Meguiars Hot Rims

[Ryansworld]

I bought some hot rims cleaner... I didn't see they had an aluminum cleaner. Will the Hot rims cleaner damage alloy wheels>?

[Ryansworld]

Re: Meguiars Hot Rims

Here is a photo of a rim like mine. It looks almost like this.

[Murr1525]

Re: Meguiars Hot Rims

The Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner is safe for factory painted wheels.

[PhantomMagician]

Re: Meguiars Hot Rims

yes, it's completely safe... if what you mean is Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner

[Michael Stoops]

Re: Meguiars Hot Rims

We have three products in the Hot Rims Wheel Cleaner group:

Hot Rims Chrome Wheel Cleaner: this should be only be used on true chrome wheels and you should take special precautions if you have aftermarket brake components installed as it can stain powdercoated calipers. If you have a multi piece wheel with chrome lips and painted spokes, or some other similar configuration, do not use this product. It may be safe for the chrome parts, but it's not safe for the other parts. Also, do not use this product on motorcycle wheels. Motorcycle wheels with spokes may have chrome hoops but the spokes are finished differently (most of the time) and this product can damage the finish on the spokes. Also, it is common for there to be other materials in close proximity to the wheels on a motorcycle and it's easy to get overspray onto these surfaces.

Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner: this product is safe for use on all factory coated wheels. The wheels pictured above are a factory finished wheel so this would be the correct product to use. Yes, those wheels may well be an aluminum alloy, but they are painted and clear coated, and it's that top surface you're working on, not the underlying metal. Many aftermarket wheels are also painted and clear coated and this product would be fine on those wheels too. An exception here is if you have bare, polished aluminum lips and painted spokes - this product is fine for the spokes but not for the lips, and you can't clean one without getting product onto the other.

Hot Rims Aluminum Wheel Cleaner: this product is safe for use on all bare, polished aluminum, magnesium, powder coated and anodized wheels. These are extremely delicate surfaces so it logically follows that this is a very mild product. As such it's not going to have anywhere near the cleaning ability of the Hot Rims Chrome Wheel Cleaner, so don't expect 6 months of heavily baked on brake dust to just roll away.

With any of these three products it is very important to follow the directions on the bottle. That means always clean one wheel at a time, start to finish. Never spray product onto all four wheels and then start agitating the first wheel with a wheel brush. Spray one wheel, let product dwell for a few seconds, agitate with a wheel brush or wash mitt as needed, then rinse thoroughly with water before moving on to the next wheel. These are not mist and wipe products, they must be fully rinsed with water. It is also important to work on cool wheels - if you've been hot lapping the local race track do not pull into the pits and spray down the wheels.

If your car/truck is rolling on the wheels that it was shipped with from the factory, then Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner is going to be fine for them. Even polished aluminum wheels from the factory have a clear coat on them, again making this product suitable for them. But that clear coat can be compromised if you regularly have the wheels balanced and the tire shop is using wheel weights that clamp onto the edge of the wheel. Repeated prying off/clamping on can scratch the clear coat deeply enough that the product can leach into those cracks and stain a polished wheel. This is generally not an issue on a fully painted wheel like the ones pictured above. That is a typical silver wheel paint common on vehicles from around the world, from inexpensive to very expensive cars.

If you have aftermarket wheels then it is important to understand just what you have. Our Call Center receives calls almost daily from people who fitted a set of high polished, bare aluminum wheels to their car and are certain they have chrome wheels so they buy Hot Rims Chrome Wheel Cleaner and stain their wheels, as in the image below:


This is classic for spraying an acid wheel cleaner onto bare, high polished aluminum wheels. Even when this happens, the caller insists they have chrome, not aluminum wheels. They can tell us the size of the wheel, what they cost, etc but they rarely know the brand or model. And quite often they've stained all four wheels, which generally tells us that they failed to follow the directions on the bottle and sprayed all four wheels before finishing the first one. Since this staining happens almost immediately there really isn't another explanation. Of course, the good news here is that this damage is almost never permanent and bare aluminum can be polished back to a very high shine. This particular wheel is actually on Barry Meguiar's '57 Chevy and we intentionally stained it with Hot Rims Chrome Wheel Cleaner in order to demo our DynaCone Wheel Polishing Tool in our Wheel Polishing Kit.

The crazy thing is, people often call use asking what cleaner we have that's safe to use on their chrome wheels, but rarely do they call asking what's safe to use on bare aluminum. Chrome is very stout stuff - keep it clean and dry and it will stay shiny for years and years. It's highly acid resistant, which is why chrome wheel cleaners can use fairly strong acids in them. But bare, high polished aluminum is extremely delicate and can be stained, scratched, dulled and otherwise damaged very easily.

So, bottom line: know what your wheels are made of and choose the appropriate wheel cleaner for them. Consider aftermarket brake components when selecting a wheel cleaner. Know that factory supplied wheels are generally painted and that paint can be further treated much the same way you treat the rest of the paint on the car; that means you can use a paint cleaner to remove fine swirl marks, and even wax them if you so desire. And, when in doubt, play it safe and just use soap and water to wash your wheels.