What is safe to use on powder coated wheels? Can I clean them with a diswashing soap, or something soft like that? I noticed that when I sprayed some tire cleaning foam on the tires, the rag took off some black from my wheels.
FWIW, I bought these wheels from someone second hand, so I cannot vouch for the process or quality of the job, but so far they've handled well in all other areas.
Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Quality powdercoated wheels should be able to be cleaned with a regular soap or wheel cleaner. If it comes off with foam, to me, it sounds like either crappy coating, bad heat treating afterwards, or they were just painted and you got screwed.

 

dishwashing soap is not gentle.

I'd recommend being careful with any wheel cleaning solution, some are harsh. You can check the pH of the product and that can reveal how harsh it might be.

Maybe try looking in the detailing forum about safe wheel products for cleaning.

Don't use abrasive scrubbers.

Wash your wheels often and don't let the brake dust sit on your wheels for too long- brake dust will damage the finish over time.

A wax will help protect the wheel finish a little and for a limited period of time. Wheelwax is helpful but not long lasting.

Another idea is to replace your brake pads with something that doesn't dust as much. Hawk ceramic pads from tirerack.com (talk to Alex) or EBC green pads or Mintex Redbox are common upgrades from the stock pads.

 

See
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...ad.php?t=93583

See post #23