Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner or Aluminum Wheel Cleaner?

[bzimmer]

I just purchased a Nissan Altima Coupe that came with 18" Aluminum Alloy Rims from the factory. I've been trying to decide which cleaner I should use and am a little confused since neither product makes a direct reference to "Aluminum Alloy" rims.

On the All Wheel Cleaner, it says safe on all factory-coated wheel types. On the Aluminum Cleaner, it says best for uncoated aluminum rims. Any idea if mine would qualify as coated or uncoated? Thanks for your help!

Brian

[Eddie6th]

Re: Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner or Aluminum Wheel Cleaner?

Have to know if the wheels are coated or not.

Does it specify in the manual?.....read carefully which wheel set applies to your model.

[Tuck91]

Re: Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner or Aluminum Wheel Cleaner?

Hot Rims Aluminum Wheel Cleaner is going to be much less aggressive than Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner.

Heres what I would do, I would try dipping a soft wheel brush in car wash soap and water and see if that gives you the results you looking for. If not, then pick up either Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner or Gold Class All Wheel Cleaner.

Theres no need to use something as powerful as Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner for very minor brake dust.

Hope this helps.

[bzimmer]

Re: Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner or Aluminum Wheel Cleaner?

Thanks for the thoughts. I've read through the manual and it does not specify if they are coated or not. What it does recommend is not using a cleaner that has a strong acid or alkali content to clean the wheels. I was planning for normal washing, but I wanted to be prepared in case something stronger was needed.

[Tuck91]

Re: Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner or Aluminum Wheel Cleaner?

Thanks for the thoughts. I've read through the manual and it does not specify if they are coated or not. What it does recommend is not using a cleaner that has a strong acid or alkali content to clean the wheels. I was planning for normal washing, but I wanted to be prepared in case something stronger was needed.

Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner does contain some acids in it so you wont want that.

Try and keep up on it and not let the brake dust get too out of control and you should be fine with just car wash soap and water.

You could even pick up some Quik Wheel Detailer to maintain them in bewtween washings.

[Murr1525]

Re: Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner or Aluminum Wheel Cleaner?

Additional FYI, if you have a Big Lots near by, go look for the Multi-Piece Wheel Wash. Same as the Aluminum Wheel Wash (mild), but a bit cheaper.

[J. A. Michaels]

Re: Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner or Aluminum Wheel Cleaner?

On our new Altima, I use APC at a 10:1 dilution. Works quite well for me. Just another option for you.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner or Aluminum Wheel Cleaner?

Can you post an image of the wheel, or maybe just describe them in detail for us? Or how's this - here's a picture from the Nissan website of a new Altima Coupe with 18" Aluminum Alloys:



If those are your wheels then they are painted and the correct wheel cleaner would be our Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner. This product is safe on all factory coated wheels. After using Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner to remove brake dust (following the directions on the bottle, of course - working on just one wheel at a time spray, agitate and fully rinse before moving on to the next wheel) you can treat these wheels the same as you would the paint on the rest of the car. That means products like ScratchX 2.0 or SwirlX can be used to remove light scratches, and you can wax them with the same wax you use on the rest of the car, like NXT Generation Tech Wax 2.0 or Gold Class.




The important thing to keep in mind when working on wheels is this: when cleaning wheels you are working on the surface finish, not the underlying material. These wheels, like so many other factory wheels, are painted aluminum. In this case you are working on paint, not aluminum. Unless a factory wheel is a true chrome wheel, virtually all of them are painted simply because these are the easiest finishes to maintain. Bare, high polished aluminum is very delicate and quite frankly the warranty claims would be huge were the OEMs to supply such a wheel.

Aftermarket wheels are another story. Bare, high polished aluminum wheels are quite common, and can be very expensive. They also shine like crazy, and a lot of people mistake them for chrome. In reality these people just paid a lot of money for a very high maintenance, delicate finish wheel. Remember, these are bare aluminum, not painted, so you would be working on bare aluminum when cleaning them, not paint. That is a huge difference as bare aluminum will stain almost instantly if sprayed with All Wheel Cleaner or, worse, Chrome Wheel Cleaner. Unfortunately, we see that mistake happen all too often.

[bzimmer]

Re: Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner or Aluminum Wheel Cleaner?

Michael,

Thanks so much! That is a picture of the vehicle with the rims that I have on it. Your response was very helpful and informative.

Brian