what's best to clean alloy wheels..

[pyramid man]

Anyone know the best stuff to clean any marks or white oxidation lumps/pitting off of alloy wheels, so that they gleam.Halford's alloy cleaners don't seem to work.

[John Mac]

I don't think you will find any "polish " that will clean off oxidised pitting, this means that corrosion has already gone through the laquer and attacked the alloy.
New "alloy wheels" according to a man I know who sells them said only to clean them with warm soapy water as any proprietry cleaner has a certain amount of corrosive chemical in them that in time would attack the laquer. Iv'e had new alloys on "my other" car for over two years now and only cleaned with water and they are as new.
Having said that Iv'e just bought some Auto Glym alloy wheel cleaner after a long conversation with their rep. It does contain a corrosive chemical (to attack brake dust) and they did say after 10 years or so using it the laquer will have deteriorated - thats the age of our TVR Oz wheels now !!
Another area that would be nice to clean up is the side window alloy frames, again Iv'e tried several things but nothing clears completely the "white" effect.
Salt is the killer for alloys and if you happen to live in a coastal area the atmosphere can be salt laden - a frequent wash is the answer.

[Marcus]

Jif (or CIF) is pretty good as it is very mildly abrasive, rinse off well with soapy water (car shampoo) and then fresh water. Also any good metal polish suitable for aluminium is good for the alloy window frames. Then wipe with an oily rag (clean oil, obviously, like WD40!)

[kev s3]

autosol bring up the wheels well, have managed to remove some minor pitting with some elbow grease.