Keeping alloy wheels clean

[t.boydy]

I recommend having them ceramic coated. I had the wheels done on my classic car with Mintex 1144 pads which are well known for brake dust etc.

Did 600 miles of 'spirited' driving when on holiday in the Yorkshire Moors. Wheels were black with brake dust.

On the drive home it rained heavily, got back home and wheels were pretty much clean... Quick hose off and good as new

Tom

[C5_Steve]

thebraketester said:

I used to use iron x. Fantastic, especially if you are a lazy car washer and/or have messy brakes pads.

Another vote for this stuff, excellent for lifting brake dust and everything else off the wheels and as it's a spray it'll get into all the small gaps in your wheels.

As others have said, the best way to make it easier is to coat them, ceramic coating is now very easy to do yourself and won't be very expensive. Years ago before ceramic coating was so popular I used Rim Wax (stop laughing) which worked well but obviously wasn't as long-lasting as ceramic. Very easy to apply as it was just wax but I'd explore ceramic coating if you can as it'll be more durable.

[A993LAD]

Gas1883 said:

Wheel design does make it easier though to keep clean

Agreed, very much this in my experience.

Those BMW wheels do indeed look very clean. But the wheels only have 5 spokes. On my wheels the brake dust collects in the corners where the spokes meet the rim. On the BMW above there are only 10 of these corners and they are easy to access and clean.

The problem with my Porsche Sport Classics is there are 38 of these corners per wheel and they are not so easy to access/clean making wheel cleaning more of a chore.

Anyway I've coated the wheels inside and out with the Chemical Guys Wheel Guard wax as recommended in this thread. And I've done it whilst they are all shiny an new. I'll report back how well it works.

My PITA wheels look like this........

[C5_Steve]

A993LAD said:

Agreed, very much this in my experience.

Those BMW wheels do indeed look very clean. But the wheels only have 5 spokes. On my wheels the brake dust collects in the corners where the spokes meet the rim. On the BMW above there are only 10 of these corners and they are easy to access and clean.

The problem with my Porsche Sport Classics is there are 38 of these corners per wheel and they are not so easy to access/clean making wheel cleaning more of a chore.

Anyway I've coated the wheels inside and out with the Chemical Guys Wheel Guard wax as recommended in this thread. And I've done it whilst they are all shiny an new. I'll report back how well it works.

My PITA wheels look like this........

Potentially silly question but are you using a wheel brush? I've got wheels with similar crevices and don't have an issue with getting the corners clean following an application of Iron X and a scrub with the wheel brush. Occasionally one or two of the tighter corners might need a wipe with a finger in a microfibre towel but it's not hard at all. Might be down to the surface finish of the wheel perhaps.

One of these is perfect, try and get a microfibre head over bristles as it'll clean better. The little foam pad at the end also saves smacking your hand on the spokes when cleaning the inner barrels as well.