Wheel Cleaner and ONR

J

jw

New member
I use ONR to wash my cars. I have german cars that have a ton of brake dust. ONR isn't enough, I need to use a wheel cleaner. My question is, is it safe to use a wheel cleaner and then rinse it with ONR? What are the chances that some of the wheel cleaner wouldn't get washed off? Would this cause damage? I usually use Griots wheel cleaner.
 
Even if you were using ONR in a pump sprayer, it probably wouldn't rinse all of the wheel cleaner off. It's best to get ALL of it off.
 
D&D Auto Detail said:
You shouldnt need a dedicated wheel cleaner. Apply a sealant to the wheels and use regular car soap or ONR.
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You should not need one if the wheels have been maintained. I still also find ONR lacking on cleaning tires as well. If it cannot remove wax, then I suspect it can also miss similar or other contaminants. It is great for what it can do but it cannot do everything.
 
Bunky said:
You should not need one if the wheels have been maintained. I still also find ONR lacking on cleaning tires as well. If it cannot remove wax, then I suspect it can also miss similar or other contaminants. It is great for what it can do but it cannot do everything.
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I havent used ONR to clean anything but paint. But it should be fine on wheels that are maintained. Cleaning the tires also depends on what dressing is on them.
 
My wheels are zaino'd but Porsche and Mercedes brake dust is pretty tought stuff. Is griots non caustic?
 
mshu7 said:
I've had ZERO problems using Power Clean on tires/wheels and rinsing them with ONR.
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Same here. I have started using a pesticide sprayer on wheels and fenderwells to make sure all the Power Clean (if I needed to use it) is rinsed away-although ONR alone seems to take care of it anyway.
 
jw said:
My wheels are zaino'd but Porsche and Mercedes brake dust is pretty tought stuff. Is griots non caustic?
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Yeah, but it'll strip LSPs eventually. You might try diluting it (up to 50:50) as it still works better for me than regular shampoo but isn't quite as potent that way. I'd feel better about using ONR for the rinse if the Wheel Cleaner is diluted too.



Griot's Wheel Cleaner works OK on tires too, though I do prefer a dedicated rubber cleaner.



And while I LSP/shampoo most of our wheels, there are some (e.g., BBS style) that I'd rather just use a wheel cleaner on. IIRC it was Tom P. who found that his wheels actaully stayed *nicer* when he quit using the LSP/shampoo approach and went back to wheel cleaners...so IMO it's not necessarily a right/wrong sorta thing.



Oh, and I find ONR (by itself) to be sorta hard-pressed to safely clean *very* dirty wheels. It just doesn't lift/float the stuff off with minimal pressure the way conventional wash methods do (no matter how good/slick the wheels' LSP is). With conventional methods (and a BHB) I can get the stuff off by *barely* touching the dirty wheel, hardly any pressure at all, and I can't seem to do that with ONR :nixweiss
 
Scottwax said:
Same here. I have started using a pesticide sprayer on wheels and fenderwells to make sure all the Power Clean (if I needed to use it) is rinsed away-although ONR alone seems to take care of it anyway.
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That's a good idea Scott. I use a pesticide sprayer filled with cheap APC to pre-treat jambs, wells, and other nasty areas. I'll get another one for ONR.



:bigups
 
jw said:
What are the chances that some of the wheel cleaner wouldn't get washed off? Would this cause damage? I usually use Griots wheel cleaner.
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Wheel cleaners need to be rinsed off.



I keep a separate bottle of ONR mixed @ 150% strength. Have you tried something like this?



Yes, I understand about heavy brake dust and making the wheels look right. It can be a challenge.
 
tom p. said:
Wheel cleaners need to be rinsed off.



I keep a separate bottle of ONR mixed @ 150% strength. Have you tried something like this?



Yes, I understand about heavy brake dust and making the wheels look right. It can be a challenge.
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tom p, How do you go about increasing the base?



As for ONR on wheels, I will use it as a pre-soak before a normal bucket wash, but not alone.



Accumulator, I may have missed which dedicated rubber cleaner you're using, but I am also interested.
 
Mr. Clean said:
tom p, How do you go about increasing the base?



As for ONR on wheels, I will use it as a pre-soak before a normal bucket wash, but not alone.
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I'm just saying that I bump up the prescribed dosage (IIRC, Optimum recommends 1oz in one gallon of water) by 50%. So, I'd mix 1.5 ozs of ONR with one gallon of water. I use this stronger blend for wheel cleaning (works OK under adverse conditions) and for claying. I keep a spray bottle with this mixture in it for these dedicated tasks.



I'll also mist this mixture on really dirty panels during the winter months before I got at it with ONR in my bucket.



Is that addressing your question?
 
D&D Auto Detail said:
Accumulator, what do you use for tires?
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-AND-



Mr. Clean said:
Accumulator, I may have missed which dedicated rubber cleaner you're using, but I am also interested.
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I usually clean tires with Griot's Rubber Cleaner (via brush on most tires, sponge on soft ones) and dress them (on the vehicles where I do this, I don't dress the tires on the DenaliXL) with Z16. But I do use Meg's Endurance on under-car spares as it seems to hold up better than anything else.



The Griot's Rubber Cleaner is one *very* mild product. Heh heh...so mild that sometimes it doesn't even hurt the dirt ;) When I want to *really* clean the tires it takes a few passes, using the stuff at full-strength. Diluted, it cleans the tires up so-so/well enough without stripping off all the Z16.



I have some house-brand/generic "whitewall cleaner" from my local autobody/paint supply place that's a zillion times stronger, but I like the way the Griot's isn't likely to hurt anything. Consider that it's not all that easy to keep tire cleaning solution 100% off the wheels, at least not when rinsing it off with a hose. But the stronger product worked wonders on the never-cleaned backsides of some tires I got used.
 
tom p., OK I get that. What I use for pre-spotting wheels is more like the recommended QD dilution, @ 2 oz. of ONR/32 oz. spray bottle.



Accumulator, on another thread I saw where BlackZ28 was recommending Griot's Rubber Prep, apparently a "stronger" cleaner type product. Have you tried that product? I have to admit to be quite a bit more basic with my tire cleaning, using an APC dilution. I would guess that you have been down that route before yourself. Apparently, you find it beneficial to stick with a rubber specific cleaner product. Correct?
 
Just to clarify...



Optimum recommends:

Washing: 1oz. ONR per 2 gallons of water

Clay Lube: 2oz. ONR per 1 gallon of water

Quick Detailer: 6oz. ONR per 1 gallon of water
 
Mr. Clean said:
..Accumulator, on another thread I saw where BlackZ28 was recommending Griot's Rubber Prep, apparently a "stronger" cleaner type product. Have you tried that product? I have to admit to be quite a bit more basic with my tire cleaning, using an APC dilution. I would guess that you have been down that route before yourself. Apparently, you find it beneficial to stick with a rubber specific cleaner product. Correct?
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I'm not sure I have a good, *empirically objective* reason, for using the Rubber Cleaners instead of APCs, but I worry that the APCs might dry the rubber out or otherwise do something detrimental. I don't want to find out that there really *was* an issue by messing up any of my tires.



Back when I had the Volvo wagon, I did not use Rubber Cleaner on the tires, just my Griot's Wheel Cleaner or, more often, one of my APCs (usually EF HI). That vehicle's tires suffered sidewall cracking :think: I dunno if there was any causal relationship or not, but that's the only time I've ever had sidewall issues and with all the vehicles I've had, that's saying something.



If somebody wants to dismiss my concerns in favor of an APC/wheel cleaner/whatever, I understand completely and wish them good luck. Maybe they just sell the Rubber Cleaner because some sucker will buy it instead of because it really is a better-suited product :nixweiss



Yeah, I *have* tried the Griot's Rubber Prep and IME it works *GREAT*. I used it most recently on some *horrible* rubber bits on a '93 Audi, stuff that had obviously never been maintained at all since new. Cleaned right up, ready for treatment, with hardly any effort at all. I've also used it on tires that were contaminated with [who-knows-what...nasty, tenacious stuff] and they cleaned up great. With the price of that little bottle I'm rather judicious about what I use it for, but I do really like it.
 
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