D143 vs. Wheel Brightener?

[Eldorado2k]

Hey guys, I'd like to know how comparable these 2 products are when it comes to being able to handle heavy duty cleaning. I know the Wheel Brightener has a reputation of being up to the task.. It's nice that D143 doubles as a tire cleaner, but how does D143 compare to D140 at cleaning caked on brake dust in between the barrels? Can it handle the heavy duty with the aid of the proper tool [wheel brush] and a bit of elbow grease? Or are there some rims that only the Wheel Brightener will do?

Also, do both D143 and D140 have the same restrictions as far as what kind of wheels they can be used on?

[The Guz]

Re: D143 vs. Wheel Brightener?

I have only used D143 so I can't comment on Wheel brightener. Just be sure to wear the proper protection gear when using wheel brightener. I hear it's pretty toxic. Both are meant to be used on

• Clear coated wheels
• Factory painted wheels
• Chrome wheels

I use a wheel brush with D143 at 2:1 and it gets normal brake dust off. If you need something to remove severely baked on brake dust then wheel brightener would be the way to go. The benefit of D43 is that it can be used on tires as well. I have even used it at 3:1 and it still works fairly well.

[Michael Stoops]

Re: D143 vs. Wheel Brightener?

D143 is an alkaline cleaner (high pH) while D140 is an acid cleaner (low pH). Both work very well on brake dust, but the alkaline nature of D143 makes it a better tire cleaner. For really heavy brake dust build up on the wheel barrels, D140 with an appropriate brush is probably the better choice. Remove the wheel and spray both the face and back side with D140 at the appropriate dilution ratio (I even go as far at 8:1 and still get great results), let dwell for a few seconds then agitate with a good wheel brush, rinse thoroughly with water. As The Guz points out, neither is safe for bare, high polished aluminum wheels. We highly recommend wearing gloves, eye protection and even a mask when using D140.

[Eldorado2k]

Thanks for the detailed info :much appreciated
I bought a gallon of D143. *crosses fingers*

[Christopher.Brown]

Re: D143 vs. Wheel Brightener?

D143 is go-to wheel and tire cleaner...its GREAT stuff and is safe on all wheels..... and coupled with the Tolco spray head [the one you show above] its perfect for MOST jobs...

Iv'e found the key to best performance is to pre-soak all of the wheels and tires with it before going around and scrubbing them all....

It removes a great amount of tire bloom and i dilute it 1:2 with no loss of performance.

A MUST have for me!

[Eldorado2k]

Dude... I didn't want to mention what I'm about to mention but the words in your post are tempting me to post about what happened. Lol.

1st of all, it's funny you mention just spraying and rinsing on the 1st go around.. I actually watched Detailing Arts Youtube video and learned to follow that same procedure before I started

Now you also mentioned tire bloom? And D143 being great at getting it off? Lol. Well lets just say I might have the mother of all oddballs because after 5 yes 5 applications last night using 2 different brushes and using it 1.1 I somehow had nightmare style blooming appearing over and over again.. It was actually getting worse with each cleaning. Never had something this strange happen.. And I've cleaned these tires before without issue. After 5 tries I decided to leave it be till today.

Tire looks alot worse than when I started cleaning it.. I'm going to try again.

[Eldorado2k]

So I tested D143 a bit more this morning..
As far as the tire on my fathers Tacoma that kept blooming/turning brown once it dried.. 1 more try this morning. I rinsed it off with the hose, sprayed on the D143, let it sit for about 20sec. then brushed it with my tire brush.. Nice layer of 'dirt' [blooming] appeared to be dripping off revealing a nice black, clean looking tire.. That was until it dried. Then once again it turned nasty brown... I've concluded that this is just one of those rare brands of tire which is designed to bloom for it's own good. This tire gets the ultimate thumbs down for being uncooperative and looking horrible.
Now that I remember, the last time I cleaned & coated these tires, there where 2 tires that held longevity while the other 2 looked like crud within a week..

This is a better pic of how bad this tire blooms once it dries. This is after 6 cleanings with D143. Blame goes to the tire on this.

[Eldorado2k]

So next up was a test on my cars wheels & tires.. Hosed off with water, then sprayed liberal amount on tire & wheel, let it sit for about 30-40sec. & hose off.
I noticed my tire still looked sort of slick as if the Hyper Dressing I've been applying lately [last application was about a week ago] was still more on than not... I touched the sidewall with my fingertip and it turned my finger black & greasy. I got a few paper towels to see how dirty it actually was and it wasn't too bad. But the towel did pick up a med. ammount of black crud..

Anyways, on the 2nd go around of spraying I aggitated the sidewall then brushed the face of the wheel [with 2 different brushes] Rinsed off the entire wheel..

Then I decided to spray a good ammount directly into the barrel and let it saturate the baked on crud for about 30sec. before rinsing the Moolie and going to combat. D143+Moolie vs. caked on brake dust.

As you can see, some crud was coming off, but not nearly enough to see the Real results. I could've repeated over and over again... But not only are the barrels on my rims bearly noticable once clean[I've removed 1 wheel and cleaned it 100% before] But I was short on time, and it might've taken a while, even for the Moolie. Lol.



So I went at the barrels 2 seperate applications and had to move on.. Wheel looks clean enough for the normal person.. But it's still caked with brake dust inside the barrel of course.

[BTW, I was expecting this the be the result going in. This is not meant as a complaint. If I wanted 100% power for cleaning barrels that's why they sell Wheel Brightener. Lol.]

I guess I can pretty much say the results on my wheel & tire is almost identical to when I wash my wheels with car wash suds & mitt. The tire may or may not be cleaner than my usual methods [still undecided based on the innitial spray of D143 leaving a greasy surface remaining. I need to test a bit more] But after scrubing D143 lightly the tire is clean, no doubt.



Last step, Hyper Dressing. I was pretty much very late at this point so I sprayed and had to get ready for work! Lol. I'm pretty sure you guys know how the results looked.. Hyper Dressing 1.1/tires always looks amazing



My opinion so far after this minimal test? Well as a 'wheel cleaner' I can pretty much do the same with my wash bucket. [I know I need to test on more wheels. I don't mean to completly bash it's cleaning power just yet.] However if it can keep the wheels on my parents new Kia looking new without having to scrub them everytime it will redeem any complaints as far as its heavy duty cleaning power... It will score great points if it proves to be able to clean super dirty tires better than D101. If it can come even near as good as D108 at cleaning tires I will really, really like D143.
Thx for reading.

[The Guz]

Re: D143 vs. Wheel Brightener?

What brand tires are on the tacoma? Michellin tires seem to be real finicky when it comes to cleaning them. My mom's car has them and I usually clean them 3 times and then dress. They just keep blooming. If you have used all wheel & tire then it's close to D143. I find it works better on some tires and I find D103 to be all I need at times.

As far as using D143 as a wheel cleaner, I like it. Removes brake dust and even caked on brake dust. Of course with every wheel cleaner, it will need agitation to remove caked on brake dust. Use it a few more times and you will like it once you get your technique down.

[Eldorado2k]

I've never used Megs All Wheel & Tire Cleaner. Only Megs cleaner of that type I've used is the Hot Rims Chrome Cleaner. I used to alternate between that and the Eagle 1 Chrome & Wire Cleaner ever since I bought my 1st car. They've all had chrome rims.. Not including the beaters/daily drivers I've owned throughout the years which have had aluminum wheels. But I've never had enough OCD to even wax 1 of my beaters.. I kept the interior on them imaculate but that's just because I'm a neat freak. Lol. But they'd be lucky if they ever saw anything past a cheap brush aggitation during a rare car wash


As far as the tires, good question. The super bloomer you see are 'Prodigy H/T'
I've never even heard of such a brand of tire but this blooming looks like crapolla. It makes sense now that the 2 tires that still have a slight bit of 'tire coating' on them from a while back are different.
They are 'Nexen Rodian H/T'
Never heard of them either...
All 4 tires look horrible right now. And just look at those wheel wells! This truck is going to get hooked up soon. I've got a plan for these nasty bloomers too. I'm going to use Endurance Gel on them as it says to have anti browning ingredient in it.. Hopefully if I dry the tire quickly after cleaning it and quickly apply the gel before it has a chance to bloom it might do the trick. It's worth a shot

[Eldorado2k]

I havn't had to use the wheel cleaner for my car in quite a while now.. These days just soap & water are all I need. If I'm doing someone elses car the Dub Wheel Cleaner has been what I've been using. It doesn't have any "do not use" warnings which is a major + when I clean wheels I'm not familiar with.
I only seem to be familiar with chome wheels as it is... Aluminum wheels have always seemed like a pita to even figure out. I dunno.

BTW, it's hard to see in those pix of the Tacoma wheel but I was actually getting the caked on dust off the barrels [left side of rim] but I lost focus when the tire began it's alien blooming on me. Lol.

[The Guz]

Re: D143 vs. Wheel Brightener?

A coat of wax definitely helps out. If you have brake dust barrier that's even more durable. Makes cleaning easier with just soap and water. At least for your personal cars.

I think you will be fine if you wipe the tires down with a microfiber before applying the tire gel. As far as those wheel wells hit them up with some D101 and a brush. Then you can dress them with hyper dressing since you already have that. If you have D4510 plastic & vinyl coating that works well. Another option since the truck sits high is ultimate black.

[Eldorado2k]

Yea I know what you mean about the BDB being a good idea at this point since they're new. I'm not so confident about just going and removing each wheel in the driveway in order to do so though... Something about this car being new sort of has me leaving it alone and not messing with it for some strange reason. Can you believe that Kia has been in the driveway for maybe a whole 4 weeks now and I havn't even had a look inside! I'm totally serious, I have not even opened the door and had even a look inside the car at all. [even I can't figure out why I havn't]

I opened the rear door while drying the Kia after I washed it to dry the jamb but that's it. I've been meaning to wax it and better do it soon..

BTW, now that I've got this D143 It'd be cool if it totally cleaned these new rims without ever really having to scrub at all. At this time 1 of the wheels has a bit of beginning stages of cake on it. It's minor, that's the major reason I got the Moolie. I'll have a chance to mess with it tomorrow.

[Eldorado2k]

I used Ultimate Black on the trim a few months back. But that was a while ago and it's due for some tlc.
As far as D143, can it be used on the wheel wells? I used it on that 1 in the pic and I'm not sure if I made it look worse or not._. All I know is it looks bad.
Speaking of D4510, I ordered a new can and it should've been in the shipment along with the stuff I recieved yesterday... I'm going to contact detailing.com about that.. I already have a new can but want extra on hand. I plan to use it this next time on all the trim of that truck and also test it's longevity.

[The Guz]

Re: D143 vs. Wheel Brightener?

I have not used D143 on wheel wells. I usually use APC and a brush. I spray mine with D4510. I have seen about 2 weeks of durability with D4510 on trim. For me ultimate black outlasted it. Give it a try. Be sure to use some APC on the trim to remove any previous dressing. By the way pep boys (at least the two by me) carry D4510.