Cleaning Stained Wheels?

"Boxer_4" (Boxer_4) 09/01/2015 at 20:11 • Filed to: None

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Any advise on removing salt/road grime stains from alloy wheels? I’m getting a new wheel as part of the repair from the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! last week, however, the other three wheels still have 6 years and 60,000 miles of use on them. The Forester was never really cleaned outside until it became mine. I left the stains go since everything matched, but now one wheel will look significantly better than the others. The stains look close to what you see in the picture (I’m not near my car at the moment for an actual picture).

I’ve heard of people using Kaboom before, but I’m not sure how “wheel safe” of a cleaner it is.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > Boxer_4 09/01/2015 at 20:16

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Be sparing with the really powerful wheel cleaners if your alloy wheels have any kind of coating/anodizing/other tomfoolery on them. There are some really epic wheel cleaners out there with acid in them, but they blow straight through said coatings, make them run, and otherwise produce a #rekt appearance, because the surface treatment is not the same as the actual color of the alloy.

B_dol > Boxer_4 09/01/2015 at 20:18

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Try Sonax Full Effect first, works miracles and isn’t overly harsh.

http://www.autogeek.net/sonax-wheel-cl…

m-b-w loves his SUBAROO > Boxer_4 09/01/2015 at 20:19

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I would demand a full exterior detail from the other parties insurance company so that everything matches.

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > Boxer_4 09/01/2015 at 20:20

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Purple Power, but don’t let it soak forever. It’s the most acidic cleaner I’ve ever used on the ST wheels. It’s got a Ph of almost 12, damn near alkaline. It’s amazing with the endless brake dust, but I only let it soak for 10-15 seconds before I spray and wipe clean.

A lesser alternative you could try is Simple Green.

Boxer_4 > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 09/01/2015 at 20:24

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These are just a straight painted metallic finish, so nothing too fancy. The idea is to use the most gentle cleaner that will get the job done, or at least close. I’ve seen #rekt wheels, at they certainly look worse than stained wheels.

Boxer_4 > m-b-w loves his SUBAROO 09/01/2015 at 20:26

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That’s a fair point. That will be what I try first.

Boxer_4 > B_dol 09/01/2015 at 20:26

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Thanks, I’ll look into it.

RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht > K-Roll-PorscheTamer 09/01/2015 at 20:27

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Purple Power is one of the better solutions if the grime is in any way oil/grease based. Alkalines break that down like nobody’s business, and it’s not an off-gassing alkaline/straight up oxidant like bleach.

m-b-w loves his SUBAROO > Boxer_4 09/01/2015 at 20:29

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Exactly. Why should you have to go through the trouble of making everything look uniform, just because someone else was inattentive and hit your car.

Boxer_4 > K-Roll-PorscheTamer 09/01/2015 at 20:30

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Thanks. I’ll probably try Simple Green first, and work up from there.

Boxer_4 > m-b-w loves his SUBAROO 09/01/2015 at 20:36

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Very true. I’ve been thinking more of the larger aspects of the repair, and haven’t really thought about the little details much.

Textured Soy Protein > Boxer_4 09/01/2015 at 20:39

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I was gonna say, when in doubt, Simple Green. Probably start out with diluting it some.

Otherwise when looking at wheel cleaners, you want to find one that’s safe for clear coated wheels. Those are generally gentler, but still can wreck a finish of you’re not careful.

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht 09/01/2015 at 20:42

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And it’s cheap.

Boxer_4 > Textured Soy Protein 09/01/2015 at 20:47

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That’s the second recommendation for Simple Green I’ve heard tonight. I’ll have to look into it.

Gentle is definitely the name of the game. The cleaner I have now ( I forget the name) is enough remove road grime and brake dust, but does not touch the stains.

TheVancen- In Pursuit of a Greater Payday and Car Parts > Boxer_4 09/01/2015 at 21:04

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I like Super Clean, the stuff in the purple bottle. Really good for making the tires very clean.

Make sure you rinse it all off fairly quickly though, under a minute or so. I’ve only had it mark up one set of wheels but those were ones I painted with a can of Tremclad so old the can had rust on it.

So I’d chalk that up to incompetence rather than corrosiveness.

desertdog5051 > K-Roll-PorscheTamer 09/01/2015 at 21:09

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You better go back and read your chemistry book. Neutral is 7. 12 is extremely alkaline. The scale only goes to 14.

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > desertdog5051 09/01/2015 at 21:15

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I said it has a Ph of almost 12, and that’s damn near alkaline, I’m not entirely wrong. Just not entirely accurate. I hate chemistry.

desertdog5051 > K-Roll-PorscheTamer 09/01/2015 at 21:29

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7 being neutral ph and anything below that is acidic (1-6). 8-14 is alkaline. The scale runs from 1-14 with 7 in the middle. That means that 12 is very alkaline. Don’t worry about it. We all make mistakes. Lord knows I have. I got the gist of what you were talking about. :)

Newsboy > Boxer_4 09/01/2015 at 21:49

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Griot’s Heavy Duty Wheel Cleaner. Sh** is amazing.

http://www.griotsgarage.com/product/heavy+…

jkm7680 > Boxer_4 09/01/2015 at 22:14

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Simple green and heavy duty scrub it.

If they’re painted, then don’t. If they aren’t, then whatever close enough.

R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet > K-Roll-PorscheTamer 09/03/2015 at 11:15

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Are you still running stock “semi-metallic” brake pads?
I’ve been advised to go full ceramic if I want less brake dust.

K-Roll-PorscheTamer > R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet 09/03/2015 at 11:37

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Yep.