The wheels on a car are often the area that end up the dirtiest, and therefore need the most attention.
They attract brake dust like a magnet, particularly front alloys that typically have disk brakes. Mud-splattered roads also mean that rear wheels can end up caked in grime, needing attention to remove safely.
As more wheels are painted in gloss black finishes that are prone to scratching, as well as many being a pricey optional extra on new cars, there is even more of a need to keep them looking their best to prevent marks.
With this in mind, we’ve put together a handy step-by-step guide to get your wheels sparkling again. It might seem a bit time consuming, but it will definitely be worth it in the end.
And unfortunately we couldn’t find a Ferrari with filthy enough wheels to take photos of, so we had to make do with a dented brown 2011 Skoda Yeti. At least it was in need of a clean…
1. Get the wheels their own bucket – they are often the most fiddly, time consuming and grimy area. Get them out of the way first.
2. Spray them with a pre-wash product, or a wheel cleaner, and leave to soak for a couple of minutes.
3. Pressure wash the dirt away – just look at the difference made already!
4. Next, clean the wheel faces using a soft wash mitt or wheel mitt.
5. Don’t forget the wheel barrels – use long ended brushes to clean them – you often need several brushes to reach all the areas.
7. If the wheels look like they still need a bit of attention, use what’s known as fallout remover to remove any iron particles from the brake dust left on the wheels. The product turns red, and then it can be sprayed off. The reaction shows up better on neglected wheels.
8. Don’t forget the tyres and wheel arches, either. Spray a strong APC on them and leave for a couple of minutes.
9. Scrub the tyres using a dedicated tyre brush and the wheel arches if ingrained dirt is present on them.
10. Fully rinse the wheel removing any dirt.
11. Once you’ve cleaned the rest of the car, and dried it – don’t forget to dry the wheels and tyre arches, too. This leaves a good base to apply tyre shine to.
13. And there you have it – one sparking set of wheels, we did have to clean the rest of it, too.
