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Detailing question, how do you clean black wheels?
A quick detailing question regarding the wheels...
I have a new to me 991.2 GTS with beautiful satin black rims and washed the car for the first time a week ago after it had a ppf and ceramic coating done. (the rims were not coated).
After the wash I drove it around the block so the brakes wouldn't get stuck (old habit). The day after I noticed that the inside of the rims were smeared with iron residue, clearly from water dripping down from the rotors I think. I used an iron remover the detailer gave me (pH neutral), although I probably didn't need it but I thought I'd try the product.
This is the first car I've had with black rims, and I don't think the inside (what's it called, barrel? drum?) has ever been so visible so perhaps this is a general problem but is now clearly extremely visible.
How do you prevent this? Do you wash the wheels, try to dry as much as possible and then let it sit until completely dry? Is this a problem that only arises if I use an iron remover during the wash process?
u need wheel wollies type wheel cleaners to get into those crevices and clean them out... then blow wheel with leaf blower to get any residue and water left after cleaning and rinsing well
then go for a ride to dry brakes off
but bottomline on black wheels with exposed barrels u will end up seeing more dirt than on other wheels
>>from water dripping down from the rotors I think<<
I feel your pain. The rust on the barrels after the wash isn’t from the rotors though (I used to think the same). It’s actually from the hub. I just had my wheels of this weekend, so take a look at the pic below. It’s not real clear, but trust me, the hubs are very rusty. It’s very easy for water to sit in there after a wash and eventually it will drip down onto our just cleaned wheel barrels. I’m not comfortable putting any type of rust preventative on the hubs so short of that, other than parking in the sun on a warm day, it’s going to happen.
u need wheel wollies type wheel cleaners to get into those crevices and clean them out... then blow wheel with leaf blower to get any residue and water left after cleaning and rinsing well
then go for a ride to dry brakes off
but bottomline on black wheels with exposed barrels u will end up seeing more dirt than on other wheels
enjoy the car
I have a wheel woolie and did a new cleaning yesterday, and this iron residue comes off with a good scrub fortunately. Did use a leaf blower and tried to blow out everything, but had to take a ride before it was perfectly dried and for some reason the rear wheels still had a nice brown line underneath where the rotors were but the fronts were ok. I guess I managed to do a better job on the fronts this time.
But what do I do to prevent this properly? I assume using the iron remover compounded the problem, so I will use it sparingly in the future, but in my mind the only way to have clean wheels after a wash seems to be to dry out as much as possible and then let the car sit and dry overnight, perhaps put something underneath the brakes so anything that drips down doesn't touch the barrel...
Drives me nuts on my GTS, so much so that I wish I go PCCBs. I wash the car, blow off with a Master Blaster then drive it around the block and reclean (no water) the wheels, barrels too. Big pain in the butt.
Drives me nuts on my GTS, so much so that I wish I go PCCBs. I wash the car, blow off with a Master Blaster then drive it around the block and reclean (no water) the wheels, barrels too. Big pain in the butt.
The solution is to stop the rusting on the hubs. Anyone?
DaveGee
Don't think it's from the hubs, the second cleaning I did when I used the leaf blower at its highest setting at least solved the problem for the most part for my front wheels, and the rear wheels where I wasn't as successful, there is a streak of the "iron water" that is situated exactly underneath or behind the rotors. If it had been the hubs I would assume the brown line would be closer to the spokes.
In any case, it's apparent to me that after washing the car I must try to get as much water out of the wheels as I possibly can with the leaf blower and then roll it into my garage and see if I need to do an extra wipe. I have purchased some "wet coat" which is a spray on ceramic coating of sorts that I will apply next time when the wheels are perfectly clean. Perhaps that'll help in the last step when doing an extra wipe if I cannot get all the water out.
See post 9 here. I've put anti-seize paste on wheel centering surface and it has kept the rust gremlins away for the most part. I did not put it anywhere else on the hub so am glad that I accidentally followed the correct procedure. I also get some rust from my rotors too. After I clean, dry and drive the car I will do a light re cleaning of the wheels when I park it; usually with some detailing spray (ONR). That gets rid of any rust fairly easily since I don't let it set in. Wheels still get instantly dirty with brake dust though - welcome to black wheels.
See post 9 here. I've put anti-seize paste on wheel centering surface and it has kept the rust gremlins away for the most part. I did not put it anywhere else on the hub so am glad that I accidentally followed the correct procedure. I also get some rust from my rotors too. After I clean, dry and drive the car I will do a light re cleaning of the wheels when I park it; usually with some detailing spray (ONR). That gets rid of any rust fairly easily since I don't let it set in. Wheels still get instantly dirty with brake dust though - welcome to black wheels.
I have no issue with brake dust, I can clean the car regularly to keep that in check, but if you check the pic in my first post it's as if someone sprayed the entire barrel with brown goo. Before that the wheels just had a weeks worth of small brake dust on it, and after washing they looked perfect. This was after max 1 mile of driving, so clearly water with iron content was sprayed out from the brakes.
I have no issue with brake dust, I can clean the car regularly to keep that in check, but if you check the pic in my first post it's as if someone sprayed the entire barrel with brown goo. Before that the wheels just had a weeks worth of small brake dust on it, and after washing they looked perfect. This was after max 1 mile of driving, so clearly water with iron content was sprayed out from the brakes.
Yup - I understand. Check the wheel centering piece of the wheel carrier as mentioned; cleaning that up may help some. Just re-clean the wheels after driving the car to dry things off. I have the same problem you have. I've tried applying sprays on rotors that mitigate rust; I've tried to blow off the water and neither never really completely worked well for me.
Spray directly on rotors after wash to prevent rust build up. Once it builds up on the rotors, it'll coat the inside of your barrels once you drive off.
Use this liberally after your wheels are dry inside the rims and it will repel the rust that may settle. I love this stuff especially!
I always blow my car and wheels dry which helps get a lot of the water out of crevices, etc.
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Detailing question, how do you clean black wheels?
