Cleaning our wheels

I pull the wheels off the car, scrub them with soap and water, dry them off and then apply Turtle Wax Speed Shine about once per month. That gets them truly clean as new.

I use chemical guys diablo wheel cleaner. I like it. Watch out with the calipers. They?re anodized and some cleaners will destroy them.

GT_Dave said:

I pull the wheels off the car, scrub them with soap and water, dry them off and then apply Turtle Wax Speed Shine about once per month. That gets them truly clean as new.

Click to expand...

Wow, Dave, I thought I was the only one that anal Time consuming but worth it!!

zeus79 said:

I use chemical guys diablo wheel cleaner. I like it. Watch out with the calipers. They?re anodized and some cleaners will destroy them.

Click to expand...

Exactly, I recently sold my Triumph Speed Triple and it had a black rear wheel (single sidearm so you really noticed it). First time I used cleaner on it (just a light spray of 409) it almost destroyed the finish. I had to do some serious rubbing/buffing to get it back so I've been a bit leery of black wheels. Sounds like ours have a protective coat though?

I use McKees 37. I have not noticed anything happening to my calipers. But I am watching them, after what Zeus79 said. Pro: gets that crap right off with a rinse. I use soap and water to be safe. Cons: it smells bad.

Hotlap, I don?t know if the wheels have a clear coat. If they do, it?ll be very minimal amount. That?s what I think.

Mild soap and water. The secret is do it often! The brake dust build up is quick, why do you think you can’t get anything but Black Wheels on any Brembo Mustang?

GT_Dave said:

I pull the wheels off the car, scrub them with soap and water, dry them off and then apply Turtle Wax Speed Shine about once per month. That gets them truly clean as new.

Click to expand...

All that effort and they're dirty again in a mile.

CaseyJones said:

All that effort and they're dirty again in a mile.

Click to expand...

But it's a fun mile!

Cost of Ownership!

Anybody ever tried a pressure washer on the wheels?

Has anyone considered ceramic coating, or even looked into it?

DTorres31 said:

Has anyone considered ceramic coating, or even looked into it?

Click to expand...

Interesting question DT31...anyone?

Has anyone come up with any type of cleaning brush to work between spokes of wheel? Something soft and no scratch? Sorta like a soft bottle brush? Post pictures of what you use.

JimT said:

Has anyone come up with any type of cleaning brush to work between spokes of wheel? Something soft and no scratch? Sorta like a soft bottle brush? Post pictures of what you use.

Click to expand...

Griots has a wide variety of microfiber wheel cleaning brushes. I got some a few weeks ago but haven't used them yet so I can not give you any recommendations.

Washed car Wednesday. It took longer to clean the wheels than the rest of the exterior.

I soak the wheels with Castrol Super Clean before brushing. It works pretty well at loosening up the gunk. But not well enough to just rinse it off. Takes brushing and respraying and brushing.

Biggest problem is telling where I had already been.

I will be ceramic coating my wheels with Adam's as soon as it warms up enough this spring. Adam's also make a wheel cleaner that's great stuff and will not harm/stain anything. It's strong though, so not really for every wash use. It's an iron-x type product so it'll remove stuff, including wax.

DTorres31 said:

Has anyone considered ceramic coating, or even looked into it?

Click to expand...

I have recently had my the carbon wheels and calipers ceramic coated. Has made cleaning much easier with mild soap/water, build up of particles sticking to the calipers/wheels is definitely reduced.

Note that with the carbon wheels you will still need to remove the fronts to clean the thermal coated areas (back of spokes, strip on barrel) as they do not coat those areas.

I typically pull the wheels and clean the calipers/wheels/suspension.

JimT said:

Has anyone come up with any type of cleaning brush to work between spokes of wheel? Something soft and no scratch? Sorta like a soft bottle brush? Post pictures of what you use.

Click to expand...

Check out Adam's Polishes wheel woolie and turbo stick. I've used both on my wheels and they do a good job. Both are made to get between and behind wheel spokes.