My R84's have accumulated quite a bit of brake dust and would like to receive recommendations for the best/safest tire rim cleaner products available outthere. I am going to clay bar the wheels to remove some of the deeply embedded brake dust and then put a coat of wax on them.


I appreciate your suggestions.

 

Simple Green household cleaner. Good for cleaning wheels, gets dead bugs off your paint too.

 

A year or two ago I did a bit of comparative testing of waxes on the wheels of my Z3. I tried several different brands of carnauba (including Wheel Wax), and three different synthetics. The testing last for several weeks and taught me a lot about wheel care.

The carnauba all soften with heat, and the wheels get quit warm during spirited driving. The soft wax traps the brake dust and to remove the embedded dust you must also remove some (or all) of the wax. The synthetics have a much harder surface than the carnaubas and do not soften with heat. Zaino and Klasse give the best results. The wheels with Zaino stayed a little cleaner than the Klasse wheels and were easier to clean, but Klasse is a little easier to apply - - but either one is far better than any of the carnaubas.

With the synthetics you can wash your wheels with whatever car shampoo you normally use on your paint and the brake dust and grime with wipe right off. With the carnaubas you must use a product that will also remove the wax, such as Dawn dish detergent.

If you really want to do it right, then I suggest the following:

Or

 

>>Simple Green household cleaner. Good for cleaning wheels, gets dead bugs off your paint too.

I think that Simple Green is a little harsh for repeated use on your paint.

 

I like and use Griots (www.griotsgarage.com) wheel cleaner on all of my cars including the MINI. It works with little or no scrubbing on all but the toughest stuff including brake dust.................mgg

 

>>>>Simple Green household cleaner. Good for cleaning wheels, gets dead bugs off your paint too.
>>
>>I think that Simple Green is a little harsh for repeated use on your paint.
>>
What do you base that opinion on ?

Try search in the detailing forum under "simple green". There are many other users of the product.

_________________
James - SCCA SFR GS # 296

 

JustGo4It_ - -
I recently spent over a year doing comparative testing of many different car care products and techniques. Many of the results were posted on Autopia and Roadfly if you care to do some searches. One of the tests was using Castrol Super Clean (purple stuff), Simple Green, and a couple of other common cleaners that people had recommended for bug, tar, and wheel dust removal. The cleaner testing protocol was to vigorously rub adjacent areas with each cleaner at full strength and then rinse clean and repeat every couple of days.

It didn’t take long before the Simple Green area started to lose its reflectivity and gloss. After the paint had gotten fairly dull it was possible to restore the original surface appearance using a fairly mild abrasive and a dual action buffer. It was almost impossible to restore with hand application.

There’s no need for you to take my word for this. Just continue to use harsh products on your paint and in a year or so you’ll know from personal experience.

BTW, your link doesn’t work.

 

I think if the grime is really stuck on your rims then try a presoak of warm water first. Then use simple green to clean the wheels gently.

Clay bar is OK if there are still areas that don't look as nice as when your MINI was newer. All depends on the level of grime you might have.

The following are good for wheels-
S100 carnuba wax from Harley Davidson cycle supply stores about $16.
Wheelwax from Tirerack.com about $15

The most important thing is to keep wheels clean regularly and not to let the brake dust sit on the rims to destroy the surface. I have seen chrome wheels corrode this way. Too little care will accelerate decay in the finish of almost any rim.

From http://www.autopia.ws/Glossary.htm
"BRAKE DUST - As you use your brakes, the brake pads throw off the brake pad material as a fine dust. The brake dust creates a black mess, which sticks to the wheels and lower body panels. Because the front wheels do most of the braking, brake dust is often heaviest on the front wheels. Brake dust is very corrosive to the finish on your wheels and should be removed regularly to prevent damage and discoloration."

So logically this would mean replacing the brake pads with any that would impart less brake dust. If you can get better performance then all the better. EBC green and Mintex Redbox are common choices.

 

>>
The cleaner testing protocol was to vigorously rub adjacent areas with each cleaner at full strength and then rinse clean and repeat every couple of days.
>>
Thanks for the heads up on the link. I edited it out.

Vigorously rubbing any painted surface will cause it to dull and I never use the cleaners at full strength. Spray it on, let it sit a couple minutes, follow up with your favorite car soap and the bugs are gone. There is no need to vigorously rub the paint. Bare in mind this is a spot application usually limited to the front bumper and lower hood and not a total body squirt down.

How many applications did you do in your test what did you rub it with and did you apply any paint protection between coats?

Typically a coat of wax would be applied after a detail job. This would restore paint protection.

I'm not trying to get into a pissing contest with you just stating my opinion.

James

 

James - -
I guess that a little explanation is in order. Over the years I’ve found that most of the “hobby” message boards are filled with so called experts, and many (maybe most) of them are just parroting what they have read in other posts. When I began to get interested in detailing I had a tremendous amount of free time and a new Jet Black car to experiment on. I soon found out that much of what I read on Autopia and Roadfly was B.S., so I started doing a lot of comparative testing - - products and techniques. Wherever I could I attempted to do accelerated testing, and this was the case with the brake dust, bug, and tar removal.

I used a dark green hood with pretty good paint and did a surface prep - - claybar, a mild abrasive (probably 3M SMR, but I don’t remember for certain), a very mild abrasive (P21S Paintwork Cleanser for sure), and then a Dawn wash. Marked off four areas with a Sharpie, one area for each product - - Purple Stuff, Simple Green, and two others and at this point I’m not sure what they were. I rubbed each product on with about the same pressure that you’d use in removing suicidal bugs or tar spots using a small square of clean microfiber cloth - a clean one for each product. Then spritzed the entire area with a car shampoo solution followed by clear water. Repeated every 2-3 days. No wax or sealant was applied, but the hood was not exposed to the elements nor the sun. In just a couple of weeks the Castrol area was dulling, and it wasn’t long after that the Simple Green area was also dulling.

My assumption was that all four of these products weren’t good choices for use on auto paint, and my experimenting proved this to be correct. Later experimentation showed that the best product that I could find for bug removal was Porsche’s Tequipment Insektenentferner and for tar removal 3M’s Tar & Grease Remover (#39987) was the winner.

For brake dust removal there was no clear winner because as minihune said, the brake dust is corrosive and if left on the surface for any length of time it eats into the clear coat. If it hasn’t eaten into the surface, then standard wax removal and claybaring will do the job.

I stand by my wheel protection product testing. I used most all of the high end carnaubas - - S100/P21S (probably the same product under different labels), Souverän, two kinds of Zymöl, Wheel Wax, and one or two types of Meguiar’s - - all pastes, no liquid. For the synthetics I used Zaino, Klasse, Platinum, Poor Boy’s, and one other that I don’t recall. Method: clean all four wheels and apply one product to the left wheels and another to the right side wheels. After there was an accumulation of brake dust, then I’d note the amount of dust on each product and the ease of cleaning. The winner would get reapplied to the opposite side and a new product to the other side. It soon became clear that the carnaubas collected more dust and were harder to clean, but I worked through all of the waxes that I had on hand. All of the carnaubas were similar in performance except Wheel Wax which was far worse that the others. Close inspection of the wax/dust with a magnifying glass showed that a lot of the dust was below the surface of the wax - - most likely because wheel heat partially melted the wax. All of the synthetics were clearly superior to the carnaubas - - much less dust accumulation and very easy to clean - a light coat of dust would just wipe off with a damp towel. Zaino and Klasse were somewhat better than the other synthetics with Zaino being very slightly better than Klasse. Earlier testing had already shown that Zaino provides a harder surface than Klasse, but is more susceptible to marring. My choice for my wheels has been Klasse because it’s easier to apply, just as easy to clean, and only attracts a very small amount more dust than Zaino.

Caveat emptor! Don’t believe me! Clean your front wheels and put the best carnauba that you have available on one wheel and Klasse or Zaino on the other and see for yourself which works best for you.

I just reread your post an realize that I didn’t really respond to your questions. The dulling was not micro-marring as would be caused by excessive rubbing with a harsh applicator; it was a uniform dulling as would be caused by etching of the clear coat surface. As for the use of full strength cleaners, of course you’d never use them at full strength normally, but this was accelerated testing - - just like making the monkeys smoke an ounce of dope a day to see if it would affect their lungs. Sensible monkeys know that more than two or three jays each day are bad for the lungs. (The really smart ones eat magic brownies instead.)

 

Ok,

I was just dealing with this issue recent;y, and I did find a solution. I had the nastiest Yellow crap on my wheels, I scrubbed, and tried all diffrent products. Then I got PS21 Gel Wheel Cleaner. Spray it in all your wheels, walk away for about 45 minutes to an hour, come back with the provided sponge, coat the sponge in PS21 and it comes off with ease... :smile: I now have ***** wheels again.

 

I appreciate your responses.

 

I just use some Meguiar's CleanerWax when I have dust accumulation and
stains on the wheels. :smile:

 

Nick,
Thanks for the detailed explanation. I can see you have done your homework. I will give your method a try.

>>Sensible monkeys know that more than two or three jays each day are bad for the lungs. (The really smart ones eat magic brownies instead.)

 

I found that the Eagle One wheel cleaner has been great on my rims. Simply spray, wait 30 seconds and rinse off. If you have alot of brake dust caked on, you might need to lightly scrub. I rarely do, maybe just pick a couple of spots with a fingernail but that's about it. Then I polish with Zaino. I'm pretty sure the Zaino helps alot in ease of cleaning.

 

I wash my wheels weekly 'cuz they are white. I'v use Marquis wheel cleaner ... I've tried 4 or 5 others ... one called Purple Stuff that is supposed to be spray on hose off, and a bottle of Krud Kutter from Lowes hardware. I love the Marquis wheel cleaner but I use a soft wheel brush -- long and thin to reach between spokes. I didn't think anything was better. Being white if they aren't clean you can tell they aren't the same color as the roof, so some products gave them an off-white, yellowed look. Then the kid next door came over and made me try TURTLEWAX wheel cleaner he gets at Dollar General stores for less than $3 a bottle. I didn't want to because I like what I got ... but did just to be neighborly ... and darn if it didn't do a job. Remember I use the soft wheel brush stick. It's not that big a deal. Spray on, brush, rinse.

 

I too vote for Simple Green Automotive strength. I'm concerned about the paint, so I wax those wheels frequently.

 

My vote goes for Eagle One A to Z Wheel cleaner. I tried a couple of others including Turtle Wax, but, A to Z was the only one that didn't require a lot of scrubbing to get the brake dust off. If it's only been a few days between washings, the A to Z will get them clean with no scrubbing at all. Just spray on, let sit for a minute, then wash off with soap.

 

Recently, we did a direct comparison between Griot's Wheel Cleaner and some BMW wheel cleaner. The BMW cleaner won, hands down. The Griot's cleaner barely made a dent in the dust on Oilman930's neglected wheels...