I think you might be on to something with the reaction between the cleaners and the ceramic coating. Being that wheel cleaners, specifically BB, are already pretty strong (it's a pH of 10 iirc), I think you're likely looking at needing to correct that off, but you might be able to just use rubbing compound vs going to the SA/DA polisher.

 

You have any recommendations for a rubbing compound? I don't have a machine to do it, but it may be easier by hand because of all the grooves and stuff. I know next to nothing of polishes, compounds etc, so any pointers are helpful to try and recover my wheels.

 

Hope you're able to sort it out. There's a lesson here for all. Over the decades I've damaged a wheel or two by using various "wheel cleaners". I finally learned that there's really no short cut -- just use soap/water and clean the wheels regularly.

 

Yeah lesson learned I suppose. My line of thinking was to use a wheel acid to break down and remove the brake dust but it looks like I did more harm than good 😔

 

Ahh, the Adam's is acidic? yeah, that might be where the issue occurred, although I'd think the two would more or less just cancel being acid vs base (but might have also just reacted badly with the P&S formulation wise).

If you want a safe combo, you can use Armour Wheel Detailing Wheel Cleaner (has iron remover) and follow with Brake Buster. This combo worked great on my coated stock wheels, and they were matte black which is awful to clean lol.

 

I think so? They have two different products, wheel cleaner and then wheel & tire cleaner. One is more aggressive than the other I believe. In any case, do you have recommendations for a polish that I can try and use. I think I'll have to get them ceramic coated again regardless which sucks, but it is what it is.

 

Hit it with some light grit detailer / compound, should come off easy then.

 

Just to get a key takeaway point from this. The issue was using the adam cleaner more than anything because it was acidic on the ceramic coating? Would simply using the P&S BB alone safer for a ceramic coated wheel? Kind of just ordered a gallon of BB for my ceramic coated wheels 😅

 

See above (post #6)

 

I have not cleaned my matte black wheels yet. I don't worry about that stuff too much as some folks do. I choose function over fashion.
In the past, I have used Simple Green with a brush with good results. No need for some "fancy" wheel cleaner.

 

Simple green is known to corrode unpainted aluminum. I have used Adams wheel cleaner on rims from multiple vehicles and it never caused any damage. Matter of fact, it hasn't been a good wheel cleaner at all. I have since switched to P&S Brake Buster.

 

13.5 is a pretty strong alkali/base. I cant say I'd recommend using that on coated wheels; thats ironic given the discussion about it being acidic earlier.

Brake Buster is a pH of 10 for reference...

 

Yeah, clearly did more harm than good. I am going to try to use some polish on the wheels today to try and remove the residue. But first I will try and something like optimum no rinse with water and see if I can rub it off that way. If that isn't aggressive enough then I will move to the polisher. I probably stripped the ceramic coating off of the wheels at this point anyways because 13.5 is high than soapy water (~12.0) and people recommend using that for stripping lol

I'll report back to this thread once I have results.

 

And incase anyone has forgotten the pH scale ranges from 0-14, 7 is neutral. Dylan is right 13.5 is really quite strong, lol

 

I confess, when I experienced the prodigious production of brake dust of these cars, I decided to try a couple of different wheel cleaners. I bought stuff at the big box stores - I think a Black Magic product and a Mother's product - both supposedly safe for painted or powder coated wheels. Neither worked as I'd hoped - that is, something I could spray on, and then hose off removing most of the dust. They removed, I don't know, 50-60-70% of the dust, but in the sun I could still see the "brown". I used each twice just to confirm, and then threw the rest away.

Back to regular soap, water and my homemade tool for cleaning the barrel behind the spokes without taking the wheels off.

 

Just to update everyone, I tackled the wheels again tonight. I first tried spraying on a diluted ONR and wiping it down with the ONR solution. No success, it did absolutely nothing to help remove the white residue.

Next I tried spraying some of the wheel cleaner on a microfiber cloth and wiped an area where the staining was. No success with doing that either. It's like the residue was baked into the coating/clear coat.

Lastly I resorted to trying Meguairs Ultimate polish. Fortunately, this did the trick. I rubbed the polish in by hand with a microfiber applicator and used a ton of elbow grease. After wiping away the hazy polish that I just worked in, I found that the white staining was gone and the finish looked nice again. I was able to get like 90% of the staining gone. It was tough to polish the areas that are tucked away and hard to reach, but for now I am satisfied, until weather gets warmer and I have an easier time doing a deeper clean.

However, on closer inspection I saw that my first pass of cleaning the wheels (when i first used the wheel cleaner) wasn't really great because I still saw caked on brake dust at the inner lip of the barrel, brake dust in the little nooks and crannies, and in the lug nut holes. Some of the brake dust is so crusty and I can't even remove it by scratching it off with a finger nail. How do people actually remove really old, built up brake dust like this? I'd like to ceramic coat my wheels again after the polishing but I have no idea how to remove the heavy brake dust and get the wheels super clean to the point that I can apply the ceramic coating. Thoughts?

 

I guess my thought is -- if your ceramic coating didn't prevent this really bad build up of dust, why bother having them coated again?

 

What do we think about Meguiar's Hot Rims (purple OEM safe labeled bottle) after Project Farm video showing it doesn't damage clear coat, and cleans brake dust decently without scrubbing?

Link to buy:

https://www.harborfreight.com/24-oz-hot-rims-wheel-tire-cleaner-59328.html?gStoreCode=3146&gRefinements=NEARBY:Nearby

 

There's simply no substitute for mechanically cleaning with soap and water.

 

Using harsh chemicals to try to substitute for mechanical agitation is indeed a bad gamble IMO. But as I've mentioned above, another excellent wheel cleaner that is neutral but crazy good at cleaning is Armour Detail Supply Wheel Cleaner (but it has iron remover in it, which smells like ass, and it's pricey; I dilute is 2:1 and using it every other wash to remove rotor dust). It is billed as being coating safe as well; the ceramic coating I used on my stock wheels is also from them and Matt from OG's favorite.