"not clean wheels when they are hot"

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twobucket

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I read about advice "not clean wheels when they are hot".
my question is: how can wheels get hot? the rims are not rotors which will get hot because of friction. The rim is free spinning object so should stay pretty cool even after some driving?
 
Touch your wheels after you drive. They'll be hot. My guess is they pick up the heat the brakes give off. You are also bound to get cleaner on your brakes so never clean wheels directly after driving.
 
SYMAWD said:
My guess is they pick up the heat the brakes give off. You are also bound to get cleaner on your brakes so never clean wheels directly after driving.
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That makes sense. Hopefully the wheels cool down when I finish vacuum at the coin op. :). I can only clean the wheels at the coin op.
 
When I had my Miata I had it at Road America for a 'touring' session. I ran the car at 6/10ths for a hour with multiple stops for new passengers. The session ended and I drove slowly to cool the car off back to my parking space. 5-10 minutes after the session ended my rotors were still blue, and the wheels so hot you could not touch them. My wifes Santa Fe after driving on the interstate in the mountains to Breckenridge CO normal color rotors, again wheels so hot you could not touch them. I guess they help to vent heat off the rotors, so yes, they get hot.
 
twobucket said:
I read about advice "not clean wheels when they are hot".
my question is: how can wheels get hot? the rims are not rotors which will get hot because of friction. The rim is free spinning object so should stay pretty cool even after some driving?
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Have you ever seen the movie "A Christmas Story", where the kid named "Flick" is dared to put his tongue on a metal pole in the Wintertime...and when he does: "Flick's" tongue freezes/gets stuck to the pole?

Well I dare you to go ahead and try a similar stunt, by putting/"Flick-ing" your tongue on one of your vehicle's wheels right after some driving.

NOTE:
I am willing to bet that, for one thing, your tongue won't get stuck to that wheel.

Bob
 
spiralout462 said:
They will cool off after a blast with some March tap water!
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If you don't mind warped rotors.


The wheels are attached and sit flush with the rotors at the bolts > Metal conducts heat > heat will evaporate water more quickly > chemicals become highly concentrated > ugly wheels.

Or wait. You pick.
 
Wheels should be allowed to cool and preferably naturally. As offered adding cold water to hot metal can be very bad also. The acid based wheel cleaners literally can bake onto the wheels in minutes when hot. (use a temp gauge, you cannot imagine how hot wheels get)

If you are washing at a coin-op, it might consider one of three options.

1. Wash wheels before you leave house (bucket of water, rinseless wash)
2. Allow car to sit under shade and cool for 15-30 minutes
3. Vacuum car first, wash car second, and leave wheels to last being careful not to splash dirt and gunk back on clean paint.
 
killrwheels@autogeek said:
1. Wash wheels before you leave house (bucket of water, rinseless wash)
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I use optimum power clean on the wheels as I found the ONR is a little weak than I like.

Can I use OPC to clean the cold wheels at home and drive 2.5 miles to the coin op to rinse off? my concern is the OPC dries off before I get to the coin op.
 
I wouldn't leave OPC on wheels that long. This is admittedly a guess, but I would be surprised if your wheels get too hot to wash in 2.5 miles of normal driving to the coin op if you start out from home with wheels cool. Touch them after vacuuming and see
 
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