What do you guys use to clean your rims? Will a sponge scratch my rims?

 

Soap and water. I keep an extra "mitt" just for my wheels. Once the whole car is done, dunk the mitt in the bucket and clean those wheels. Do it last though, because you don't want to contaminate the wash water with brake dust before doing the paint.

 

That's one way that will work. I prefer to do my wheels/tires first, though. If you do them last, you may inadvertantly splash brake dust and soap up on the clean panels near the wheels. Plus if I wait to do the wheels last, the water is drying on the rest of the car while I'm trying to get the wheels clean.

So, I do the wheels first with regular car wash soap and water, and an old wash mitt used only for wheels. I also go ahead and wash the exhaust area at this time. Then, I empty the bucket, rinse it out good, and start over with fresh car wash soap/water and a good clean wash mitt and do the rest of the car.

If you keep a good coat of wax or sealant on the wheels, soap and water should remove all brake dust easily. For stubborn stains, I have a bottle of P21S gel wheel cleaner on hand.

 

Is the Armorall wheel cleaner any good? I have a few really stubborn spots that are taking a while to get off with just soap and water so I was thinking of picking up a bottle of this to try out.

 

Never tried the Armor All. A lot of people rave about the Eagle One A2Z wheel cleaner. You should be able to find it locally.

 

I use a wheel brush I bought at Wal-Mart. It's a Black Magic wheel brush w/soft bristles. Works great on my stock & aftermarket rims. I use cheapest wheel cleaner at Wal-Mart also hehe called Orange Blast. I got 11.5k miles on my RX & my wheels look mint & with brush: cleans very quickly, especially all the debris around the wheel weights glued inside of rims. If only cleaning my Black sheetmetal were as easy

 

i found a cloth brush that some nice guy left behind at the car was 1 day an it work awsome.i also do my tires last ,then i mist the entire car and dry.

 

i use good old gasoline and a soft brush...i guarantee it will come cleaner than any of those wheel cleaners, but be sure to put newspaper or something that will prevent gasoline stains in ur driveway

 

But these wheels are painted/clearcoated right? The gas will tear that up...

 

Yes, gas will eat away clearcoat over time if it doesn't dry it out and start cracking first.

Extra mit is all that I use. I hit the rims with polish every 3-5 washes. This helps tons.

 

I use a paper towel without any cleaner, seems to work fine for me..

 

I use P21S wheel cleaner. I also just tried Sonus wheel cleaner. I think it works just as well but it's a little cheaper in price. For a washing tool. I dont use sponges. I use and old wash mitt and a wheel brush.
Meguiars wheel brush
I also seal my wheels with a sealant not a wax. I use Klasse All In One as a prep and their Sealant Glaze for protection. I apply 4 coats of the sealant glaze.
Wax will not stand up to the brake temps and road temps. Sealants do.

Hope this has helped.
Jon

 

I Zainoed my wheels when I did the rest of the car and I use the small CA duster nightly on them - the brake dust just comes right off. Any dust that is not accessible with the duster (around the lug nuts) I use a wet sponge (just water) and then dry off with a MF cloth.

 

I agree - this is an amazingly effective, and relatively easy way to keep the brake dust from accumulating on the wheels.

Last time I waxed my car (Maguire's Gold Class until I use it up) I also waxed the wheels. I immediately noticed they stay cleaner between washes - I guess the dust just blows off - and when I washed my car yesterday I saw that brake dust just rinse off leaving no trace.

Highly recommended.