Wiping off brake dust between washes

[wxtornado]

Is it okay to wipe brake dust off your wheels between washes? I have stock Audi wheels as pictured below - I believe they are clearcoated. I use P21S Gel when I wash them, and then I apply DP Wheel Glaze. At least every other day however, I wipe off the brake dust with a clean MF towel. You can hardly see the dust, but I know it`s there! Is this okay? Should I be using a QD spray at least when I wipe them down, or should I leave them alone until I wash them again? Thanks.

[Passrat]

I don`t know what the "right" thing to do is, but I sometimes spray a waterless wash solution on them and wipe it off. Or just soak the towel in it first, then wipe. Mine are painted/clear-coated too. I cant see it being bad for wheels.



Right now I`m using the DP brand Four in One detailer, just because they were on sale 2 for 1. You mix it with water at different strengths for different jobs.



Nice wheels btw. What have you got there? An A4, A6?



I`ve got a modded, lowered 02 Passat Turbo. Nice cars.

[jDizzle]

ive always used QD on my wheels when theyre just dusty (and once in a while when i rele should wash them and im lazy :-\ ).. and they look fine

[wxtornado]

Nice wheels btw. What have you got there? An A4, A6?

Thanks for the 411 Passrat, I will keep that in mind. I have an S5 actually, you can see pics of it in this thread.

[Dan]

I have an Audi too, I keep a bucket of dirty ONR water just for the wheels. Check out the Eagle One Keep Wheel Clean stuff, it helps.

[DaGonz]

Meguiar`s has a quick detailer made just for wheels. I use it on all my vehicles as a touch up between washes.

[Accumulator]

Noting that I have three Audis....



I`ve been cleaning *some* wheels between washes, using every method from sorta-conventional washing (being careful not to get water/etc on surrounding areas, what a PIA that is!), to ONR, to various QDs (my fave for this being FK146).



IME anything short of proper, lots-of-water, extreme-care-style washing will cause some degree of marring. Maybe not every time, maybe (mostly) nothing you`ll see with the naked eye, but eventually *some* marring nonetheless shows up.



I`m being as careful about these washes as I can imagine anybody being, and I recently had the wheels on the MPV repainted, so I had a good baseline for observation purposes. I`ve very gradually, very faintly, marred them up over eight months or so of doing this. Compare that to *zero* marring (afer 8 years) on the S8`s wheels, which are always washed "properly" and *very* carefully.



I`ve also caused some light marring on the other wheels I`ve done this with.



So there`s *no* way I`m gonna do this to the S8`s wheels. But on the other cars I just accept the risk and I don`t sweat the (admittedly minor) marring. Unless you`re *really* particular, and doing *very* rigorous inspections, I suppose the marring oughta be so mild as to be no big deal for most people. Heh heh, spent 20 minutes inspecting your wheels lately?

[Mark77]

Hi, you have 3 Audis Accumulator? I always thought you had an S8 and an A8, what is the third one? Just curious, seems you have a lot to do keeping all your cars clean and nice

[Dowe]

how about ceramics?

[Accumulator]

Hi, you have 3 Audis Accumulator? I always thought you had an S8 and an A8, what is the third one? Just curious, seems you have a lot to do keeping all your cars clean and nice

The third is a recent acquisition, a `93 V8 Quattro that belonged to an elderly friend of mine (really cool lady, she`d kill me for describing her that way :nervous: ). Only 68K miles and an almost mint interior, but *serious* exterior cosmetic issues, as in, major cc failure and other issues that`re probably too expensive to be worth fixing.



It was a case of saving it from (what I interpreted as) her daughter`s schemes regarding the cash-for-clunkers program, so yeah, I *really* over-paid for it, but hey :nixweiss



I plan to use it as a bad-weather beater, unless I go nuts and have it repainted.

[tom p.]

Meguiar`s has a quick detailer made just for wheels.

+1. A simple and successful strategy.

[ThatGuySkye]

Spray some QD to decrease the marring... and go buy some tires LOL