Car detailers,best Alloy Wheel cleaner?

Any car detailers on here?. What is the best cleaner to remove baked on dust and embedded particles? Despite my best intentions, my wheels only get a very irregular clean & when they do it takes longer than the rest of the car! Bilberry, Wonder Wheels, comma & Bilt-Hamber all seem to come up regularly on forums. Wheels are bog standard painted alloys, Honda CRV. I expect to use a bit of elbow grease but there is a limit!

http://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk

I use Bilberry myself.

I’m no detailer but rate the Bilberry stuff – buy the concentrate & then dilute it down depending on the level of cack your wheels have accumulated.

Bilt hamber auto wheel by far, it’s as ‘touch less’ as wheel cleaners get, and perfectly safe too.

Bilberry here – diluted or neat for really heavy stuff.

Also worth putting a layer of wax afterwards on your wheels will help cleaning them next time round

neat TFR for tuff stuff, or dilute 5:1 if not, jet wash it off after a couple of mins, then good old soap /shampoo & water, re-jet off, then Dry & polish, dress ure tyre etc..

Just beware TFR is caustic, so do net leave it on any longer than needed, and it works best on a dry surface..

This is what 99% of valeters use..

If it’s really baked on the bilberry might not be strong enough.
Try some Car Chem Revolt. Be warned, it stinks but will shift the crud. It also turns a pinky/red colour to show it is removing the metallic fallout.

+1 putting some protection on the wheels afterwards.
Planet Polish Wheel Seal and Shine is excellent for this and depending on how long before the next wash should mean the wheels shouldn’t need any strong products to clean them

Brick acid.

I use Bilberry myself.

+1. smells quite pleasant too!

Bilberry here on the wife’s. But my wheels are sealed from new with Gtechnic C5 so soapy water gets anything off.

Iron-X, Will literally chew through and metallic particles and dissolve them. Could follow that up with a nice clay bar, polish wax combo for lovely sealed wheels.

I’m not a detailer but a mate runs a high end 😯 expensive detailing business, as others have said – it’s ideal to start with very clean alloys to start with which generally involves removal from the car to clean properly then clay bar surface treatment to remove grit/road tar etc, apply a few coats of polish then a suitable few coats of heavy duty wax to seal the surface (polish then wax/seal – essential).

Then when the grime and brake dust builds up on the surface it’s easy to remove with a wheel brush and general car shampoo.

If you apply the heavy duty wheel cleaner products you will strip whatever protective wax/polish (if there’s any left) from the alloy wheels and it may even etch/eat the protective factory applied lacquer – once this happens then any road dirt/brake dust will bond to the alloy surface and you’ll be far worse off – the more you use the wheel cleaning products the worse condition the wheels will get into.

As mentioned above, pretty much every Valeter uses TFR and One of these

I was doing Valeting/Detailing for a few years and never needed anything else.

As with most things related to Valeting, the expensive stuff is almost always bought by enthusiastic amateurs.

Professionals tend to use the simple stuff, that works. And TFR is a muti purpose, cheap as chips product that is great.

(Mixed right, it makes 1 litre of “MucOff” for about 5p)

Neal, can you send me a link to where i could get a brush like that, looks fantastic.

Pretty much any Valeting supplies place will sell them.

Google “Atlasta Brush”

The cheaper ones fall apart, but Atlasta are great. Should be about £10 or maybe less.

Bilberry wheel cleaner ftw

Have a look at wheel woolies amazing brushes

Iron X initially to remove the really stubborn stuff then keep on top of it with Bilberry.

Bilberry wheel cleaner is just TFR with a bit of shampoo mixed in.

It does work well, but it does nothing more than TFR, except cost twenty times as much.

Same as MucOff for your bike.

Decent TFR is VERY cheap.

(Screwfix are selling it at 50p a litre currently!)

£10 a litre for bilberry is taking the piss big time.

will this tfr stuff also remove adhesive residue from stick-on balancing weights?

Possibly. But Tar & Glue remover will do it a lot faster and easier.

WD40 can be used to remove tar spots. Spray on, leave for a few seconds then use a bit of car polish to buff up.

Linky -http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=23&t=1011742&i=20&mid=0&nmt=Recommend+me+a+good+alloy+wheel+cleaner

I use Bilberry’s and find that it lasts me ages and works pretty well. I use a clay bar for any tar spots that are stubborn to shift and make sure the wheels are sealed well.

Clay bar will remove Tar Spots but you risk damaging the surrounding area because of the particle size.

Much th same as trying to clean your car with a gritty sponge, you create surface scratches.

Better to dissolve the Tar with a solvent first, wipe away with a clean cloth. Then clay bar afterwards to finish the surface properly.