# Help with alloy wheel cleaners



## eyeoftheworld (Dec 13, 2010)

I've tried out many products such as AG clean wheels/custom wheels, Megs all wheel cleaner, Nanolex, gtechniq iron out remover. Not been satisfied with them because apart from AG clean wheels or custom wheel cleaner they only seem to remove iron deposits. This leaves a lot of other muck and road grime attached to the wheels which needs brush agitation. No point agitating the purple/red iron out removers as all i would be doing is pushing around abrasive material which has been suspended by the red/purple colored dye?

I'm after a non acidic PH neutral wheel cleaner which is good for wheels which are not sealed with waxes or other protective ceramic coatings. I also would not be removing the wheels off my car when cleaning.

any suggestions please?


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## WHIZZER (Oct 25, 2005)

Valet pro Bilberry is a good choice 
If not what about a strong wash solution in a spray bottle , could use a citrus pre wash


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## MBRuss (Apr 29, 2011)

Do you have a pressure washer?

I find that spraying the wheels down with Korrosol and jet washing them gets the vast majority of the muck off, even if I haven't washed the car for a month.

That said, I've just bought some Bilt Hamber Auto Wheel to try. It's always very well reviewed and contains their iron remover (Korrosol) plus some other cleaning agents to get rid of other wheel muck.

Give that a try.

However, anything you put on the wheel is just going to "release" it from the wheel and not physically brush it off for you. So if you don't have a pressure washer you're probably always going to need to do some wiping/brushing.

Only other thing you could do if you don't have a PW is spray the iron remover, then snow foam the wheel with a pump sprayer type thing, so the foam helps move the iron off.

You'll always need to use a mitt or brush on the wheel eventually though. Chemicals alone will never remove everything.

Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk


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## MickCTR (Mar 4, 2006)

Bilt Hamber Auto Wheel would get my vote for your purposes but it will still need some agitation. It’s not a cheap way to clean wheels though, as mentioned above i’d Use the iron remover occasionally and then a citrus degreaser or bilberry (or similar) as maintainence. I also find Gyeon Wet Coat useful as a top up protectant for wheels.


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## Brad-ST (Nov 17, 2013)

I think you would need to agitate any wheel cleaner. My current routine is pre wash wheel with ODK Breakdown, jet wash off to get rid of most dirt, spray ODK Rotate diluted at about 10-15:1, agitate, rinse and I get a good finish. I usually use an iron remover every 5 washes or whenever needed & my wheels aren’t sealed either.


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## Andy from Sandy (May 6, 2011)

If you were to put a coat of FK1000P on your wheels you wouldn't need to use anything except soap and water for a few months.

Change that to a coating and you could go around a year.

I used to use bilberry but not any more. In fact I have an un-opened gallon bottle here going spare.

My wheels are a 5 spoke pattern that allows me to thoroughly clean the wheels while they are on the car. I could probably apply a sealant with them on the car as well.


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## percymon (Jun 27, 2007)

Some good suggestions above.

I only wash my wheels with normal car wash shampoo, same as the bodywork - the benefit of sealing the wheels with a ceramic coating or sealant/wax. An ocassional spritz with fall out remover deals with the odd iron particle.


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## Brian1612 (Apr 5, 2015)

Autoglanz Alkalloy or KKD Brakeway. For general cleaning 1:9 is plenty strong enough (with agitation) and you can go up to 1:20 for light cleaning/protected wheels. I can't fault either product and from my experience at 1:20 they are gentle enough on any protection you have on the wheel.


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## Peter77 (May 29, 2016)

Good shout on autoglanz alkalloy. Was a firm favourite of mine. 
Wax planet aluminium just edges it for me though. I found at stronger dilutions it has more bite than alkalloy. Great for doing friends minging cars. But still very dilutable and great at weaker dilution for maintence washes


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## AndyN01 (Feb 16, 2016)

Try Car Chem.

Revolt is a good iron remover.

Their Wheel Cleaner (LC104) does a nice job of cleaning.

https://car-chem.com/store/wheel-tyre-care/wheel-tyre-cleaner/wheel-cleaner-non-acid-500ml

As others have said at some point you'll almost certainly need to get up close & personal with some sort of brush/mitt etc. Wheel woolies or a wash mitt or a micro noodle mitt spring to mind depending on how easy/difficult it is to get "into" your wheels.

Hope that helps.

Good luck.

Andy.


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## MBRuss (Apr 29, 2011)

percymon said:


> Some good suggestions above.
> 
> I only wash my wheels with normal car wash shampoo, same as the bodywork - the benefit of sealing the wheels with a ceramic coating or sealant/wax. An ocassional spritz with fall out remover deals with the odd iron particle.


The odd iron particle?! Unless your brakes are carbon ceramics they will be covered in iron every week. I use Korrosol every time and it always shows up a ton of iron on the wheels.

I might reduce my use of it anyway though, just to save on cost.

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## Demetrios72 (Jun 27, 2011)

Autosmart Smartwheels

XVC wheel Gel

Autoglanz Alkoloy

Autobrite Britegel

Espuma Revolution 

All very good products


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## Brian1612 (Apr 5, 2015)

MBRuss said:


> The odd iron particle?! Unless your brakes are carbon ceramics they will be covered in iron every week. I use Korrosol every time and it always shows up a ton of iron on the wheels.
> 
> I might reduce my use of it anyway though, just to save on cost.
> 
> Sent from my LYA-L09 using Tapatalk


Is that before or after you have cleaned the wheels with an alkaline based wheel cleaner?

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk


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## viperfire (Apr 10, 2007)

Turtle Wax Redline is very good and you can pick up for next to nothing on certain websites.

Surprisingly it is better than Sonax full effect and on par with Bilt Hamber wheel cleaner


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## minotaur uk (Dec 13, 2018)

I tend to clean the wheels with either a TFR or a cheap wheel cleaner such as Simoniz ultracare alloy...then agitate with a brush and rinse with PW. The iron fallout remover and tar remover come after the main wheel clean has been done.


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## Stoner (Jun 25, 2010)

I only use iron fallout and tar remover once a year on the first main detail of the year. At that time, I also use BH Auto Wheel to thoroughly clean and then "seal" with FK1000P.

For my weekly (sometimes fortnightly) wash, I use my standard shampoo with an old wash mitt and reapply FK1000P about once a month. I know its longevity is over a month but for the few minutes it takes to apply saves me time in the long run ensuring that the wheels are adequately "sealed".


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## davidprice1977 (Jan 20, 2019)

*Alloy wheel cleaners*

Hi all I'm new to DW😊😊I use bilt hamber korrosol to remove most of the dirt & iron contaminants & then use valet pro bilberry wheel cleaner to finish off if needed as the korrosol removes pretty much everything👍👍👌👌


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## macc70 (Oct 20, 2007)

viperfire said:


> Turtle Wax Redline is very good and you can pick up for next to nothing on certain websites.
> 
> Surprisingly it is better than Sonax full effect and on par with Bilt Hamber wheel cleaner


Totally agree The Redline wheel cleaner is great Not as good as BH but Very inexpensive ECP code on CP4L site for £3


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## minotaur uk (Dec 13, 2018)

I use a general wheel cleaner such as Simoniz ultra care alloy, agitate then power wash off. Then use a fallout remover, cheaper than using just a fallout remover.


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## fatdazza (Dec 29, 2010)

minotaur uk said:


> I use a general wheel cleaner such as Simoniz ultra care alloy, agitate then power wash off. Then use a fallout remover, cheaper than using just a fallout remover.


Totally agree. Pure fallout removers work best for iron particles embedded in surfaces. Through their action they reduce the size of the iron particle , allowing it to come free from the surface it is embedded in. By cleaning wheels with a standard wheel cleaner first, you remove all of the loose fallout, that is sat on the surface of the wheel along with the other dirt and grease. No point in using expensive fallout remover to react with loose iron particles that can be removed with a simple wash and rinse.


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## Muscleflex (Jun 10, 2014)

Sorry to jump in but what CITRUS DEGREASER/PREWASH are you guys using?


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## LFD (Nov 14, 2017)

fatdazza said:


> Totally agree. Pure fallout removers work best for iron particles embedded in surfaces. Through their action they reduce the size of the iron particle , allowing it to come free from the surace it is embedded in. By cleaning wheels with a standard wheel cleaner first, you remove all of the loose fallout, that is sat on the surface of the wheel along with the other dirt and grease. No point in using expensive fallout remover to react with loose iron particles that can be removed with a simple wash and rinse.


This is excellent advice and makes 100% sense, saves money too:thumb:


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## olliewills (Feb 10, 2017)

If you're going down the unsealed wheels route then I highly recommend BH auto-wheel. It's probably best described as the cleaning power of Surfex combined with the fallout removal of korrosol. 

It is expensive but you really only need 2-3 triggers of light mist over a wheel with agitation to get it clean. Used like this it'll last a good long time. If it's been wheels then you may need need two consecutive applications of the above, but multiple thin applications will always be more effective than one thick application. 

As others have mentioned, sealing your wheels, even with something like FK1000P (I do this) will save you a load of hassle and Cleaning products going forward. It'll last 3 months on a wheel, easy, with a quick weekly wheel clean. I dry my wheels with BSD as an aid each week which helps to make the FK last even longer 

You can't really do much better than BH auto-wheel when it comes to all in one wheel cleaning, though that's not to say there aren't some equally good products out there.


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## Pewpewarea (Mar 29, 2019)

Car Guys Tire Shine Spray is one of my favorite car wash solutions. When I bought this I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. This tire shine rocks. I did however, like everyone else does. Clean the rim after spraying tire shine on tires. After spraying let the tire dry. It will sling if you spray then drive. You can refer to this article https://tireer.com/how-to-make-tires-black-again/ hope it can help you


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