I always used Meguiar's HotWheel (or something) spray-on wheel cleaner on my Civic, so I carried that on over to my Evo. It does a great job of getting off brake dust and stuff, but it also did a sickeningly good job of REMOVING THE PAINT FROM MY CALIPERS!!!! Seriously, I've had the car for like 5 weeks, washed it 3 times, and now the calipers have gone from a beautiful perfect shiny red to a dull, chipped, faded craptastic red-orange. Maybe it's my own stupidity but no one ever told me that stuff had that many evil chemicals in it. Suck suck sucky.

 

Good rule of thumb... If you wouldn't put it on the hood of your car, don't put it on your wheels.

 

Use the A-Z WHeel cleaner on your rims. Ive tried all them except the Hot Wheels and that works the best. No reason I didnt try the Hot Wheels though. Just never did. But the A-Z in the orange bottle works awesome and doesnt hurt them at all. I use it on my exhaust and IC also.

 

We almost got into a lawsuit with Eagle One because of their POS wheel products. It ate the clearcoat right off of my Konig rims...when I had a Subaru . Their exposure time for their product (A-Z wheel cleaner) was 1 minute then rinse. We called them with a claim....and photo copied the bottle as well as kept some of the wheel cleaner in the event we needed it analyzed. Two weeks later all the labels on the A-Z had been reduced to 15 seconds....any less exposure time and you would just show the wheel the bottle and hope the dirt falls off. Anyways they took my old rims and bought me brand new TSW rims. It was a rather good trade off for my hassle.

The Best wheel cleaner ever in my opinion is P-21S...you can order it online as a spray liquid or spray gel (holds on the wheel better)....you can leave it on for days and have no corrosion at all. It safe for all surfaces and works absolutely awesome. Hope this helps.

 

PS...after using P-21s for over a year...on about 30 carwashes the only thing I have gotten from the cleaner is bright red calipers and clean wheels.

 

Simple Green. It's cheap, works good, and you can find it anywhere. I usually use it then I scrub with soap.

 

Yeah Simple Green is awesome stuff...especially for the engine. If you use it on painted surfaces don't let it dry. It can and will dull finishes.

 

Damn bro that sucks!

 

Hmm, I have used that meguairs hot wheel cleaner about 40 times now, no problems with anything on my rims.

 

I've used that as well on fully painted wheels, body, and engine. Takes bugs and grease off my G great!

Remember more and more wheels are coming with anodized lips and they really really don't like cleaners. Wheels like the SP-1 with anodized lips are highly susceptible to damage by road salt and other abrasives. There are many acidic elements in some of these wheels cleaners and many wheel companies will not honor a warranty if you've sprayed stuff on them.

 

Same thing, I have been using McGuiers HotWheel for about a year with no problems at all.

 

I used it on my Konigs (old car) and the EVO...no problems here.

 

they've probably changed their formula since then....the old was full of acid.

 

i used amour all wheel cleaner and the same thing has happened to me. I am planning to try to cover the brembo letering that get them resprayed or recoated or something.

 

I use Dupont's stuff with teflon. I don't know if it actually makes it easier to clean the wheels in subsequent washings, but it does make the wheels and calipers look damn good. I use it everytime with no negative effects so far.