Cleaning wheel wells

[WhiteCamaro88]

I am going to do a good cleaning of my wheel wells on my camaro whats a good consumer product to dress them with . I say consumer cause i dont feel like ordering through my pbe for the pro or d line . Also i am going to take my rims off and clean them well now it says in my owners manual to torque them to 100 lbs. of torque can i do it by hand with a tourque wrench im just kinda iffy on the thought of doing it by hand instead of impact wrench

[WHITE HONDA]

I used Mop-n-Glo to do my wheelwells last for a little over a month works great IF the wheelwells are clean PROPERLY.

[sneek]

why dont you try meguiars NXT protectant or natural shine with a kitchen sponge

also i think that you can get around 100 lbs or tourqe by hand popular mechanics got 180lbs w/o an impact

[gb387]

Re: Cleaning wheel wells

The rims on my Lightning require a 150 foot lbs of torque, yep 150 flb! Hope I don't get a flat tire. I use a torque wrench by hand, takes a little muscle but its no problem @150. Follow the manual on the torque!

[Shiny Lil Detlr]

Re: Cleaning wheel wells

Originally posted by WhiteCamaro88
Also i am going to take my rims off and clean them well now it says in my owners manual to torque them to 100 lbs. of torque can i do it by hand with a tourque wrench im just kinda iffy on the thought of doing it by hand instead of impact wrench

If you TIGHTEN them with an impact wrench, you run the risk of warping the rim or rotor if you aren't very, very careful. I use a $20 clicker torque wrench I picked up at Harbor Freight to torque my wheels to spec.

[Accumulator]

Re: Cleaning wheel wells

...says in my owners manual to torque them to 100 lbs. of torque can i do it by hand with a tourque wrench im just kinda iffy on the thought of doing it by hand instead of impact wrench

Two of my vehicles take 100 lbs/ft of torque and it's easy to do with the length of a standard 1/2" drive torque wrench. Not nearly as tough as it sounds. You might very possibly have more trouble getting the wheels off the hubs (due to corrosion/bonding of dissimilar metals) than you will getting the nuts off/on to spec.

[gb387]

Re: Re: Cleaning wheel wells

Originally posted by Accumulator
Two of my vehicles take 100 lbs/ft of torque and it's easy to do with the length of a standard 1/2" drive torque wrench. Not nearly as tough as it sounds. You might very possibly have more trouble getting the wheels off the hubs (due to corrosion/bonding of dissimilar metals) than you will getting the nuts off/on to spec.

Very true, on my truck once the lug nuts are off its very difficult to remove the wheels. Lots of sweat and some choice words. I have been thinking of picking up some anti-seize and giving that a try.

[Shiny Lil Detlr]

Re: Re: Re: Cleaning wheel wells

Originally posted by gb387
Very true, on my truck once the lug nuts are off its very difficult to remove the wheels. Lots of sweat and some choice words. I have been thinking of picking up some anti-seize and giving that a try.

All I've ever done is give the sidewall of the tire a few taps with a rubber mallet all the way around, and the wheels pop right off. Personally I don't think I would want anti-sieze in there just in case anything ended up getting on the rotors/pads. A little friendly persuasion is all you really should need unless the wheels haven't been dismounted in a number of years.

[gb387]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Cleaning wheel wells

Originally posted by Shiny Lil Detlr
Personally I don't think I would want anti-sieze in there just in case anything ended up getting on the rotors/pads.

True.

When I rotate my wheels/detail them this spring I will have to pick up a rubber mallet and give it a try. I had a heck of a time last year, just about gave up then one popped loose, had 3 more to go!

[dvjag]

I used to have the same problem with my jaguar, the alloy wheels will stick to the hub if you leave them on for too long, easy to fix, take off the wheel and clean the mating surface on the wheel and the hub then put a'' thin'' film high melting point grease on both surfaces this will make sure that the next time you have to remove the wheels they will not stick.
Make sure you just use a thin film grease , there is no risk of it getting onto the rotors,

all the best to you all for the holidays,
Dave.

[Accumulator]

Yeah, it's all a matter of using stuff that won't migrate and only letting it get on the right surfaces. Heh heh, those might be some pretty tall orders though so use your own judgment and only use as much stuff as you really need (which isn't much).

Note that you don't need to use enough to prevent *any* siezing or corrosion, just enough to keep things manageable.

One situation that *really* calls for this is with drum brakes/steel wheels/winter. The winter steelies will get solidly rusted onto our MPV's rear brake drums (sheesh, drum brakes on an '02 ) unless I use the anti-sieze. The first year I didn't use anything and they just scoffed at my rubber mallet- I ended up *really* whapping them with a non-marring (relative term there ) hammer that had some heft to it. I was shifting the vehicle on the jackstands before they budged at all.

dvjag- Yeah, the inboard discs on my Jag's rear can make for as much of a pain as the MPV's drums if you neglect them too long.

[Michael Stoops]

I clean my wheel wells using Meguiar's APC at 4:1 and scrub them with a toilet brush I picked up at the market - it works great! I then dress them with plain old Armor All, but after spraying it up there I give it a quick wipe with a an old terry cloth covered pad.

I also use a fairly basic torque wrench to tighten the lugs on all my cars. I started doing this just a few years ago, and let me warn you about something here: If you've never used a torque wrench and just muscled your lug nuts tight, or you've always taken the car to a shop that invariably uses an impact wrench to tighten them, then be prepared for a shock the first time you REMOVE them once they've been properly torqued. They will seem to come off WAAAAY to easily and you might think there had worked a bit loose. They didn't, and they're still OK.

Freaked me out the first time I removed properly torqued lugnuts (100ft-lbs, same as yours!).

[Don]

I use *Permatex* Anti-Seize all the time. I 'paint' the inside of my rotor hats, the exterior of the rotor hats (where the rim meets the hat, just paint "inside the lines" made by the rims. I also do the inside & outside of the rear drums in the same fashion. I don't just slop it on, I just put a thin coat in those areas.

To date (over 15 years on multiple cars) I have not had any problems with Anti-Seize going where it shouldn't and removing my wheels & rotors/drums has been a dream.

[Black Bart]

Personally I would not lube my wheels but if you must do it buy the grease that is made for lubing brake calipers. Nothing else will take the heat. Under hard braking a lot of heat will be transfered to the wheels. You should NEVER use an impact tool on your wheels. Recently I took my car to a tire store to get new tires installed and I took my own torque wrench. I made sure that they only snugged them and I used my wrench to torque them. Any garage that uses a torque wrench on wheels is not knowledgeable about vehicles or he just don't give a dam but either way I don;t want Him close to my car.

[heppycat]

Re: Cleaning wheel wells

Originally posted by WhiteCamaro88
I am going to do a good cleaning of my wheel wells on my camaro whats a good consumer product to dress them with .

I don't dress mine, but to clean them, i just use foaming tire cleaner - not the shiny kind. It's really easy. Just spray it on!