Am I doing any harm to my wheels?

J

jw

New member
I've been using ONR to wash my car for the last year. When I do my wheels, I first use a pump sprayer to spray them down with ONR. I then use Griots Wheel cleaner and use a mitt to clean the wheels. I then spray again with the pump sprayer and ONR and then I dry. My question is do you think I'm getting all of the wheel cleaner off my wheels? If not, is it doing any harm?



I know some on the board only use the ONR but my wheels (Porsche 911) seem to get hard brake dust on them.
 
That Griot's cleaner is a neutral pH, as long as you are drying it off you shouldn't be doing any harm to them. How do they look after a year?
 
Yea or just grab some P21s or another gentle cleaner like setec recommended and pretreat them with the cleaner, let it dwell and use your pump sprayer again to blast it off with either just water or even your ONR mix. They will be just fine. If the brake dust is super bad you could use a gentle clay to get the remaining dust then you can use a sealant like CG wheel wax, jetseal, or PB sealant so that the next time you need to clean them you can pretty much just rinse them off
 
just seal them with collinite 845 or a proper wheel sealant and after that onr would be more than enough to remove the brake dust.(no special wheel cleaner would be needed)
 
The wheels are sealed but spraying them with the onr certainly doesn't get rid of any brake dust.
 
You may need to agistate the brake dust after applying your wheel cleaner. Brake dust is different from other stuff because the wheels first exposure to it regardless of sealant or not is usually at super high temps.
 
jw said:
The wheels are sealed but spraying them with the onr certainly doesn't get rid of any brake dust.
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if you have seal them but afterwards you used a wheel cleaner there is no seal anymore. (You may should use different brake pads)
 
deathlok said:
if you have seal them but afterwards you used a wheel cleaner there is no seal anymore....
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Yeah, Griot's Wheel Cleaner (good stuff and safe the way your using it IMO*) will compromise LSPs with only a few uses. You might try diluting it 50:50 with water, see if it still gets the brake dust off OK (while being easier on the LSP). I used it that way back when I was driving Porsches and it always worked OK for me.



Since I started sealing my wheels I don't need the Wheel Cleaner any more either...wonder if a stronger ONR mix would work OK without the Wheel Cleaner (I use stronger-than-normal shampoo mixes and sometimes ONR/QEW). No matter what vehicle/brake pads, I just don't need Wheel Cleaner until the sealants are on their last legs, and note that I let some of the wheels get mighty dirty between clean-ups. OTOH I believe it's Tom P. who's gone back to using Wheel Cleaners as he just didn't get his wheels as clean as he wanted without them so perhaps YMMV.



* Something just occurred to me...while the Griot's Wheel Cleaner is safe stuff, I wouldn't want it to dry on the wheels. Be sure you don't get Wheel Cleaner overspray back inside the wheels where you might miss it with the ONR.
 
Hey “JW�

I too had brake dust issues with my P-car. Since they’re some of the best braking cars on the road, they leave hefty brake dust residue all over the rims. When I must use a wheel cleaner, it's P21s and a 'baby-bottle-brush' to get the inside of the rim through the spokes. But that's rare as I’ve test a lot of different steps for a long-term-results, along with an easy-to-clean solution and here’s what I’ve found to be the best solution after 9 years of Porsches.

I’m a little anal and like when the back of the rim is as clean as the face, it really gives the rims depth when mounted on the cars, so I take the rims off the car.

Start with a light grade compound by hand to restore the rough & ‘bruised’ areas. Then, using a variable speed drill and a Mothers Power Ball over the whole rim with the same compound but generously misted with denatured water as I went, (NEVER run it at full speed!!!!)

With some quick passes you'll be amazed (I was) at the immediate results. With a different Power Ball, I switched to the Sonus Step 2, another ball to the Sonus Step 3.

Waxed the rims with P21S, let the rims sit for 4 days, waxed again, waited 5 days, and applied 2 applications of Rejex one day apart, never using the car between waxes and or Rejex. They gleam better than new!

The maintenance on them is a blast of the hose and wipe-down of the left over wash in the bucket after washing the car and I'm done! They shine, they're protected, and the finish is so slick brake dust barely accumulates.

If you’re as anal as I am and have an air compressor, you can (just about) blow the dust off the rims after a hard days driving with this technique. It won't be as good as a thorough cleaning, but it sure seems to help with the maintenance. (Wise advice from this forum has reminded me of the dangers of inhaling brake dust – so protect yourself if you use an air compressor).

The first time is a lot of work, but the time I save in cleaning them now is worth all the prep time I put in. I apply a new coat of Rejex every month (very easy to put on and take off), and I love the results, and (almost) never worry about the long term effects of constantly using caustic wheel cleaners.

“Accumulator's� advice is right on (usually is in my opinion) regarding getting all wheel cleaning solution off the back/inside of the rims before it dries. He uses different products too, but seems to have similarly easy wheel washing without constant caustic wheel cleaners.

Hope this helps.
 
Saintlysins said:
...[“Accumulator�]...uses different products ... but seems to have similarly easy wheel washing without constant caustic wheel cleaners..
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Yeah, as long as the wheels are kept LSPed to the point of slickness I find the dust never really adheres all that badly. Ditto for the calipers, which I also clean up with a sorta-strong shampoo mix.



Oh, and it occurs to me that the S8's front brakes are basically the same as those on certain Porsches..can't say that I have any more/less trouble cleaning them up than I did with the P-cars.



Oh#2, I wouldn't really call Griot's/P21s Wheel Cleaners "caustic" with their ph being 7 ;) Sorry, you know how pendantic I can be :o
 
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