Short Review: Mothers Foaming Tire & Wheel Cleaner

I see it's not for bare aluminum wheels. I do like how well it foams up and it looks like it really cleaned the wheels and tires well.
 
forrest@mothers said:
The foaming action allows the cleaner to dwell in place instead of running down the wheel and tire. This allows better cleaning.
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Nice review Mark!

If I may...

Question to forrest@mothers:
What ingredient(s), [(chemical(s)], does Mothers Foaming Tire & Wheel Cleaner contain that the following guideline has been issued for this product:

"WARNING: For use on factory/OEM coated wheels and hubcaps only. Avoid polished or roughcast aluminum, billet or anodized wheels. Do not use on motorcycle wheels, casings or components".

Thanks in advance for your input.

:)

Bob
 
Seems that I recall that Mothers makes 3 seperate wheel and tire cleaners Bob. One is for chrome, the all wheel, and I believe one for uncoated wheels, but I could be wrong. Of course that doesn't really answer the question you raised.
 
Hoytman is correct - we make 3 different wheel cleaners for various finishes.

I'm not a chemist so I can't answer your question directly. I do know, though, that in testing we found Foaming Wheel & Tire Cleaner would occasionally stain a polished (non-coated) rim. There was no rhyme or reason. 3 rims on a vehicle would be fine and 1 would be stained.

So, to err on the side of caution, we added the warning and suggest instead that owners of non-coated rims use our Polished Aluminum Wheel Cleaner instead.
 
forrest@mothers said:
Hoytman is correct - we make 3 different wheel cleaners for various finishes.

I'm not a chemist so I can't answer your question directly. I do know, though, that in testing we found Foaming Wheel & Tire Cleaner would occasionally stain a polished (non-coated) rim. There was no rhyme or reason. 3 rims on a vehicle would be fine and 1 would be stained.

So, to err on the side of caution, we added the warning and suggest instead that owners of non-coated rims use our Polished Aluminum Wheel Cleaner instead.
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Thanks for your reply.

There are, IMO, redundancies in many car-care-product lines.

So...I may be wrong, but I now count four (4) "wheel cleaners" listed under the Mother's umbrella:

1.) FX Wheel & Tire Cleaner:
FX Wheel & Tire Cleaner. Cutting-edge technology designed to keep today’s wheels and tires looking great. Brake dust and road grime are a thing of the past with this safe, powerful, fast acting, non-acidic foaming cleaner. Its unique spray on, hose off, and let dry design leaves any wheel and tire looking their absolute best. Safe for all factory/OEM wheels and hubcaps, including painted, clearcoated, color coated, steel, modular or chrome.

WARNING: FOR USE ON FACTORY/OEM COATED WHEELS AND HUBCAPS ONLY. AVOID POLISHED OR ROUGHCAST ALUMINUM, BILLET OR ANODIZED WHEELS. DO NOT USE ON MOTORCYCLE WHEELS, CASINGS OR COMPONENTS.

2.) Pro-Strength Chrome Wheel Cleaner:
Mothers® Chrome Wheel Cleaner is specially formulated to quickly and easily clean chrome wire wheels, chrome plated wheels, chrome wire hubcaps and rough cast aluminum “Mag” wheels. Its unique spray on, hose off design safely penetrates, dissolves and suspends all types of brake dust, grease, dirt, and grime, making rinsing a snap, and turns the most neglected rough cast aluminum to like-new condition.

3.)Polished Aluminum Wheel Cleaner:
Mothers® Aluminum Wheel Cleaner is formulated to safely and easily clean uncoated polished aluminum and anodized wheels. Gentle, yet effective, Aluminum Wheel Cleaner doesn’t just stop at aluminum. It also works great on painted, clearcoated, color coated, steel, modular, chrome, custom or factory coated wheels and hubcaps. Its unique spray on, hose off design safely penetrates, dissolves and suspends all types of brake dust, grease, dirt, and grime, making rinsing a snap.

4.) Foaming Wheel & Tire Cleaner:
Mothers® Wheel & Tire Cleaner is a foaming, non-acidic spray, formulated to quickly and easily clean both wheels and tires, including blackwalls and whitewalls. Safe for painted, clearcoated, color coated, steel, modular, chrome, or factory coated wheels and hubcaps. Its unique spray on, hose off design safely penetrates, dissolves and suspends all types of brake dust, grease, dirt, and grime, making rinsing a snap. Unique spot-free rinse leaves wheels perfectly clean, with no need to hand dry.

WARNING: For use on factory/OEM coated wheels and hubcaps only. Avoid polished or roughcast aluminum, billet or anodized wheels. Do not use on motorcycle wheels, casings or components.
____________________________________________________

Being a Chemist as a career choice/profession??: Me neither.
I suppose I should have just asked for the MSDS info for Mother's Foaming Wheel & Tire Cleaner in the first place :D
____________________________________________________

-Mother's has several products I really like and have been known to use quite often. Here are a couple of 'em:

-Billet Metal Polish::props:
Mothers® Billet Metal Polish takes our world famous metal polish technology to a whole new level. State of the art cleaners and cutting edge formulation give your billet, forged and finely cast aluminum, brass and other polishable metals the absolute finest finish available—guaranteed. If you’ve spent big bucks on quality metal accessories, step up to a polish worthy of your investment.

-Mag & Aluminum Polish::props:
This is our legendary metal polish. The Mothers® secret formula balances a brilliant shine with easy use for aluminum wheels and parts, brass, alloys and accessories. Application is just a matter of a clean cloth and a little elbow grease. Mothers® Mag & Aluminum polish is strong enough to put a shine to the most neglected metals and gentle enough to use on a regular basis.

-R3 Racing Rubber Remover::dblthumb2:
Mothers® R3 is a spray on, wipe off cleaner, formulated to quickly and safely remove rubber scuffmarks, dirt, soil and grime from paint, glass, vinyl wrap and just about any other exterior surface. Modern chemistry ensures that R3 is tough on tenacious rubber and grime, but gentle and safe for surrounding surfaces.
____________________________________________________

Thanks again for your earlier response to my inquiry.

:)

Bob
 
Great review Mark, this looks like something well worth giving a try!
 
forrest@mothers said:
Hoytman is correct - we make 3 different wheel cleaners for various finishes.

I'm not a chemist so I can't answer your question directly. I do know, though, that in testing we found Foaming Wheel & Tire Cleaner would occasionally stain a polished (non-coated) rim. There was no rhyme or reason. 3 rims on a vehicle would be fine and 1 would be stained.

So, to err on the side of caution, we added the warning and suggest instead that owners of non-coated rims use our Polished Aluminum Wheel Cleaner instead.
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Is Foaming wheel & tire cleaner safe for powder coated wheels?
 
Mark -I've seen all different qualities of powder coating. Some are good, some not so.

We can't guarantee how the product will work on the lower quality powder coatings ( and it's not so easy to tell the difference between good and poor quality), so we do not recommend its use on powder coated surfaces.
 
forrest@mothers said:
Mark -I've seen all different qualities of powder coating. Some are good, some not so.

We can't guarantee how the product will work on the lower quality powder coatings ( and it's not so easy to tell the difference between good and poor quality), so we do not recommend its use on powder coated surfaces.
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Thanks.

Does Mothers make a safe powder coated wheel cleaner?
 
FUNX725 said:
Thanks for your reply.

There are, IMO, redundancies in many car-care-product lines.

So...I may be wrong, but I now count four (4) "wheel cleaners" listed under the Mother's umbrella:

Bob
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As you'll note from the wording, FX and Foaming Wheel Cleaner are the same products, but marketed to different customers.

So 3 different formulae, but sold in 4 different packages.
 
I used this product as well a couple years ago and had bought the gallon size, it is top notch on cleaning..but in an effort to buy great products at a reasonable cost (mothers is really inexpensive for a top notch product like this, only $30 a gallon), But, I had moved on to Optimum Power Clean. Power clean is only an extra $6 dollars and can be diluted 3:1 so really you are getting 3 gallons which I use as an All purpose on interior, exterior paint (when want to strip any layers and start fresh), wheels & tires (when really dirty and want to strip tire dressing), etc.. Power clean doesn't have the extreme foaming action as Mothers does, and since I want to limit my use of water, (as I have portable hose to do my car washes on the street) less foaming action and rinse off is more desirable for myself. Optimum Power Clean cleans really well like Mothers. I would put both as my favorite with Power clean the edge for cost effectiveness, multi purpose use, while still not losing on results.
 
forrest@mothers said:
It is a foaming/aerating sprayhead.

BTW, we've updated the sprayer so it doesn't squirt as much product at a time - that way the bottle should last longer. Don't think you can stick any old liquid in an aerating sprayhead and have that happen, though. It's not that simple.
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That was my original problem with the wheel cleaner; I used more than half a bottle on four wheels. Might give it another try now.
 
I have been buying this by the gallon as well. Great wheel cleaner and as you said it really cleans the tires well. I save my Autoglym wheel cleaner for the really nasty ones.
 
forrest@mothers said:
As you'll note from the wording, FX and Foaming Wheel Cleaner are the same products, but marketed to different customers.

So 3 different formulae, but sold in 4 different packages.
Click to expand...

Probably true...And, IMO, probably applicable to some of the Mother's metal polishes' formulae and packaging as well.
That's why it makes for such an easy selection process for the undiscerning consumer.:confused:
But why pick at straws...I still like some Mother's offerings!

MSDS for Foaming Tire & Wheel Cleaner:
Is the only way to: 'look at it'....by purposely requesting it upon ordering the Foaming Tire & Wheel Cleaner directly from Mother's?

:)

Bob
 
FUNX725 said:
Probably true...And, IMO, probably applicable to some of the Mother's metal polishes' formulae and packaging as well.
That's why it makes for such an easy selection process for the undiscerning consumer.:confused:
But why pick at straws...I still like some Mother's offerings!

MSDS for Foaming Tire & Wheel Cleaner:
Is the only way to: 'look at it'....by purposely requesting it upon ordering the Foaming Tire & Wheel Cleaner directly from Mother's?

:)

Bob
Click to expand...

I'm not sure what you mean about the metal polishes, but we make:

Mag & Aluminum Polish. Sold in several different sizes.
Billet Metal Polish. Sold in one size.
California Gold Metal Polish - liquid. Sold in one size.
California Gold Chrome Polish. Sold in one size.

All are unique formulae. None of these are the same.

As for the MSDS, yes you'll need to request that from our office. They handle distribution of it.
 
Forrest,

Does mothers make a wheel cleaner that's safe for powder coated wheels? If so, does it foam? Will it clean tires, too?

Thanks
 
Mark - sorry, but no we don't. We suggest soap and water for powder coating due to the wide quality of finishes out there.
 
forrest@mothers said:
I'm not sure what you mean about the metal polishes, but we make:

Mag & Aluminum Polish. Sold in several different sizes.
Billet Metal Polish. Sold in one size.
California Gold Metal Polish - liquid. Sold in one size.
California Gold Chrome Polish. Sold in one size.

All are unique formulae. None of these are the same.

As for the MSDS, yes you'll need to request that from our office. They handle distribution of it.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the info [email protected] appreciated.:props:

I meant no sarcasm, especially in regards to any Mother's wheel polishes...(I am already on record as being an adherent of them. Once again I'll state: Among, if not the best metal polishes.)

I was merely pointing out the confusion that I once was, and still am at times, faced with in selecting the "correct" products.
My belief is that today, more than ever, an "average OTC consumer" may be faced with even more confusion in product selection.
Usually I find that the "help" behind the O.T.Counters are quite lacking in their knowledge of product lines and the "correct selections" thereof.

To be totally honest...My M.O. often is misconstrued.
I just think:
Forums, such as AGO, are an excellent source of car care products information...That's all.

NOTE:
I've been trying to send a reply to your PM for sometime now...It just will not seem to process at this time(Internal Servor Error...I guess my days are numbered)...But perhaps my above response will suffice. If not, I've got doozy of a PM for your perusal!

:)

Bob
 
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