20 Best Car Wheel Cleaner (2022 Updated)

I tried the wheel cleaner on a set of gloss wheels and a set of alloy wheels. The description on the website for the signature series says it is gentle and safe for all types of finishes and materials.

However, on the label it says it is formulated for all types of gloss finishes. I suggest the website description should be updated to be consistent. Either way it did not remove the road dust on either type of wheel.

The wheels were in tough shape so I was hoping for a miracle, but little improvement to either set odd wheels.

Best wheel cleaner on the market. I have tried at least 12 other products. This is the only one that changes color to show you that it’s working, and the only one that is gentle on my white powder coated wheels.

I daily drive an R53 MINI Cooper year-round. It also works on most brands brake pad’s dust from Hawk, Carbotech, EBC, and others. With these street performance and AutoX pads, it does require scrubbing.

One pass of all four wheels takes me about 15 minutes using a wheel brush to get behind the spokes, and the four finger mitts to get the curb appeal side.

This does not turn a deep purple color like most of these wheel cleaners do. It lightly turns purple, even on super dirty rims, but that’s about it. Aside from the color factor, as long as you let this product sit for 4 minutes then agitate it with a cleaning brush then you will be good to go.

But you must wait at least 3-4 minutes before scrubbing, otherwise it won’t clean properly. I learned this from trial and error. Patience is key with this product.

I hate to use superlatives in describing a Griots product since they usually put a lot of them in their product descriptions, but I have to make an exception in this case. I struggled to clean the white painted wheels on my smart Fortwo.

Soap & water, spray cleaner, hand scrubbing, nothing really touched the dirt. But by golly this stuff works just as advertised. Spray it on, wait, spray it off. I’d say 95% of the dirt just washed away, the remaining 5% came off when you rubbed it by hand or a rag.

I also used a bristle brush with long brushes, but I just used it for a swipe or two. So this is one Griots product that really lives up to their hype.

Usually when I finish detailing my car (wipe down with Ultimate Quik Detailer), I’ll take the towel and wipe off my rims. I thought I’d give this product a try, since it offered being a tire dressing as well.

It left my rims clean, shiny, and smooth/slick, and did provide some level of tire dressing as well. If you’re looking for the deep shiny gloss you get from gels, this isn’t it, but it also did not “spray” over the car after driving nor did it leave residue on my car cover.

My rims had a bit of dust and dirt from the recent rains, and the spray cleaned that up fine. My impression is that if you have caked-on mud or dust, you should still wash it off first before using this product, or you’ll have to do a second application.

Definitely like what it did for my rims, will buy again!.

Amazing waterless wheel and tire cleaner. Left my wheels looking beautiful. The tires had a nice shine but, not too shiney which is what I like. Just spray on and wipe away with a soft microfiber towel.

Easy and great product to use.

I forgot the before picture but after product was definitely worth a picture. I have tried about 5 different products and this is by far number 1. With having gloss black wheels and new homes being built across from me they accumulate crazy dust.

I sprayed, let it sit, then wiped simple and easy.

Bought extra wheels for my Grand Cherokee. 10 years of Extreme grime on inside of wheels! Prayed and let sit for 15 minutes, so bad used a used a scrub sponge but it took it off to original finish! Outside used soft sponge and took that off easily! Wont have to do it again as yearly clean and light amout should do the job from now on.

Other cleaners didnt touch the inside grime! Very Happy.

been using this on my BMW as it does a much more thorough job that genuine BMW product. can leave on whilst washing the rest of the car, though i always agitate with a wheel rim brush before rinsing for maximum effect.

I was amazed this product does what it claims. I just sprayed it on waited 10 minutes then hosed it off!! not one bit of scrubbing! Easy!!Brilliant!

Telling you right now, this product does exactly what it says, and I’m delighted to report that. Not only is it a nice citrus smelling wheel cleaner, but this formula comes in a gel form that sticks on whatever you spray it.

This makes it extremely effective in breaking down brake dust and road grit. I still ended up using a brush to agitate it after letting it dwell on the wheel for about 30 seconds, but no complaints. I spent way less time scrubbing this stuff versus other wheel cleaners I use.

Full disclosure, I have a 2017 JKU with stock aluminium rims, which attract brake dust like it’s their job. That being said, I’m ecstatic when I find a good cleaning solution for the wheels. Seriously, this is the wheel cleaner you’re looking for.

No brainer. Just get it.

I had tried almost every product ever made to get my wheels clean, and nothing worked until I got this. It melts tough grime. Spray it on, wait, then rinse. For tougher grime, you may have to wipe your wheels down with a sponge a little bit before rinsing, but this stuff really works! Definitely worth the money!.

I was recommended this product by a friend and actually bought it at the time when Detailers Domain was give it away free as well with a certain purchase amount. I have been using this product on two vehicles a 2011 Audi A4 and my moms older Pontiac Grand AM It made short work for my Audi just sprayed on and used a high pressure sprayer to clean if off afterwards, no scrubbing or anything else required to clean my wheels.

On my moms car was the true test since it is an older car, the wheels aren’t as new and had a lot more build up on them from over the years. I did have to scrub just a bit with a wheel brush but it made short work of her wheels as well and my moms wheels look almost brand new.

I highly recommend this for any one wanting to clean their wheels with ease. I have already recommended to a few other friends who have purchased a bottle of this as well.

Firstly the smell. Secondly the coverage. Please review the “how to video” here on the TW page. You’ll notice how much is used, and that’s about what it takes! A lot of product used for for one session.

As far as tire cleaning, I have never met another product that cleans like this one. As far as wheel cleaning, I did not notice any difference over just car shampoo and a good set of tools.

This product works great! My wheels and tires came out super clean. Unfortunately it takes a lot of product to thoroughly clean my wheels and tires. Despite them relatively clean. I’ll use this product, but only when I need a deep clean, which is probably this products intended purpose.

I’ll continue to use an APC for my regular washes.

A decent wheel cleaner. I don’t think it’s as good as the latest Turtle Wax wheel cleaner that has iron remover in it. This didn’t clean quite as well and took more scrubbing effort to produce a similar result.

Still a great product though, just not the top wheel cleaner they offer.

Ok so I have only had to ever clean a steel rims 2 times ever. I usually have Alloy or Chrome on my cars/trucks and i use never dull which works great for me. So I was wanting to test two highest rated cleaners on the site so I got this and also Meguires Hot Rims.

I tried this one two rims and also was using a nylon brush thats a little bigger then a tooth brush. It just would not take off that much tar and brake build up. I spent about 30 minutes a rim. I wasn’t happy at all with the results to I went back over it with the hot rims cleaner and it took more off then this super clean did in 30 minutes.

So the last 2 rims I used the hot rims cleaner and it cleaned them like new. I dont want to say super clean doesn’t work it does but no where close to the hot rims cleaner. Again I was cleaning with a nylon brush and on steel rims with both cleaners on a ford 99 f350.

I will post on here before and after pictures. Pictures that show cleaned are results from mainly the hot rims end result.

This wheel cleaner is more effective than Mothers brand cleaner I have used, let alone Simple Green all-purpose cleaner. It dissolves brake dust from the inside of wheel with reasonable rubbing. It took 3 washed to dissolve 7 years of brake dust, which neither Mothers or Simple Green could do.

And the size per dollar is superior to Mothers. It is mildly irritating to skin when used extended period due to oxalic acid content. Therefore disposable rubber glove is recommended.

I purchased to clean chrome wire wheels. I used a 1600 psi pressure washer to hose off. Did a good job on the white wall tires as well.

This wheel cleaner works very well, but you don’t get a lot for the money compared to other brands I have tried that do as good of a job. I would like more adjustable spray control so I can get a finer spray, which not only would make more efficient use of the cleaner, but also allow you to get in the nooks and crannies of your wheel.

The cleaner being a thicker gel makes it hard to get a good, uniform coating on my wheels as well, meaning I have to spray more of it to get the coverage I need.

I have a German SUV with Chinese brakes, and they throw off more iron than anything, including my former 1987 Mercedes. When left to dwell properly and then hit with a blast from my electric power washer I rarely need to use a wheel brush.

Here’s an off label use you probably have not heard of; I was detailing a pickup from a pest control company and the tank in the bed was stained from whatever was inside; worked great on that too!.

Works Amazing!!! There aren’t enough words to describe how well it worked for me. I have a 2016 BMW X5 with (Aluminum I think) rims. I haven’t done a great job maintaining them, and tried to use a rotary brush on a drill with soap, but there was apparently brake dust stains on the rims, and the brush wasn’t doing anything at all.

I sprayed the rims (dry) with this product, let them sit for 3 minutes, then I washed them with a hose. I had to run the rotary brush (but any brush would have worked) to get some of the remnants off.

There was absolutely NOTHING left behind. The rims look brand new. It was unbelievable. I debated buying the other Meguiars products, but I wasn’t sure which one to choose because I’m not absolutely certain what my rims are made of (if there’s a clearcoat over aluminum or what).

This product says safe on all rims, so I went with it. I honestly didn’t expect it to work that well, and figured it might take *some* of the stains out. Literally removed ALL stains (and obviously any actual dust).

Anyone that gives this a rating below a 5 must not be able to read instructions or something.

for wheels that you care about. Cheaper cleaners can be quite effective too (without iron removal), but also harsh and more likely to cause damage. In the popular premium range (Megs, Bowdens, Autoglym etc), Megs is slightly ahead IMO: it’s a larger bottle; is safe and effective; and is available everywhere.

Super pricey though – best wait for a sale. It’s ph-balanced (hence won’t degrade painted alloys if washed off promptly and thoroughly) and has the red-bleeding chemical which removes iron fallout, and hence does a complete clean.

My wheels feel smooth to the touch after using this. For cheaper wheels/cars, the “home brand” non-premium cleaners are fine, and are about a third of the price. I sometimes use those for a first clean on super dirty wheels, to save cost.

Nb. the occasionally propagated idea that you can spray-on, wait and rinse off is for people who are as stupid as they are lazy. EVERY wheel cleaner needs agitation to work properly. In fact, if you’re doing it properly – (i.

e. pre-rinsing, applying, agitating, and waiting a bit), then you don’t actually need a lot of product. enough to coat the surface is enough to do the job. Spraying more on is a waste of your money – and your time – as you have to work longer to rinse it all off.

If wheels are really grimy, an second or 3rd application is a far more effective approach. Nb. my owners manual says that I should wax my wheels on occasion!. Keep that in mind. If the value-brands come out with a red-bleeding type cleaner, I would switch to them.

Anyway, this is my current go-to, for vehicles that I care about.

Works as it should, cleans the wheels quite well. I applied the solution as directed on the back of the back waited the time suggested and saw the chemical reaction where the solution turns a purple colour.

3 of the wheels I did let sit with no agitation with a soft brush and 1 wheel I brushed. The 3 were quite clean with a few spots, the 1 wheel with the soft scrub was better as there were some baked on dust from months of driving.

Its no miracle cleaner you can’t just spray on and thats that, I do recommend a soft scrub but with out that you will still get a great looking set of cleaned wheels that a shiny just be prepared for a few spot here and there.

For the price not a bad job at all. Will continue to use.

Pretty intense burning sensation on fingers/hands, used gloves after the first few sprays. This is some pretty harsh stuff. Going to keep looking. Used one time then threw in the trash. If you have years worth of brake dust this may be a great option.

I keep my wheels pretty clean though so this is way too much. For people who don’t really clean their car, then all of a sudden decide to. this would be great.

This foaming cleaner gave my wife’s car wheels a sparkling clean finish. One star off because there is a budgetary downside – I used one third of the new bottle to clean four wheels. The foaming spray head goes through a lot of product very quickly.

NB – Zero marks to Turtle Wax Customer Service for ignoring my emailed enquiry about whether this cleaner would be safe for the anodised forged wheels on my Porsche.

I bought this because I generally trust turtle wax, but it was horrible. It left weird spots on my tires and left a white residue all over my wheels. I followed directions and even tried cleaning the wheels twice but it messed up my tires and no other products have been able to fix it.

And overall it didn’t work and left residue making the problem worse.

After seeing all the JLG products recently at an event at the Petersen Museum, I decided to give them a shot as I depleted my stuff from the other guys. I picked up some 300ZX wheels the weekend before this arrived.

Lots of caked on brake dust in the slots and the insides were really yucky. I sprayed the **** out of them, let them sit a couple minutes till I saw some nice purple streaks, then took a brush to them.

I then repeated this. Huge difference afterward. This knocked off the old brake dust quite well. I didn’t expect it to work miracles on 32 year old wheels but it did what I wanted it to. It would’ve been even better if I had a better brush to really get in the corners of the directional slots on the wheels.

The next test was washing my car and used it on my nice wheels and of course it did the job nicely.

This is THE BEST wheel/rim cleaner you can buy!! I purchased an old car that had been sitting for years. The rims were corroded with black brake dust. I tried numerous types of cleaners to no avail. I used this one time and 80% came off!!! It’s amazing!! Just try it, you will be amazed too!! Also, I used a couple drill scrubbing attachments that helped a lot with this cleaner.

I bought both items at the same time and have used em each once. I’ve gotta say they are some of the best products I’ve used. Really good price for really good quality products. I will 100% be buying them again and also will be trying out some other products as well!.

IšverstiShow in original languageThe wheels on my 2002 Odyssey had literally never been cleaned. So 18 years of driving and 250,000 miles later, the brake dust was so caked on that other wheel cleaners wouldn’t even make the slightest difference.

I mixed wheel brightener 1:3 with water, and went to town. See the photos for results, after about 10 minutes per wheel. Keep in mind this stuff is INCREDIBLY strong, so do NOT use this for your regular cleaning, or for even normally dirty wheels.

The smell alone, even when diluted, hits you in the back of the throat and makes you cough. It is acidic after all so be careful. I have never needed to use it on a customers car, P&S brake buster diluted works wonders for 99% of details, and it’s safe.

But this wheel Brighter is great to have in your backup arsenal, as long as you know when to use it. P. S. My wheels were super damaged and need to be refinished.

IšverstiShow in original languageFirst of all, don’t get freaked out about the acid. That just means its on the acidic side of the pH scale. Guess what? The stuff in your stomach is too! Now, that doesn’t mean you should drink this stuff (or even get it on your skin if you can help it), but it does mean it won’t hurt your rims AS LONG AS you use the product properly and follow the directions.

Pay clear attention to the direction and dilution ratios. Use only on recommended wheels. I believe if you use only on OEM wheels — ones with a clear coat — and avoid aluminum, you SHOULD be fine, but if in doubt, check with your wheel manufacturer.

If still in doubt, test this product on a small area of one wheel. If you still can’t decide, just use another wheel cleaner. I think even if you used this product on aluminum wheels, you can still polish them after use.

So they’ll be clean but a little dull. I couldn’t believe how quick this product worked on my wheels when I first used it. I knew it was good stuff but I thought my wheels were relatively clean. Turns out, they weren’t that clean.

At least, this stuff got a lot of gunk off. I would strongly recommend you wear eye protection when using this product (or any chemical for that matter), especially with any brush that might “sling” any part of the product back in your face.

I had sunglasses on when I first used this product with a new wheel brush and I’m glad I did. Now, I don’t use any chemical without eye protection. Just a friendly tip. Be sure and rinse your wheels prior to applying this product.

You want to work on cool wheels when using. Oh, and you might want to grab an acid resistant sprayer. You might want a few. I put this product in a Bona floor cleaner spray bottle (obviously without the Bona product) because I think their sprayer is the most acid/chemical resistant one there is.

Sprayers may last a day or they may last a lifetime. Good luck, and again, don’t freak out about words like acid that you may not fully understand. Not all of us took chemistry in high school (though I think we all SHOULD have!).

IšverstiShow in original languageDilute this 4:1. Spray on a dry wheel. Wait 5 minutes. Pressure wash off. Done. I have tried them, none work as advertised. Note, you will ruin spray pump nozzles. Something in this product destroys the guts of the pump sprayers.

Worth it!.

Have been using this product for about 3 years. Why? Because it works so well. Spray it on and let it soak per instructions and it loosens up all the brake dust and road crud. Then a quick scrub with a wheel brush, a thorough rinse with the hose, and you’re done.

Wheels and brake housings are clean with no need to repeat or scrub over and over. Good stuff!.

I bought this wheel cleaner to use on my BMW’s VMR V703 (M3 CSL) rims. I normally don’t have a problem manually cleaning my wheels, but thanks to the previous owner’s lack of care for these rims, brake dust has built up in the recesses and what normally would come off easily now requires further action.

Scrubbing does remove the deposits, but I wanted to avoid scratching the surface so I looked for something to chemically break down the deposits and found Meguiar’s Ultimate Wheel Cleaner. I used the product as directed, no pre-rinse, sprayed from bottom to top and had the product rinsed off within 3 minutes.

After using this product on one wheel, it now has some phat streaks, it’s lost it’s deep colour and shine so the clear coat is damaged and after all that the product still didn’t remove the brake dust deposits anyway.

I washed the wheel twice by hand after that with normal wash soap but unfortunately the damage is irreversible. I cleaned the three other wheels by hand with normal wash soap and they all look great.

Having been lucky enough to only expose one wheel to this product I immediately binned it. I wouldn’t use it again on my wheels and wouldn’t want anyone else to pick it up and use it on their wheels.

I can’t think of any reason why I’d recommend using this to anybody. Whether you care about your car or not, even when used as directed it causes serious damage to the surface of the rim. This product does a very bad job, you’re better off spending the time to clean your wheels manually with normal wash soap which is what I will continue to do from now on.

I don’t want to see this happen to anyone else’s wheels.

The cleaning solution was fine. brake dust came right off. The sprayer, however, is a cheap piece of junk. You pull the trigger and and a nice spray comes out, but the trigger doesn’t come back out for the next spray.

You basically get one good spray for every 3 trigger pulls. When you pay for a premium product, you expect premium performance. This product fell short.

used this to clean some uncoated aluminum wheels and tires. Worked very well! I especially liked cleaning the tires with it. You get this reaction that turns dark brown which seems to only happen with dirty tires.

Its like the dirt and grime and oxidation on the rubber is washing away effortlessly! I also used this product on my motorcycle wheels, which are powder coated gloss black. Amazing! I didn’t have to touch them with a rag or anything.

just spray, wait, rinse and they looked as good as when i picked them up 5 years ago from the powder coater!.

I used this stuff on my motorcycle wheels. It not only cleaned the hubs and rims beautifully, it even put a shine on the spokes. I went on to use it on the frame and engine parts. Does a great job of degreasing, removing dead bugs, and that dingy road grime you get from riding in the rain.

I love it because it requires no rubbing or scrubbing. Just spray the foam on – I let it set for maybe five minutes – and then rinse everything clean with a good garden hose sprayer. Takes away the dirt; leaves a shine.

I didn’t have any problems with it damaging the finish on any painted surfaces. Highly recommend it for use on motorcycles.

I have been using another well known wheel product for many years now and have always said great things about it. But changing to a euro car recently I found that as soon as I did the 10 minute clean on each wheel as per directions, I would drive 50m down the road and my gloss black rims were covered in brake surface rust again.

So, i didnt think it would change anything by changing cleaners. But WOW. This stuff was excellent. I dont know what it is but i havent seen as much of that purple iron run off since the early days of using the other product.

My wheels are super clean and have managed to stay that way for some reason. Only downside is that I gave it a bit of a shake before using and the thing popped the lid and sprayed with that nasty smelling liquid.

Just dont shake it.

Excellent product which does exactly what it says and I didn’t even use a brush so as to see how it performed. Very satisfied with the product and have no hesitation in recommending. Used on my new car as well as my son’s car rims which had not been done for years and the end result was impressive I must say.

Amazing wheel cleaner spray. Goes purple when in contact with water. Foams up easily and brakes down dirt and brake dust. Washes off to leave the perfect shine

The Suds Lab XA Zero-Acid Wheel Cleaner – Cleans Brake Dust and Grime for Car Rims and Tires – Safe on Chrome, Alloy and Aluminum Rim. Since the area I live in has winter months I’m going to use this on my rins to clean them.

It’s also an100 % acid free formula that also clean tires and chrome. What is really important that it will remove break dust and Road grime on contact. It’s easy to use and less scrubbing is required.

Furthermore, it is safer than any acid-based cleaner. Highly recommend using this product for fantastic looking Wheels.

I bought this wheel cleaner about a month ago and was finally able to wash my car this past weekend. After several weeks of cold temperatures, rain and snow my car needed a bath. My wheel were so dirty, I sprayed this cleaner on and left it for a few, wiped them down then rinsed.

They looked so amazing. No scrubbing necessary which is wonderful. Past cleaner I’ve used I had to scrub and it took forever, longer to clean the wheels then it did to wash the whole car. This cleaner is a time saver!!.

Suds Lab XA Zero-Acid Wheel Cleaner – Cleans Brake Dust and Grime for Car Rims and Tires – Safe on Chrome, Alloy and Aluminum Rims – 32 oz I received as a sample to try it out. I highly recommend buying and using this product for your automotive needs.

It works fantastic and leaves your rims and tires clean and shiny! This is perfect for any car wash, auto body shop or just that manly gift.

Got this recently for a new car with diamond cut alloys. Cleaned them well after about 3 weeks of grime with little effort and worked well on my partners car which was much dirtier. Brushes included where very handy though you will need a bigger wheel brush to make cleaning quicker and easier.

I was sceptical about buying this, even with all the great reviews. Seriously, this cuts thru brake dust and grime in a very short time. Spray on then work in withthe detailing brush (supplied) and rinse off with cold water.

I’ll never scrub my alloys with a brush and soapy water ever again. 5 star performance and value for money.

I recently bought some anodised wheels which I was wary of using normal wheel cleaner. I’ve used this and it brings them up so well! Shiny and safe