Any tips for cleaning multi cross spoke alloys?

[Jason1145]

My alloys look great but are a pain to clean being multi cross spoke with, count it, roughly 60 gaps that needs inserting to clean per wheel! That's a total of poking some form of brush or cloth covered finger and giving it a good fingering excuse my French, 240 times for all 4 wheels.
I already have a few alloy wheel brushes but it's the monotony I detest.. I'd love to know if there's an easier way to clean them?
I Recently bought Wonder Wheels Ultimate Wheel Cleaner - said to spray on, leave for 5 -10 minutes then jet wash off... But it didn't unsettle the brake dust in every spoke gap meaning I still had to poke them clean manually - 240 times

Rant over, help appreciated.

 

[reflexboy]

My alloys look great but are a pain to clean being multi cross spoke with, count it, roughly 60 gaps that needs inserting to clean per wheel! That's a total of poking some form of brush or cloth covered finger and giving it a good fingering excuse my French, 240 times for all 4 wheels.
I already have a few alloy wheel brushes but it's the monotony I detest.. I'd love to know if there's an easier way to clean them?
I Recently bought Wonder Wheels Ultimate Wheel Cleaner - said to spray on, leave for 5 -10 minutes then jet wash off... But it didn't unsettle the brake dust in every spoke gap meaning I still had to poke them clean manually - 240 times

Rant over, help appreciated.

These so called 'touch less' wheel cleaners, like Bilberry, that you spray on, then jet wash off are good, but I find they still need intervention with a brush or microfiber or sponge. New wheels?

 

[Jason1145]

Yes it's this intervention I was hoping to do away with ;p
Yes new wheels couple months ago, and I'm finding out now why simple 5 spoke alloys are popular, here's my offending units:

 

[reflexboy]

Rather you than me......You could just clean the silver shiny bits, as the rest of the wheel is black

 

[Jason1145]

Lol top idea... it did cross my mind to.... trouble is the brake dust is a lovely gravy brownish colour which looks like poop on the black wheels ;p

 

[dubsR33]

me personally as the wheels are still kinda new, id sell them and get different ones mate...

 

[def90cars]

The only solution is get them off, mega clean and apply a hydrophobic chemical.

 

[Jason1145]

I do like the look of the wheels, enough to persevere with them cheers
Just looked into that Hydrophobic chemical, you mean something like this?
CarPro HydrO2 | Water Activated Sealant - Clean Your Car

 

[Sanke]

Use something like DLux.

Takes the wheels off, full decontamination, polish then seal with DLux, it'll make cleaning easier but there is not a magic liquid that mean the muck won't settle on them. It'll only make cleaning easier

Steve

 

[J LAD]

Autosmart have brought out a new de-contaminant cleaner called Red 7.
Its based on the same platform as Iron X, where it dissolves baked on iron particles.
They are, as I think someone as already said on this forum a little bit behind the scene when it comes to new products, but!, its great value for the money, not acidic, so very safe to use.
Simply spray on, leave to dwell, iron particles will turn purple in colour, then simply rinse off, no need to use brushes.
I also use Smartwheels, another great alloy cleaner, same again, spray on, leave, rinse off.
Watch the demo on YouTube.

 

[stagwcb]

Try one of these eBay number 272090436532 . It looks like a tooth brush with lots of different heads . Put on your cleaner leave to work then adgitate with the tooth brush then put on hard wax . You get a good reach with it and it does not hurt your fingers . I actually got mine from Aldi .

Michael.

 

[nigel cross]

Small wheel woolie.

 

[uumode]

I do like the look of the wheels, enough to persevere with them cheers
Just looked into that Hydrophobic chemical, you mean something like this?
CarPro HydrO2 | Water Activated Sealant - Clean Your Car

I've used that, doesn't really work.

At the moment I'm trying the new Autoglym super hydrophobic wheel protector
Wheel Protector - Products - Autoglym

it seems to be working, alloys look much cleaner than without it, though haven't rinsed it yet. BUT it's not recommended for black or dark wheels.

The Sonax Xtreme Brilliant Shine Detailer for bodywork, works great for the body and it has some self cleaning properties, the rain just washes the crap off. So it might work for the wheels too.

 

[developer]

There's a small brush in the Wheel Woolies set that would get into most of those crevices.

Car Cleaning Brushes & Mixing Bottles | Car Cleaning Products

 

[Mrhanky]

There's a small brush in the Wheel Woolies set that would get into most of those crevices.

Car Cleaning Brushes & Mixing Bottles | Car Cleaning Products

Agree, the wheel woolies are fantastic. I had been looking at them for over a year and was put off at the price. Santa got me them and they are just great.

 

[Jason1145]

Ok going to try one of those sonic motorised brushes from Ebay for only £7, and a couple of Valet Pro brushes which look like round paint brushes... And a Wonder Wheels sealer to try keep the dirt settling in the first place.
Thanks for all the tips, wheel woollies will be next if I'm still not happy, thanks chaps.
The hydrophobic route looks great but I'm not into wheels off for cleaning only due to lack of a driveway, don't fancy doing this on street.

 

[Sanke]

That makes sense. Vikan do a range of long thin brushes which help right inside the inner wheels section. Once you've got them as clean as you can, and instead of traditional clay, use a farcela clay wash mitt to remove any bonded contaminents - halfords sell them

Steve

 

[Jason1145]

Thanks Steve I've just returned from halfords equipped with the Clay mitt and the matching G3 body shampoo... This will be for cleaning my bodywork mainly, I never knew about claying till you mentioned it!
Can't wait till next time I can wash the car and clay it, there are lots of tar spots I want to remove... Later on I'm sure I will get into the G3 scratch remover liquid too... My other half is rarely gonna see me now