Wheel Nuts Buggered

[K67 KRB]

All,

Rant Mode Engaged.....

Why is it soo difficult to get an alloy wheel cleaner that doesn't corrode metal!!!

I spent ages trying to get advise from people concerning alloy wheel cleaners, as the warnings on the back of the bottles concerned me somewhat.

It also concerned me that they are all acid based, and I was always under the impression that spraying acid anywhere near a cars paintwork and especially at disk brakes would be a baaaaad idea.

Anyway, after lots of people ummming and arrring and saying things like "well that's the one I use" and "I would test it first" I went for the general purpose Turtle Wax Cleaner.

I tested it on a little part of the wheel and all was fine. So I went for it. Followed the instructions to the letter. Wheels came up a treat.. great i thought, went for a drive, parked the car up that night happy.

Three days later, pulled the covers off and low and behold the wheel nuts are covered in a white powder and look shite. I can only assume that the kin acid has corroded them.

what can I do....what do the millions of people out there with alloy wheels do?

ARRRRGGHHHH!!!!!

[GreenV8S]

Doesn't this suggest that you failed to wash the cleaner off thoroughly? It's aggressive stuff and I think it's important to get rid of all traces of it afterwards, for example swilling down with copious amounts of water.

[maddog-uk]

Here is what I do

If they are really bad.... I Use this stuff www.thepolishingcompany.com/p21swheelcleaner.html

But 99% of the time I wash with Meguiars gold car shampoo and conditioner, a pair of rubber gloves for my hands and microfibre cloth. Come up awesome!

[davetherave1970]

I remove my wheels every other clean to give them a good going over inside and out.
PITA but it keeps them in go condition. No nuts in the way either!

Maybe this is just me being sad

[maddog-uk]

Are your nuts (wheel ) stainless steel?

[gingerprince]

I use a product called MC2, and it's fantastic! It's basically a multi-purpose industrial degreaser. It is citrusy and therefore acidic, but you dilute it about 10-1 and it's so much less damaging than regular wheel cleaners. It feels all soft and detergenty reather than hard and acidy, if you see what I mean. Can't recommend it highly enough. Just squirt it on, leave 5 minutes and rinse.

When I bought it it was via a group-buy on a VW forum (wasn't easy to buy off-the-shelf, it comes in 5 litre industrial type containers). Cost about 25 quid at the time. Seems it's now been rebranded and is easily buyable from here: -

www.performanceparts4u.co.uk/productdetail.asp?intProductid=226&strOrder=strRetailPrice%20ASC&intProductCategoryid=0&strFreetext=%20mc2&strProductListing=(226)

for 20 quid or here

www.jantastic.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?ACTINIC_REFERRER=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ejantastic%2eco%2euk%2facatalog%2fsearch%2ehtml&REFPAGE=http%3a%2f%2fwww%2ejantastic%2eco%2euk%2facatalog%2fsearch%2ehtml&WD=virosol&PREVQUERY=RANDOM%3dNETQUOTEVAR%253ARANDOM%26PAGE%3dSEARCH%26SS%3dvirosol%26TB%3dA%26PR%3d%2d1&PN=Jantastic_Household_Products_6%2ehtml%23aIN047#aIN047

for 6 quid!!!!

I'll never use regular acid type wheel-cleaners again!