Alloy wheel cleaner - pointless?

[Le Gavroche]

I must be missing the point of these products.

Over the years I’ve had nearly every brand of alloy wheel cleaning spray, and I can’t help but feel they do absolutely nothing.

Cleaning the wheels with a wash mitt and shampoo cleans the wheels just fine, and as far as I can see, spraying alloy wheel cleaner on first (and leaving to soak) does nothing to help this process.

If I douse a dirty wheel in wheel cleaner, leave to soak, then wash off with water, the wheel is exactly as dirty as before. It does not save any labour, or make the wheel easier to clean with the wash mitt.

What am I doing wrong?

[JulianHJ]

Depends on the wheel cleaner in my experience. I use Bilt Hamber Auto Wheel and find it's very effective. It's not acid-based, either.

[Le Gavroche]

JulianHJ said:

Depends on the wheel cleaner in my experience. I use Bilt Hamber Auto Wheel and find it's very effective. It's not acid-based, either.

When you say very effective, what do you mean?

Can you spray the wheels with Bilt Hamber, leave to soak, hose off with a hosepipe nozzle and the wheels are clean and require no further cleaning? If that’s the case, then brilliant, I’ll buy some!

If you still have to scrub them with a brush or wash mitt to get the dirt/brake dust off, after you’ve used the Bilt Hamber, then I’m still struggling to see the point.

If you see what I mean!

[Kuwahara]

You still need to agitate to a degree ,if you want something to spray on and hose off without any effort it’s going to be a pretty aggressive product….

[Blue62]

Kuwahara said:

You still need to agitate to a degree ,if you want something to spray on and hose off without any effort it s going to be a pretty aggressive product .

I had my current car PPF’d and the deal included a silicon treatment on the wheels, I was sceptical but it’s proved very effective one year on. I power wash and lightly brush soapy water on the wheels, not much effort at all. I’ve used Swisswax alloy wheel wax previously and found it poor.

[Gerradi]

What have found very effective over the years is to clean wheels , then spray tyre gloss all over the face of wheel . Make sure when you do this that you seal off your brake disc & pads , stuff a towel over them. When its time to clean wheels next time it comes off a lot easier as tyre gloss is silicone based & does not sit on alloy so glides off. Hope this is useful.

[steveo3002]

get them cleaned and a coat of sealant or wax then soapy water and a sponge /mitt is enough to keep them clean

[Le Gavroche]

Kuwahara said:

You still need to agitate to a degree ,if you want something to spray on and hose off without any effort it s going to be a pretty aggressive product .

Well that’s the dream, yes…

Cleaning the wheels on the cars is my most hated part of car cleaning. Countless fiddly spokes to try and clean on each wheel, some of which you can barely get your fingers or a wash mitt between.

Many, many years ago someone gave me a 10 litre can of ‘Truck Wash’ and I have no idea what its chemical composition was, but it was insanely effective.

You could just snow foam it all over a dirty car or van. Leave it a few mins, hose off, and it genuinely left the vehicle looking as clean as if you had washed every inch of it with a wash mitt.

I never used it on anything I cared about, but for the daily driver and vans, it was unreal.