Anybody got any suggestions for keeping anthracite superleggras clean. Brake dust is a bitch! Any products out there? the toothbrush method is too time consuming!


cheers

 

Sorry can't really be of any help here, just interested in it myself, my 01 Alloys are black as hell inside, tried all sorts to get them clean, even the legendary Wax Wizard himself couldn't get it all off

BB

 

Porsche reccomend a light coating of vaseline on their wheels to protect them.

However, it isn't hard to imagine that if you apply too much, all that wil happen is that the brake dust sticks to the surface coating of vaseline! Not a problem if you are preparing for a track session but hadly ideal for daily use when you want to keep them visibly clean.

Therefore, I think that the idea is that you wipe on and then wipe off the vaseline leaving virtually none on the surface. In theory it will have penetrated the surface of the laquer and I suppose this is waht could help maintain it over the longterm.

Other people will tell you that you should treat your painted wheels like any other paintwork on your car but I can see that this is a pain, especially with multi-spoke designs.

Regarding cleaning wheels. The P21S wheel cleaner comes highly recommended in Porsche circles. I beleive it is pH neutral and thus non-corrosive.

 

Don't use your brakes

 

Personally i dont think there is a way,and cant see
vaseline helping at all.

 

Wonder Wheels or motor bike cleaner is a good one

 

Wonder wheels is great, and only £5.49 from that Wilkinsons cheapo shop

 

When I some alloys refurbished a few years back they recommended a light coating of bees wax furniture polish, with a slightly thicker coat on the insides (which you clean up and re-apply every 6 months). Seemed to do the trick.

 

If you keep your wheels well polished, most of the dust will come off with water.
My wheels are usually black cos i'm a lazy git with the polishing once i've done the rest of the car.

 

The wax wizard stuff will work !
If you use the general purpose cleaner
Spray it on & then leave it then power hose off !
IF you then apply a film of wax to them they are much easier to clean next time !
I did mine in this way for my mag shoot & they looked clean as anything
Including when they were just hosed off half way through

 

I'm probably about to be told taht i have fecked my wheels, but here goes. I have bought various wheel cleaners, some were utter w@nk, others reasonable but expensive. But a few months ago (after using one of the w@nk cleaners) it tried a bit of white spirit on a sponge, it was fantastic! The wheels looked brand new. I now clean my wheels with this every time, followed by a good wash with the shampoo and then hose them off. I can't see any bad effects (yet) on the wheels and it only costs £1.19 for a litre.

 

auotglym wheel cleaner gets my vote...

 

Once you've got them clean, or when they're new, if you give them a good coat of wax it makes them easy to clean with just the car shampoo.

Josh

 

Bugger it just cost me 9 quid for wonder wheels and that was with discount, will have to go to wilko's.

Its easy to do, just dab on with supplied brush and rinse off, spotless.

Its the dogs kahunas

 

Josh

That sounds like poetry mate

DW

 

I would be a bit paranoid about using white spirit on my wheels (being gold, I'm worried about the colour coming off!!) but as they are brake-dust coated to the point of annoying me, I may wheel try it.

Thanks austen-wrx!!

 

Mark Underwood does two types of wheel cleaner - a slightly acidic one for when you really need to cut through the brake dust and so on, and a non-acidic one which keeps them in tip-top condition once you've gone through this process.

However, if you want to keep your wheels clean, there's really only one option, though it's a pain in the bum.

Take the wheels off, and wax them (once clean, of course).

This is time-consuming, naturally, but you will never have to spend more than a few minutes on each wheel thereafter. And you should only need to re-wax once or twice a year, as long as you don't use a corrosive cleaner like Wonder Wheels, Autoglym etc.

 

I did a big review of the various wheel cleaners I've used over the years here:

Wheel Cleaners

John

 

I've used the Holts stuff recently and as soon as the can is finished I'll switch to something else as it's not really that impressive.

As far as cleaning the alloys goes, I spray on the cleaner, leave it for a few minutes, pressure wash the wheel and then take a wheel brush to it and then rinse it again. Only takes 5 minutes a wheel. Dunno how to get the inside clean other than actually removing the wheel itself.

Edited to add that I usually wax the wheels as well which seems to help when it comes to washing them next time around.

[Edited by STi-Frenchie - 2/12/2003 9:53:07 AM]