Is it Okay to Use a Degreaser on Wheels?
- Thread starter stemyx
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Rayaz
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- Aug 1, 2010
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I almost always do. It depends on the wheel finish. My personal favorite is Optimum Power Clean at about 6:1 dilution. That will, however, strip whatever wheel glaze or wax you have on there but it is safe for painted wheels. I'd stay away from Home Depot or Lowes degreasers on painted wheels. When in doubt, test a small inconspicuous spot to make sure you're not going to screw something up.
A water dilutable degreaser will not be acidic, in order to dissolve grease, it has to be alkaline. If it isn't then marketing is involved! In actual practice, such degreasers are very similar to non acid wheel cleaners so quite safe on wheels. Only thing to check is whether the degreaser has caustic sodium hydroxide. If so, it could react with sensitive finishes (in fairness, many wheel cleaners have the same hazard).
Andr3wilson
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- May 16, 2012
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Man I have missed you on here! I have been talking to some chemists lately so everything you said sense!
An example of a caustic degreaser would be 1Z W99. The stuff is the most powerful I have used, but it has sodium hydroxide in it.
95oRANGEcRUSH
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- Mar 19, 2010
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I use Meguiar's Super Degreaser and haven't had any issues yet. Cheap and works really well.
Hmm..so is this safe to use on wheels? I plan to try it out at 3:1 dilution to clean tires and wheels.
It will depend on your wheel finish. Don't even try it if your wheels are chrome, bare metal etc. Fine on powder coated. Also depends on concentration of hydroxide so best to spot test. Don't forget that sodium hydroxide is what unblocks drains and cleans ovens... It is extremely effective as a cleaner and extremely cheap. It is also the most dangerous alkalinity provider you will routinely encounter and can react strongly with numerous metals and also glass. I personally think it unnecessary for most detailing products, you can routinely achieve comparable performance with the addition of a small price premium. Whilst this premium can matter when using tonnes of a product, detailers use small quantities so the premium is small.
Mike Phillips
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- Dec 5, 2022
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Just to note... a good rule of thumb is to use the least aggressive product to get the job done... using a degreasers to clean wheels is kind of overkill. Sure you can dilute it but there are reputable companies, with brands you recognize that have already invested a lot of time and money creating products specifically for cleaning wheels without causing harm.
A good wheel cleaner needs to,
- Dissolve oily road grime
- Release or dissolve brake dust
While a degreaser will do this it likely contains a lot of other grease and oil dissolving ingredients that are not going to be safe for all wheels. Maybe some wheels, but not all wheels.
What I would do is look at your wheels, determine what it will cost you to replace them should the finish be destroyed, then weigh that against the cost of using a product specifically made for the finish on your wheel.
I cover the topic of how to determine what you wheel is made from or coated with as these are two different factors and then how to safely clean them in my how-to book.
Mike Phillips’ The Complete Guide to a Show Car Shine Paperback Book
Mike Phillips’ The Complete Guide to a Show Car Shine
E-book
I agree with regards to using the least aggressive product you can get away with but I should point out that wheel cleaners tend to be MORE aggressive than degreasers. Fundamentally, non acid wheel cleaners and water dilutable degreasers are EXTREMELY similar, the main difference is that the wheel products can get away with using more aggressive components since it is used on less sensitive areas than degreasers. It should also be noted that APCs also belong to this same group and the term APC or degreaser is often interchanged on a product depending upon customer preference.
Mike Phillips
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- Dec 5, 2022
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One thing I know...
Over my life in the detailing industry I've seen and mostly read about horror stories about how someone used something on their expensive custom wheels and destroyed the finish. Afterwards, the topic of what will it take or what will it cost to replace them.
In my first post to this thread I included,
And that's because I don't know if the OP is working on some mundane transportation car with factory wheels or his own toy or a customer's toy with some really expensive custom wheels ranging up to thousands of dollars.
So for everyone reading this into the future, take a look at your wheels and determine what it will cost you to replace them. Figure out the paint it will cause. If they're just plain-Jane wheels, do what you want. But if they are expensive, custom, multi-coated or multi-surface complex wheels, then find a safe but effective product to do the job.
Over my life in the detailing industry I've seen and mostly read about horror stories about how someone used something on their expensive custom wheels and destroyed the finish. Afterwards, the topic of what will it take or what will it cost to replace them.
In my first post to this thread I included,
Mike Phillips said:
And that's because I don't know if the OP is working on some mundane transportation car with factory wheels or his own toy or a customer's toy with some really expensive custom wheels ranging up to thousands of dollars.
So for everyone reading this into the future, take a look at your wheels and determine what it will cost you to replace them. Figure out the paint it will cause. If they're just plain-Jane wheels, do what you want. But if they are expensive, custom, multi-coated or multi-surface complex wheels, then find a safe but effective product to do the job.
- Thread starter
- #13
Just to note... a good rule of thumb is to use the least aggressive product to get the job done... using a degreasers to clean wheels is kind of overkill. Sure you can dilute it but there are reputable companies, with brands you recognize that have already invested a lot of time and money creating products specifically for cleaning wheels without causing harm.
A good wheel cleaner needs to,
- Dissolve oily road grime
- Release or dissolve brake dust
While a degreaser will do this it likely contains a lot of other grease and oil dissolving ingredients that are not going to be safe for all wheels. Maybe some wheels, but not all wheels.
What I would do is look at your wheels, determine what it will cost you to replace them should the finish be destroyed, then weigh that against the cost of using a product specifically made for the finish on your wheel.
I cover the topic of how to determine what you wheel is made from or coated with as these are two different factors and then how to safely clean them in my how-to book.
Mike Phillips’ The Complete Guide to a Show Car Shine Paperback Book
Mike Phillips’ The Complete Guide to a Show Car Shine
E-book
Thanks for the feedback Mike!! BUT what would you do then if you have like a small part time car wash business but you don't want to invest a lot of money on products that run out so quickly? Because wheel cleaner tend to run out quickly!!
Once again, thanks a lot for taking your time to read this post.
ObsessiveAutoDetail
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- Nov 5, 2008
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You have to ask yourself which will cost less - a known application specific wheel cleaner... Or... Replacing a set of wheels on a customer's car that you ruined by using the wrong off purpose cleaner?
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Theo_Auto_Fines
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- Apr 26, 2013
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I always do a quick test before I fully immerse the wheels since taking extra 20 mins to just brush and rinse is cheaper than replacing them.
If you want a single product to do all you want either something pH neutral or you want a non-acid, non-caustic product. The acids will tend to react with sensitive finishes and caustic (a 'hydroxide' will do likewise) - alkaline wheel cleaners based on non-caustic alkalinity providers will tend to be dramatically safer on metals. Alas I am UK based and the US market is yet quite new to me to make recommendations but perhaps a fellow reader might take the info above and identify some products which would fall into this description.