What will clean tires and not hurt wheels???

B

Beach15

New member
After a stupid move of using Mean Green (generic Simple Green) to clean the whitewalls on our cars and white letters on our truck, that cleaned wheel but turned the wheel finishes cloudly (ESPECIALLY on my Caddy), I moved on.



I now use Amazing Roll Off, which cleans the tires just as well and, according at least to what the specs say, contains no harmful acid. But still, regardless of how careful I am not to get any of it on my Caddy's machined factory aluminum wheels when cleaning the tires, if even a little runs down on them, I end up with white cloudy marks EVERY time I wash it. Not like the horror I ended up with after the Mean Green, but still some ugly spots that require me to do a quick polish/re-seal after virtually every wash to eliminate most of the marking.



So, #1, is Amazing Roll Off supposed to do this to wheel finishes if it's so gentle (relatively speaking), and #2, what do any of you use to clean whitewalls/white letters on a weekly (or close to that) basis when washing?
 
I use P21S Wheel Cleaner on my tires. Since the stuff is actually used to clean wheels, there's no problems with it getting on the wheels, because it's actually supposed to.
 
As above, the Mothers or also the new Michelin brand tire and wheel cleaner are safe. I used a pH strip to test it and according to it, the pH is right at neutral 7.
 
The wheels are just machined aluminum with a clear coat. Still seems like everytime I wash it and use the Amazing Roll Off to clean the tires, a little bit gets on the wheels and, regardless of how careful I am to wash then immediately with soap and then keep them wet until I'm done washing the car, I get cloudy spots. Sometimes it's spots and sometimes it's even a whole line (like the product ran), or a patch.



On the other hand, the Amazing Roll Off doesn't seem to have harmed the same kind of wheels on our Suburban, machined aluminum with a clear coat, in the year we've had it.



I guess I just want to go with something that's more specifically a "tire" cleaner, since I really have no use for wheel cleaning abilities (they NEVER get even remotely dirty enough on any of our cars to need more than soap and water).



Here's a pic of one of the Caddy's wheels on a good day (ignoring the baked on dust in the holes...):

10004713vn.jpg
 
I've never had any trouble from Griot's or P21S Wheel Cleaners, or from EFHI. But when I really want to clean the tires I use a rubber cleaner, such as Griot's.



Since I just use wash solution on the wheels too, I'm still careful to keep my tire cleaner off them, not all *that* hard to do. But I do have to rinse properly to avoid having it go everywhere. Maybe try applying it to the tires with a sponge instead of spraying it on.



And I keep my eye on them, working one wheel/tire unit at a time: Rinse wheel/tire and rinse out wheelwell, put rubber cleaner on the tire, wait a little while *but watch it*, agitate with brush, rinse off, spray wash solution mix on wheel, etc. etc.
 
Accumulator said:
I've never had any trouble from Griot's or P21S Wheel Cleaners, or from EFHI. But when I really want to clean the tires I use a rubber cleaner, such as Griot's.



Since I just use wash solution on the wheels too, I'm still careful to keep my tire cleaner off them, not all *that* hard to do. But I do have to rinse properly to avoid having it go everywhere. Maybe try applying it to the tires with a sponge instead of spraying it on.



And I keep my eye on them, working one wheel/tire unit at a time: Rinse wheel/tire and rinse out wheelwell, put rubber cleaner on the tire, wait a little while *but watch it*, agitate with brush, rinse off, spray wash solution mix on wheel, etc. etc.
Click to expand...



Sounds exactly like the method I use now, but thanks for the suggestions anyway.
 
Still, to ask the question again, does anyone else use Amazing Roll Off for tires? Not sure what it was that made me buy it in the first place, but it does actually do a very good job--if it just didn't react with my wheels so much.
 
Anyone try NXT Tire cleaner? Im dying to order this stuff, thought it would filter through to the standard local auto stores and targets but it never did. Kind of dissapointing as this leaves the lazy with bleche white which gives some pretty harsh warnings for use on almost anthing but tire.
 
i've heard it doesn't do much at all. it's readily available in portland be it target, fred meyer or auto stores. it still needs agitation, and i hate aerosol, so i'll stick to simple green or castrol super clean both dilluted.
 
Simple green does nothing for me. It cleans it yeah but I never can seem to get my tires black. They always have that brown brake dust on them.
 
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