Alloy wheel cleaner - pointless?
Discussion
I must be missing the point of these products.
Over the years I’ve had nearly every brand of alloy wheel cleaning spray, and I can’t help but feel they do absolutely nothing.
Cleaning the wheels with a wash mitt and shampoo cleans the wheels just fine, and as far as I can see, spraying alloy wheel cleaner on first (and leaving to soak) does nothing to help this process.
If I douse a dirty wheel in wheel cleaner, leave to soak, then wash off with water, the wheel is exactly as dirty as before. It does not save any labour, or make the wheel easier to clean with the wash mitt.
What am I doing wrong?
Over the years I’ve had nearly every brand of alloy wheel cleaning spray, and I can’t help but feel they do absolutely nothing.
Cleaning the wheels with a wash mitt and shampoo cleans the wheels just fine, and as far as I can see, spraying alloy wheel cleaner on first (and leaving to soak) does nothing to help this process.
If I douse a dirty wheel in wheel cleaner, leave to soak, then wash off with water, the wheel is exactly as dirty as before. It does not save any labour, or make the wheel easier to clean with the wash mitt.
What am I doing wrong?
JulianHJ said:
Depends on the wheel cleaner in my experience. I use Bilt Hamber Auto Wheel and find it's very effective. It's not acid-based, either.
When you say very effective, what do you mean?Can you spray the wheels with Bilt Hamber, leave to soak, hose off with a hosepipe nozzle and the wheels are clean and require no further cleaning? If that’s the case, then brilliant, I’ll buy some!
If you still have to scrub them with a brush or wash mitt to get the dirt/brake dust off, after you’ve used the Bilt Hamber, then I’m still struggling to see the point.
If you see what I mean!
Kuwahara said:
You still need to agitate to a degree ,if you want something to spray on and hose off without any effort it s going to be a pretty aggressive product .
I had my current car PPF’d and the deal included a silicon treatment on the wheels, I was sceptical but it’s proved very effective one year on. I power wash and lightly brush soapy water on the wheels, not much effort at all. I’ve used Swisswax alloy wheel wax previously and found it poor. What have found very effective over the years is to clean wheels , then spray tyre gloss all over the face of wheel . Make sure when you do this that you seal off your brake disc & pads , stuff a towel over them. When its time to clean wheels next time it comes off a lot easier as tyre gloss is silicone based & does not sit on alloy so glides off. Hope this is useful.
Kuwahara said:
You still need to agitate to a degree ,if you want something to spray on and hose off without any effort it s going to be a pretty aggressive product .
Well that’s the dream, yes…Cleaning the wheels on the cars is my most hated part of car cleaning. Countless fiddly spokes to try and clean on each wheel, some of which you can barely get your fingers or a wash mitt between.
Many, many years ago someone gave me a 10 litre can of ‘Truck Wash’ and I have no idea what its chemical composition was, but it was insanely effective.
You could just snow foam it all over a dirty car or van. Leave it a few mins, hose off, and it genuinely left the vehicle looking as clean as if you had washed every inch of it with a wash mitt.
I never used it on anything I cared about, but for the daily driver and vans, it was unreal.
Some companies do dedicated wheel foams but I have not tried how effective they are.
Yum wheel foam is one that springs to mind.
P&S brake buster was also another i looked at but this isn't a foam as such.
To stand any chance of a contact less clean they would need to have a good coating applied.
Yum wheel foam is one that springs to mind.
P&S brake buster was also another i looked at but this isn't a foam as such.
To stand any chance of a contact less clean they would need to have a good coating applied.
It's a fair point. I use BH wheel cleaner but it's expensive and if you clean your car/wheels regularly you don't get the baked in brake dust that can be hard to shift.
I think it does do something but it's not life changing. I'm guessing BH wheel cleaner has iron remover in it, that might be it's biggest benefit.
I think it does do something but it's not life changing. I'm guessing BH wheel cleaner has iron remover in it, that might be it's biggest benefit.
Dragons Breath for me too, smells identical to and does the same job as BH's Autowheel for a fraction of the cost, especailly if you buy a multi pack which if you shop around you can get 15 litres for barely any more cost tha 5 litres of BH.
Only needs mild agitation if the grime starts to build up near the inside of the spokes.
I use it on my truck wheels (Durabrite finish) now and again if i've been on holiday and some plank has been driving it on the brakes and covered the outer edges in brake dust, brings them up like brand new.
Let it go purple but don't let it dry on.
Only needs mild agitation if the grime starts to build up near the inside of the spokes.
I use it on my truck wheels (Durabrite finish) now and again if i've been on holiday and some plank has been driving it on the brakes and covered the outer edges in brake dust, brings them up like brand new.
Let it go purple but don't let it dry on.
I use valet pro bilberry wheel cleaner, spray it on leave to dwell and then wash off it removes the vast majority of the brake dust, I don't think out off all the wheel cleaners I've ever used I have a found one that wouldn't do that, I've recently run out so had to jet wash and then clean by hand but the jet wash sans any product hardly did a thing.
JulianHJ said:
Depends on the wheel cleaner in my experience. I use Bilt Hamber Auto Wheel and find it's very effective. It's not acid-based, either.
Another vote for the Bilt Hamber stuff - yes, you do still have to use your wheel mitt to wash off, but it definitely helps.Alternatively, buy yourself an EV….95+% of braking is regen, so the wheels are remarkably clean all the time.
They're not pointless because the paint, and the quality of finish, on the average wheel is very different to the bodywork paint. I'd not be spraying alloy wheel cleaner onto the body panels and scrubbing with a brush, for example. But happy to do that to the wheels. So a more aggressive cleaner is used. I use two, quite a mild non-acid one but which is stronger than bodywork shampoo, and a ferocious acid-based one which could kill a horse.
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