# Autobrite Purple Rain review



## Mike-93

Hi All

I have been a member on here for some time, however i have not really contributed very much to the forum. However, that changes today!

First off, Purple Rain is Autobrites new "De-Ioniser", and goes up against the popular Iron X and Wolfs Brake Duster. How they compare on price (not including shipping):

Iron X 500ml Eco - £9.30 from i4Detailing (£12.14 after discount + 2-6 day standard shipping)
Wolfs 1L - £10.00 from Polished Bliss (no discount available however there is free delivery to UK mainland)
Purple Rain 500ml - £9.00 from Autobrite Direct (£12 after 1-2 day standard delivery, no discount code active at time of posting)
(prices are calculated on ordering 1 of the above, some stores offer free delivery if order is over a certain price, as well as 'collect from store' options)

I have never used any of the above products, so thought that as Purple Rain had just become available I would try that one out, as i had been waiting for it to see how it compared on price to the others.

Now, i am sure that pretty much everybody on here has seen posts that contain pics/videos that show these type of products in use. Generally, its spray the product on, 20-30 seconds later the run off starts to turn purple, then eventually the whole wheel goes purple, then the wheel is either rinsed (in the case of Iron X & Purple Rain) or left to dry out and removed later (Wolfs).

With this I'm mind, i set about it!

I followed the instructions on the packaging and cleaned my wheels with this










Very Cherry Non-Acid wheel cleaner, mixed 1:10 with water. Very nice product and glad I got some!

After the wheel was cleaned up, i used Autosmart Tardis to remove as much tar as I could. There is still some left, and there is old wheel weight tape still on the wheel, however i haven't had the time to get the wheels off and removed them properly. This was then rinsed and dried with a waffle weave towel so it would allow maximum contact when the Purple Rain was applied. This was the result










Product packaging looks like this:










I then applied onto the wheel liberally, as per the instructions. Pic when i first applied.










I then waited for the purple rain to do its magic. I waited, waited.... waited some more, until 5 minutes later, i had this



















My initial thought was confusion. Why are my wheels not purple? These wheel have never been touched with anything other than AG Clean Wheel, Megs APC and Very Cherry.

After 10 mins, i agitated and had this










After 15 mins..





















I then rinsed and the wheel did look better IMO.










Now, at this point i have to admit to being a bit disappointed. So, whilst my stepdad was out, i had a go on one of his wheels. Last time this was washed was around 2 weeks ago, and did have moderate build up of brake dust. Before..










Application after a quick blast with the hose










During




























After a thorough rinse










My faith was restored after this. Seems that maybe my wheels just weren't that badly contaminated with iron deposits.

I will write up when I used this on the panels of my car so that others can see how its performs.

Overall, i would say that this is an easy to use, well priced product that delivers satisfactory results.

Please feel free to point out what i have have done incorrectly or any other tips.

Hope you enjoyed my write up 

Thanks

Mike


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## quattrogmbh

Must have some very clean wheels there. If I spray an unwashed wheel with Iron-x, there is so much purple liquid run off that the driveway gets stained.


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## Chicane

tbh, you probably removed all the contamination when you cleaned your wheel with the VC & Tardis. If you want the strong bleeding effect, spray the purple rain straight onto a dirty wheel.


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## [email protected]




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## MatthewR

Chicane said:


> tbh, you probably removed all the contamination when you cleaned your wheel with the VC & Tardis. If you want the strong bleeding effect, spray the purple rain straight onto a dirty wheel.


That would just make this an expensive wheel cleaner then? I have to say I had the same results last night and was myself a tad disappointed.

I suppose I'm going to have to try iron x next time!


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## chillly

Thanks for your review Mike:thumb: By the looks of your pics it only bleeded where there was iron deposits so it worked yes? 


tbh after using these kind of products it amazed me at the ammount of damage iron particles causes to the clear coat etc etc. Again thanks for sharing your findings:thumb:


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## quattrogmbh

using it at the rate in the video, how many wheels on average from the bottle?


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## bigalj

Nice review mate - thanks for taking the time.

Might be worth mentioning that there has been a recent price drop on Iron-X which brings it to more or less the same price point as the Autobrite product.

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=232265


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## P4ULT

Chicane said:


> tbh, you probably removed all the contamination when you cleaned your wheel with the VC & Tardis. If you want the strong bleeding effect, spray the purple rain straight onto a dirty wheel.


problem in my eyes is if this is true and you can remove 99% of contamination this is a nigh on pointless product.


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## CliveP

My initial thoughts was how well you'd kept your first wheel clean - as to be honest regular cleaning with any half-decent wheel cleaner will mean less contamination.

I was at Autobrite the other week when a car from a car owner's club was there - I got the impression it was washed very infrequently and the purple rain just went purple pretty much instantly!

Like you say you could see the difference on the second wheel. I'm looking forward to giving this product a go but I suspect on my 11 plate car it won't pull a thing off as wheels have been cleaned and sealed every week!

Will try it on my few year old Sportage where I suspect it will turn very purple as I didn't buy the Sportage new.

Regards,
Clive.


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## ITHAQVA

Something i suffer from, my wheels dont get dirty enough to give a really impressive BLEED as i usually wash them with shampoo first.


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## Chicane

Cliox4 said:


> That would just make this an expensive wheel cleaner then? I have to say I had the same results last night and was myself a tad disappointed.
> 
> I suppose I'm going to have to try iron x next time!





P4ULT said:


> problem in my eyes is if this is true and you can remove 99% of contamination this is a nigh on pointless product.


It's not just for wheels though, you can use it on bodywork too. I have the Very Cherry and would keep that for the wheels and Purple Rain for the bodywork. That's just my preference though


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## CraigQQ

Thanks for an honest review mike, seems like not much contaminations present (which is a good thing really lol)



Cliox4 said:


> That would just make this an expensive wheel cleaner then? I have to say I had the same results last night and was myself a tad disappointed.
> 
> I suppose I'm going to have to try iron x next time!


I have a test coming up soon, when I can get my hands on OCD NI's new iron cleanse product in the next week or so, 
car pro iron x
wolfs de-ironizer
autobrite purple rain
OCD Ni Iron Cleanse

head to head, live time reaction videos, and photos, then it will be upto the people on here to decide whats best in a blind test.



chillly said:


> Thanks for your review Mike:thumb: By the looks of your pics it only bleeded where there was iron deposits so it worked yes?
> 
> tbh after using these kind of products it amazed me at the ammount of damage iron particles causes to the clear coat etc etc. Again thanks for sharing your findings:thumb:


same here chilly mate, read above about my upcoming review  i think you might like it!!



P4ULT said:


> problem in my eyes is if this is true and you can remove 99% of contamination this is a nigh on pointless product.


yes, its not always needed on wheels.. but sometimes there is nothing else that will shift whats left after wheel cleaners.
and you wouldn't use wheel cleaners on paintwork either..


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## [email protected]

Mmmmm my guess on your review is

1.Your wheels didn't have much iron containments on them 
2.You also removed wheel containments using 2 cleaning products such as Very Cherry and Tar Remover.

Try them again on a "un-cleaned" wheels (or surface) and see what you get

We had this result on this very abused Fiesta & BMW recently







































:thumb:


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## CliveP

P4ULT said:


> problem in my eyes is if this is true and you can remove 99% of contamination this is a nigh on pointless product.


Umm fair point Paul, but I'm sure Tardis would clean everything but I'd rather use a product designed for wheels on my wheels, etc...

Regards,
Clive.


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## james_death

Thanks for the review, also knew Craig had a test planned also...:thumb:

It Certainly is working as can be seen in your pics as although a lot will be focusing on the face of the wheel i can clearly see the rivulets of contamination coming off the wheel back...:thumb:

This having been the area that is harder to get to and clean thoroughly, and will actually get most of the iron contamination.

The face of an alloy will get most attention and be most likely to get thorough clean and waxed etc, also cleaned most often.

I do admire the fact that you cleaned with the wheel cleaner and tardis to ensure you are getting full contact to any contamination that that these products did not remove...:thumb:

I see no point throwing what can be expensive product at soiling that can come off with a wet sponge...

The other wheel that was just rinsed is point in hand that you got a bigger reaction simply due to there been more soiling there that you had actually removed on the other wheel....:thumb:

I clean the wheels then use the Iron Decontaminating products for the stuff left behind...:thumb:


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## Mike-93

Hi All

Thanks for the comments. Just got a few points to mention to clear things up:

- I don't do anything special with my wheels, they have never been sealed until now, all I do is give them a good scrub every time the cars gets a wash. Having 5 spoke wheels is great, really easy to get a long brush in there and clean the whole wheel properly every time i do them. Stepdads wheels are a nightmare! I still don't really understand the lack on contamination on the wheels though.. The guy who owned the car before me openly admitted that his car rarely got cleaned, and even when he did he didn't really do the wheels :wall:

- I wasn't trying to disprove that these kind of products don't work, I was just posting up my experiences. I will do another write up when I use Purple Rain on my body work, and when I have another go on my step dads wheels. The build up of brake dust on his rims is significantly worse than on mine (he drives it like he stole it :thumb: ). Have tried all of the before mentioned wheel cleaners and they dont even touch it.

- I do agree that the product works. I was expecting more if i am honest, however i put this down to my inexperience with this kind of product. I'm not an expert and am more than happy to be corrected on this kind of thing by those with more experience and knowledge.

- Only reason I used Tardis was because I was going to seal the wheels up completely, however the old wheel weight sticky tape stuff was a bugger to try and remove so i have only sealed the outer parts of the wheels.

- I thought it would be best to follow the instructions on the packaging like I do with most products first time i use them, then after i use them i think of ways to better incorporate them into my routine. I can thus conclude that it would be best to use this product slightly differently than what is written on the packaging. Next time I won't bother cleaning them with Very Cherry, I will just give them a quick blast with the jet wash and cake on the Purple Rain.

I am still glad that I have added this to my arsenal, i also forgot to mention that this stuff really doesn't smell good. My mum came outside because she thought the drains were backing up again :lol:

I also forgot a pic of the car after i finished today 










Thanks again for the comments, and thanks to Autobrite for another great product, keep them coming :thumb:

Mike


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## Mike-93

bigalj said:


> Nice review mate - thanks for taking the time.
> 
> Might be worth mentioning that there has been a recent price drop on Iron-X which brings it to more or less the same price point as the Autobrite product.
> 
> http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=232265


Thanks mate, will amend the original post to include this price :thumb:


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## james_death

Nice one...:thumb:


All we can do is post our experiences and the more that do, the merrier and hopefully a more informed decision can be made by others.

Keep up the good work...:thumb:

There have been posts with a white car and no real bleeding, again can be free of contaminants.

Just depends what is about where you travel, someone near the railway lines can be covered and another out the back of beyond with no industry about could be free....:wave:


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## CraigQQ

as james said, review was honest..

i wouldn't change your routine mate, iron contaminant removers are a fair bit more expensive than wheel cleaner.. only use it on your wheels every 3 months imo..

just use the very cherry for normal wheel washing (or now they are sealed, shampoo should clean them,

iron removers are not meant to be used regularly to be honest.. waste of money to use it that way.. every 3-6 months depending on the car/location ect.


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## Mike-93

CraigQQ said:


> as james said, review was honest..
> 
> i wouldn't change your routine mate, iron contaminant removers are a fair bit more expensive than wheel cleaner.. only use it on your wheels every 3 months imo..
> 
> just use the very cherry for normal wheel washing (or now they are sealed, shampoo should clean them,
> 
> iron removers are not meant to be used regularly to be honest.. waste of money to use it that way.. every 3-6 months depending on the car/location ect.


Thanks Craig

Sorry I wasn't very clear, I mean't when tackling some wheels that have not been treated in this way before (I'm not the best at trying to explain myself :/ ). I won't be using this on my wheels until next year i should think, or maybe even longer.

I am looking forward to your 4 way test though, will be interesting to see what comes out on top :thumb:

Mike


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## CraigQQ

yes, ronnie should be ready to go mid week, so hopefully testing sometime over the next two weeks.


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## mattsk1

Mike - Really useful initial test, especially with the close-up pictures of the product in action. Did the Purple Rain actually come with displosable gloves and a mask as advertised?!!

Out of the 'de-ironiser' products currently available I've only used Iron-X, primarily as a paintwork decontaminant prior to claying and then polishing, and have found it to be a valuable extra step, making the claying easier with the clay picking up (shearing off?) fewer bonded contanminants than normal.
Difficult to see the product going purple on a black car, but really impressive on a silver one!

Looks like another great product from Autobrite and thanks again for the review.


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## mattsk1

CraigQQ said:


> yes, ronnie should be ready to go mid week, so hopefully testing sometime over the next two weeks.


Craig - Been looking forward to your Iron-X/Wolf's/Purple Rain/Iron Cleanse review for a while. Should be the benchmark test for these types of products for some time.
Are you planning to test on alloy wheels or body panels (or both)?
If you do a paintwork test I'd suggest a silver or better yet white vehicle so that the effects can be easily seen in action...

I guess some of the stickier/gel-like properties make Iron Cleanse more suitable for use on wheels though, and that seems to be what a lot of people are using these products for. Personally I'm happy using Bilberry/Redberry/Very Cherry or something that clings and is also non-acidic/alkali like Chem Guys' Diablo for more regular cleaning of wheels (I know VC and PR are near or actually pH neutral)... once they've had that initial decontamination of course 

Will be good to get your views on the chemical action of the products, especially after Ronnie at OCDni wrote that "...other brands actually swell the paint surface to initially release the particle and then the chemical reaction breaks down causing the colour change. [Iron Cleanse] actually grabs the Iron particle and dissolves it and breaks it down in situ. it also has additional degreasers added to aid the cleaning process of the panel..."

It's generally the end result that matters most, but it'll be interesting to see if you notice any difference in how the products appear to be working.

Anyway, looks like Purple Rain is a strong contender from what we've seen so far. Roll on the 4-way test!


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## Mike-93

mattsk1 said:


> Mike - Really useful initial test, especially with the close-up pictures of the product in action. Did the Purple Rain actually come with displosable gloves and a mask as advertised?!!
> 
> Out of the 'de-ironiser' products currently available I've only used Iron-X, primarily as a paintwork decontaminant prior to claying and then polishing, and have found it to be a valuable extra step, making the claying easier with the clay picking up (shearing off?) fewer bonded contanminants than normal.
> Difficult to see the product going purple on a black car, but really impressive on a silver one!
> 
> Looks like another great product from Autobrite and thanks again for the review.


Hi Matt

Thank you for the comment. Yes i did receive a pair of disposable gloves and a face mask. I chose to use the gloves as I was using Tardis at the time and I find it irritates my skin if i dont cover up. I still have the mask. All i did after the initial wiff was to hold my breath whilst applying! Only took around 20-30 seconds to cover each wheel liberally, it sounds stupid but it works for me.

Yes i agree it is a good product and can't wait to use it again 

Cheers

Mike


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## CraigQQ

mattsk1 said:


> Craig - Been looking forward to your Iron-X/Wolf's/Purple Rain/Iron Cleanse review for a while. Should be the benchmark test for these types of products for some time.
> Are you planning to test on alloy wheels or body panels (or both)?
> If you do a paintwork test I'd suggest a silver or better yet white vehicle so that the effects can be easily seen in action...
> 
> I guess some of the stickier/gel-like properties make Iron Cleanse more suitable for use on wheels though, and that seems to be what a lot of people are using these products for. Personally I'm happy using Bilberry/Redberry/Very Cherry or something that clings and is also non-acidic/alkali like Chem Guys' Diablo for more regular cleaning of wheels (I know VC and PR are near or actually pH neutral)... once they've had that initial decontamination of course
> 
> Will be good to get your views on the chemical action of the products, especially after Ronnie at OCDni wrote that "...other brands actually swell the paint surface to initially release the particle and then the chemical reaction breaks down causing the colour change. [Iron Cleanse] actually grabs the Iron particle and dissolves it and breaks it down in situ. it also has additional degreasers added to aid the cleaning process of the panel..."
> 
> It's generally the end result that matters most, but it'll be interesting to see if you notice any difference in how the products appear to be working.
> 
> Anyway, looks like Purple Rain is a strong contender from what we've seen so far. Roll on the 4-way test!


will be testing on a white 10 year old focus, panels and wheels, wheels of an audi a3.
and anything else i get my hands on.:lol:


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## mattsk1

Spot on mate, can't wait for the test results and pics :thumb:


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## MatthewR

mattsk1 said:


> Did the Purple Rain actually come with displosable gloves and a mask as advertised?!!


I used my mask, and could still smell it :lol:

I did actually use it on my dads heavily soiled wheel and it worked as stated, wheel turned purple, blasted it off and wheel was clean.

Which again makes me think this is just an expensive wheel cleaner.

Craig, im looking forward to your 4 way review!


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## Andy from Sandy

The only way I can conclude that a comparison of products to be fair is if you use them on the same wheels of the same make of car and maybe after the same driver has been using the car.

I drive a BMW and the front wheels are black after 3 or 4 days. The backs not so much. Therefore I could only realistically test two products one week and two the next. Testing 3 or 4 products would not make for a fair comparison. IMO.


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## CraigQQ

Andy from Sandy said:


> The only way I can conclude that a comparison of products to be fair is if you use them on the same wheels of the same make of car and maybe after the same driver has been using the car.
> 
> I drive a BMW and the front wheels are black after 3 or 4 days. The backs not so much. Therefore I could only realistically test two products one week and two the next. Testing 3 or 4 products would not make for a fair comparison. IMO.


I agree, however I have devised a plan that nullifies this problem hopefully,

but you shall have to wait on the review for that.

there will also be live time 720 hd video, 
plenty of pics,

and i have a little surprise for you all


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## quattrogmbh

I recall a test by one of the vacuum cleaner companies whereby you continue with one particular product until no reactions (or dirt removal) are visible, then apply the alternatives one by one.

This in essence establishes a baseline or benchmark which the others then are tested to exceed.

so.. in this example, using Purple rain till no more reaction is visible, and then using something like Iron-X or Iron Cleanse to see if they exceed that baseline.


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## BaRtVxl

does the purple rain contain acid


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## RS6

What are peoples normal wheel cleaning process? Mine (having massive 8pot brakes) get dusty quick, and get baked on with the heat too. I normally use a Iron removed at every wash as this does a fantastic job, is that overkill/bad for the wheels? I haven't really tried normal wheel cleaner to be honest. When I used it previously it left small spots of brake dust which seemed to be baked on


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## steelghost

The "bleeding" fallout removers are specifically made to dissolve iron, they won't have any effect on aluminium for instance.

That said they're not cheap so I would only use them if you need to. Might be worth trying a wheel shampoo (Auto Finesse Revolution springs to mind, there are others of course) or a spray on cleaner like Auto Glanz Alkalloy. Even though it leaves small spots, you can then use the fallout remover in a more targetted (and hence more cost effective) way.

My wash process (much more modest brakes but very dusty OEM pads):

Pressure wash wheels
Spray Alkalloy @ 10% on all wheel surfaces and allow to dwell for a few minutes
Agitate with assorted implements (Wheel brush for faces, large Wheel Brush for barrels, microfibre mitt for behind spokes etc)
Pressure washer rinse
Apply fallout remover if needed - usually every few months
Pressure washer rinse again
Spot treat for tar if needs be


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