Wheel Cleaners Compared: P21S Gel, Kaboom, Wheel Wax, Blackfire Gel, 3M Claybar...
04-26-2003, 04:56 PM
#1
AudiWorld Uber User
Thread Starter
Join Date: Mar 2000
Posts: 66,965
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Wheel Cleaners Compared: P21S Gel, Kaboom, Wheel Wax, Blackfire Gel, 3M Claybar...
Background: I have a set of Avus wheels that have been beaten on through a New England winter. Prior to the winter, they were nearly new wheels (with 700 miles on them). Due to the early arrival of old man winter, I never waxed these...instead, I just ended up throwing them on the car! After 3 months of exposure to the elements, with only 2 rinses, and NO car washes, they were damn filty. I started by washing them up with plain old soap and water. Surprisingly, they came out pretty clean, however there were numerous little black spots inside the windows of the wheels. Those black spots are repolymerized brake dust...some of the hardest stuff to get off the wheels.
My goal was to find a wheel cleaner that was capable of dissolving or removing these spots with a minimal amount of fuss.
<img src="http://store4.yimg.com/I/classic-motoring_1735_1477914">
<a href="http://www.properautocare.com/p2wheelclean.html">P21S Wheel Cleaner</a> - This stuff is my favorite! Very gentle, and safe for almost all wheel finishes. Unfortunately, it's only up to the task of light duty cleaning. If you're good about waxing and cleaning your wheels, you'll never need anything stronger than this. I used this along with my first post-winter wash. When it became evident that this wasn't nearly enough, I moved along.
<img src="http://www.properautocare.com/lib/classic-motoring/BFWheelCleaner.jpg">
<a href="http://www.properautocare.com/blgelwhticl.html">Blackfire Gel Wheel and Tire Cleaner</a> - This stuff is new to me, but CMA promises the world on their website, so I figured I would try it. I think they forgot to include the spray head attachment, so I ended up slopping a bunch of cleaner on a wet sponge, and spreading it all over the wheel. I let it stand for 3-5 minutes, then began the process of washing the wheel with a soft sponge. On the face of the wheel, it didn't remove any of the black spots, which is really all that the P21S left behind. On the back, the P21S didn't really accomplish a lot. The Blackfire did start to remove some of the yellow/brown grime that had accumulated over the winter. It was only removing about 1/2 of it though, and it took a little scouring with the sponge. It looked like a few repeated applications or a longer "set time" would have helped. Since this clearly wasn't accomplishing what I had hoped, I called it quits. It's a nice cleaner...stronger than P21S, but it's not going to accomplish what I want.
<img src="http://store4.yimg.com/I/classic-motoring_1732_2174591">
<a href="http://www.properautocare.com/wheelwax.html">Wheel Wax</a> - This stuff comes in a gelatinous consistancy, packaged in a jar. It's best used, after the wheel has been washed of all loose residue. Working with it is similar to working with a cleaner wax. Grab some with a terry cloth towel, and work it into the paint. It simply could not touch the baked on black dots on the front of my wheel (even after 2-3 minutes working a 1 square inch area), so I attempted to attack the back of the wheel...where it began removing some of the yellow/brown crud left behind by the Blackfire cleaner. It's somewhat tedious removing filth with this stuff...as I said, it's like a cleaner wax. A spray on wheel cleaner is easier to work with IMHO, and the blackfire was removing that same crud...I just needed to give it more set time. Anyway, it was pretty much the same issue with the Wheel Wax...it wouldn't remove everything, unless I kept scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing (which is what I was specifically looking to avoid). After about 2-3 minutes on an area, I gave up...and the black spots held their territory. There was still tons of caked on brake residue on the back side of the wheels...and Wheel Wax really wasn't making an impact. Perhaps multiple applications would have made a difference, but again, not what I'm interested in. Wheel wax is unique in that it also makes claims about protecting the wheels. That was NOT part of my mission this afternoon, so I'll withhold comments on that aspect of this product.
3M Claybar - Sorry, no picture or link for you. It's a generic claybar.
<a href="http://www.properautocare.com/claybars1.html">Go here to pick out any claybar you like.</a> This is my fallback, when I can't remove crud from the wheels. The clay does a terrific job of pulling a lot of the crud off the wheels. On the face of the wheels, it removed >50% of the remaining black dots on the paint, but it really couldn't remove everything. What's interesting was that I ran my finger over the paint after claying, and it seems the clay sheered off the brake dust bits that were larger, or protruded from the paint. The stuff that was left behind was difficult to feel. It's as if the remaining contaminents were level with the paint, or just slightly higher than the paint, and the clay just wouldn't pull it off. On the back of the wheel, the clay was pulling all kinds of crud from the wheel surface. The yellow/brown film was coming off, as was a lot of other crap the previous products didn't get. Problem was, the claybar was rapidly filling up with debris. I could go through a half a claybar just cleaning the inside of one wheel! Not terribly practical, and this was a tedious process. The backside of the wheel doesn't have the kind of clearcoat that's on the front, so somehow, more grunge seems to stick on the backside, and a lot of that simply would not budge with a claybar.
<img src="http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/assets/product_images/380/1555412264470P.JPG">
(The product in the foreground is the one I used)
<a href="http://www.oxicleanpro.com/kaboom.html">Kaboom Bathroom Cleaner</a> - You can pick up Kaboom bathroom cleaner at your local Walmart/Target. 22 oz is about $4. I've previously used bathroom cleaners to handle stubborn jobs on my cars, but I'm very cautious about getting the stuff on my paint. Well, after 'Bahn Burner's review last week, I figured I would try it out on my "beater rims". The warnings specifically mentioned keeping this away from bare metals, but made no comments about painted surfaces. I sprayed this stuff on the front and back of the wheel, waited 3-5 minutes, then went to town on the wheel with a sponge loaded with more Kaboom. On the front side of the wheel...the only thing remaining were some little black spots that the clay wouldn't remove. Kaboom had no effect. On the backside, there was still plenty of grunge left behind because none of the preceding products were strong enough, or easy enough to work with to motivate me to clean it thoroughly. Along comes Kaboom...all the grunge started peeling away! There were areas where I though the wheel was clearly pitting and beyond repair...turned out it was really caked on brake residue, which Kaboom began dissolving. A quick swipe of the sponge, and it melted off the wheel! I eventually did the front and back of the wheel with a second round of Kaboom. The back got a little cleaner, but little black spots still remained. Bottom line, I would use this stuff on factory finished wheels, but I would NOT use it on aftermarket wheels that I really like. It's nasty stuff, and I just don't trust it. Results on my Avus wheels are fine...proceed at your own risk!
When all was said and done, the back of the wheel was clean to my level of satisfaction (black spots remain, but it's the back of the wheel, nobody will ever see these tiny spots), and it was ready for a coat of wax, however I'm still irritated about the spots on the face of the wheel. I want them gone, and I still haven't found a solution better than the clay.
My goal was to find a wheel cleaner that was capable of dissolving or removing these spots with a minimal amount of fuss.
<img src="http://store4.yimg.com/I/classic-motoring_1735_1477914">
<a href="http://www.properautocare.com/p2wheelclean.html">P21S Wheel Cleaner</a> - This stuff is my favorite! Very gentle, and safe for almost all wheel finishes. Unfortunately, it's only up to the task of light duty cleaning. If you're good about waxing and cleaning your wheels, you'll never need anything stronger than this. I used this along with my first post-winter wash. When it became evident that this wasn't nearly enough, I moved along.
<img src="http://www.properautocare.com/lib/classic-motoring/BFWheelCleaner.jpg">
<a href="http://www.properautocare.com/blgelwhticl.html">Blackfire Gel Wheel and Tire Cleaner</a> - This stuff is new to me, but CMA promises the world on their website, so I figured I would try it. I think they forgot to include the spray head attachment, so I ended up slopping a bunch of cleaner on a wet sponge, and spreading it all over the wheel. I let it stand for 3-5 minutes, then began the process of washing the wheel with a soft sponge. On the face of the wheel, it didn't remove any of the black spots, which is really all that the P21S left behind. On the back, the P21S didn't really accomplish a lot. The Blackfire did start to remove some of the yellow/brown grime that had accumulated over the winter. It was only removing about 1/2 of it though, and it took a little scouring with the sponge. It looked like a few repeated applications or a longer "set time" would have helped. Since this clearly wasn't accomplishing what I had hoped, I called it quits. It's a nice cleaner...stronger than P21S, but it's not going to accomplish what I want.
<img src="http://store4.yimg.com/I/classic-motoring_1732_2174591">
<a href="http://www.properautocare.com/wheelwax.html">Wheel Wax</a> - This stuff comes in a gelatinous consistancy, packaged in a jar. It's best used, after the wheel has been washed of all loose residue. Working with it is similar to working with a cleaner wax. Grab some with a terry cloth towel, and work it into the paint. It simply could not touch the baked on black dots on the front of my wheel (even after 2-3 minutes working a 1 square inch area), so I attempted to attack the back of the wheel...where it began removing some of the yellow/brown crud left behind by the Blackfire cleaner. It's somewhat tedious removing filth with this stuff...as I said, it's like a cleaner wax. A spray on wheel cleaner is easier to work with IMHO, and the blackfire was removing that same crud...I just needed to give it more set time. Anyway, it was pretty much the same issue with the Wheel Wax...it wouldn't remove everything, unless I kept scrubbing and scrubbing and scrubbing (which is what I was specifically looking to avoid). After about 2-3 minutes on an area, I gave up...and the black spots held their territory. There was still tons of caked on brake residue on the back side of the wheels...and Wheel Wax really wasn't making an impact. Perhaps multiple applications would have made a difference, but again, not what I'm interested in. Wheel wax is unique in that it also makes claims about protecting the wheels. That was NOT part of my mission this afternoon, so I'll withhold comments on that aspect of this product.
3M Claybar - Sorry, no picture or link for you. It's a generic claybar.
<a href="http://www.properautocare.com/claybars1.html">Go here to pick out any claybar you like.</a> This is my fallback, when I can't remove crud from the wheels. The clay does a terrific job of pulling a lot of the crud off the wheels. On the face of the wheels, it removed >50% of the remaining black dots on the paint, but it really couldn't remove everything. What's interesting was that I ran my finger over the paint after claying, and it seems the clay sheered off the brake dust bits that were larger, or protruded from the paint. The stuff that was left behind was difficult to feel. It's as if the remaining contaminents were level with the paint, or just slightly higher than the paint, and the clay just wouldn't pull it off. On the back of the wheel, the clay was pulling all kinds of crud from the wheel surface. The yellow/brown film was coming off, as was a lot of other crap the previous products didn't get. Problem was, the claybar was rapidly filling up with debris. I could go through a half a claybar just cleaning the inside of one wheel! Not terribly practical, and this was a tedious process. The backside of the wheel doesn't have the kind of clearcoat that's on the front, so somehow, more grunge seems to stick on the backside, and a lot of that simply would not budge with a claybar.
<img src="http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/assets/product_images/380/1555412264470P.JPG">
(The product in the foreground is the one I used)
<a href="http://www.oxicleanpro.com/kaboom.html">Kaboom Bathroom Cleaner</a> - You can pick up Kaboom bathroom cleaner at your local Walmart/Target. 22 oz is about $4. I've previously used bathroom cleaners to handle stubborn jobs on my cars, but I'm very cautious about getting the stuff on my paint. Well, after 'Bahn Burner's review last week, I figured I would try it out on my "beater rims". The warnings specifically mentioned keeping this away from bare metals, but made no comments about painted surfaces. I sprayed this stuff on the front and back of the wheel, waited 3-5 minutes, then went to town on the wheel with a sponge loaded with more Kaboom. On the front side of the wheel...the only thing remaining were some little black spots that the clay wouldn't remove. Kaboom had no effect. On the backside, there was still plenty of grunge left behind because none of the preceding products were strong enough, or easy enough to work with to motivate me to clean it thoroughly. Along comes Kaboom...all the grunge started peeling away! There were areas where I though the wheel was clearly pitting and beyond repair...turned out it was really caked on brake residue, which Kaboom began dissolving. A quick swipe of the sponge, and it melted off the wheel! I eventually did the front and back of the wheel with a second round of Kaboom. The back got a little cleaner, but little black spots still remained. Bottom line, I would use this stuff on factory finished wheels, but I would NOT use it on aftermarket wheels that I really like. It's nasty stuff, and I just don't trust it. Results on my Avus wheels are fine...proceed at your own risk!
When all was said and done, the back of the wheel was clean to my level of satisfaction (black spots remain, but it's the back of the wheel, nobody will ever see these tiny spots), and it was ready for a coat of wax, however I'm still irritated about the spots on the face of the wheel. I want them gone, and I still haven't found a solution better than the clay.
04-26-2003, 09:14 PM
#6
AudiWorld Member
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 436
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Re: Wheel Cleaners Compared: P21S Gel, Kaboom, Wheel Wax, Blackfire Gel, 3M Claybar...
Good post, very informative...I haven't opened my wheel wax yet and I'll probably just return it for another product.
04-26-2003, 09:24 PM
#7
AudiWorld Super User
Join Date: May 2001
Posts: 4,444
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Wow, really good post Raj. Agreed with not using Kaboom on $$...
Aftermarket wheels that should never really need such an aggressive cleaner. KABOOM should be applied off the car on cool wheels making sure not to let it dry on the paint.
The conditions in which I applied KABOOM last week were cool, dark, and misty out. It was not possible for the wheels to naturally dry themselves, and I suspect the prolonged exposure (15 minutes) to KABOOM is what helped remove the staining so easy that had seemed impervious before.
The black spots that you speak of...I'm assuming you mean it's the really pitted in brake dust particles...I had some spots like that, I used my wheel sponge (kitchen sink sponge) along with KABOOM on a second application. It all came off with moderate pressure applied to the sponge & wheel surface.
I originally intended the KABOOM post to be a remedy for extremely filthy winter tires, hoping to help others out in the same situation. Read <a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/detail/msgs/16651.phtml">this</a> for more on my opinion on the use of KABOOM. I had declared war on my winter wheels. The two past Spring cleaning sessions had been painfully hard for me to get the wheels clean, I was willing to try anything by this point. That is what led to my finding KABOOM...I had actually picked up 3 other chemical products at Walmart that day, and was going to use them in the order that I thought would cause the least amount of damage to the wheels first. Kaboom caused no damage whatsoever. In fact, they look twice as good as they did last year. The clear coat is glossy now, and feels smooth to the touch. No clouding at all in the clearcoat.
I am currently testing KABOOM on a trashed S4 wheel to see what prolonged, repeated use will do to the clearcoat. Expect a full follow up post later in the week.
btw, KABOOM works better than anything I've tried on my shower also -less elbow grease!
The conditions in which I applied KABOOM last week were cool, dark, and misty out. It was not possible for the wheels to naturally dry themselves, and I suspect the prolonged exposure (15 minutes) to KABOOM is what helped remove the staining so easy that had seemed impervious before.
The black spots that you speak of...I'm assuming you mean it's the really pitted in brake dust particles...I had some spots like that, I used my wheel sponge (kitchen sink sponge) along with KABOOM on a second application. It all came off with moderate pressure applied to the sponge & wheel surface.
I originally intended the KABOOM post to be a remedy for extremely filthy winter tires, hoping to help others out in the same situation. Read <a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/detail/msgs/16651.phtml">this</a> for more on my opinion on the use of KABOOM. I had declared war on my winter wheels. The two past Spring cleaning sessions had been painfully hard for me to get the wheels clean, I was willing to try anything by this point. That is what led to my finding KABOOM...I had actually picked up 3 other chemical products at Walmart that day, and was going to use them in the order that I thought would cause the least amount of damage to the wheels first. Kaboom caused no damage whatsoever. In fact, they look twice as good as they did last year. The clear coat is glossy now, and feels smooth to the touch. No clouding at all in the clearcoat.
I am currently testing KABOOM on a trashed S4 wheel to see what prolonged, repeated use will do to the clearcoat. Expect a full follow up post later in the week.
btw, KABOOM works better than anything I've tried on my shower also -less elbow grease!
Trending Topics
04-27-2003, 02:39 PM
#8
Great post!
Thanks for doing all the work on this, it's nice to know what works and what is safe.
For the pitted stuff I've got some of those on my stock wheels and found that if I worked it a bit with the clay it would eventually come out. Took way longer than it was worth tho. It would be nice to find a safe solvent to dissolve it.
For the pitted stuff I've got some of those on my stock wheels and found that if I worked it a bit with the clay it would eventually come out. Took way longer than it was worth tho. It would be nice to find a safe solvent to dissolve it.
