jet nozzle.

I was working in the dark and trying to not spray on the wheel, but it worked for the most part.

After taking those pics, I sprayed the entire tire with Tarminator and rinsed, followed by a quick scrubbing with LA’s Totally Awesome and the tire was completely clean. Great stuff.

 

[Dadillac]

Success. The 3D degreaser was waiting at my door when I got home from work today. Sprayed the degreaser on the tire, agitated with the brush, resprayed the tire and wheel, and rinsed off with the pressure washer. No more brown. I used a full 16 oz bottle of the Adams and was left with brown still there. I used a half of a 16 oz bottle of the 3D Yellow and no more brown. I found my new tire cleaner

Don

 

[Rsurfer]

Success. The 3D degreaser was waiting at my door when I got home from work today. Sprayed the degreaser on the tire, agitated with the brush, resprayed the tire and wheel, and rinsed off with the pressure washer. No more brown. I used a full 16 oz bottle of the Adams and was left with brown still there. I used a half of a 16 oz bottle of the 3D Yellow and no more brown. I found my new tire cleaner

Don

Maybe the Adams did the heavy work and 3D did the finishing job?

 

[Setec Astronomy]

I haven't logged on here in months but I have to come in this thread to recommend the Tuff Shine tire cleaner, because no one else has stepped up? That's the best one I've used.

I haven't used the Mother's that Eldo recommended for a long time, that's the waterless one? I never really tried that one for this application (de-browning problem tires), I'm not sure that would be my recommendation, but I'm sure Eldo has used that one a lot more than me...I've been saving that for doing a rinseless tire wash with my rinseless car wash...but I never seem to be able to ween myself off of the hose for wheels.

As Evo mentioned, most general purpose cleaners i.e. high alkaline APC’s & Degreasers will clean tires, but they’re typically so strong that the tires rubber blooms in self defense as soon as it dries, so you’re left with a clean yet brown tire no matter how many times you clean it. That’s why if you’re looking to achieve naked black clean tires, a degreaser isn’t typically the best choice.

I once got a quart of the Hi-Temp tire cleaner, that was a caustic, and absolutely seemed to pull as much browning out of the tire as it was taking off, it was like a self-defeating process.

Anyway, glad you got the tires cleaned to your satisfaction with the 3D stuff.