Benefits of Sealant on Wheels

MotorCity said:
I am another that does not need to know how hot the wheels get, the melting point etc.. I seal wheels and see first hand the difference it makes regarding ease of cleaning









If you are using cleaners to maintain sealed wheels you have missed the boat, the whole point is that you DO NOT need to use harsh cleaners.. a simple car wash solution does the jb exceptionally well
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You are right on, been doing this for 2 yrs.
 
For me, just washing with Z7 works very well. As I'm only removing road dust.



Tar is another issue in which I have to remove the wheels to clean them. But day-to-day, as I wash the car, I take a bit more time for the wheels since I have to use brushes and foam sticked cleaners due to the "S" wheels. No real lip on these.



See what I mean?
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Deanski
 
i am just saying my experience. we detailed over 1,000 cars last year, and did follow up washes on most of them I think a wax or sealant looks great on a wheel for the intitial wow factor upon delivery, but for most of the cars that are daily drivers by my non autopian customers, it is a waste of time.
 
best thing is not to let them get too dirty. i usually wipe them down every 3-4 days. just some qd or onr at qd strength does the trick. brake dust just wipes off. about every month or so i might use dg 501 by hand to polish off the stubborn stuff. works great.
 
Are these products that you all mention just for painted wheels? I have some bare aluminum polished wheels that need sealed. Is there any sealant for bare aluminum?



Thanks, Shawn
 
beachcities said:
i am just saying my experience. ..for most of the cars that are daily drivers by my non autopian customers, it is a waste of time.
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Ah, that's different. Vehicles in the hands of Mr./Mrs. Average is something I hadn't considered.



Deanski- Those wheels give you a lot of room between the caliper and the rim, looks like they wouldn't be *too* bad to clean. (Not like my S8 where I can barely fit a swab in there and really have to move the car/rotate the wheel to do that section.)



Looks like you could reach back in there with some clay for tar/etc. for those times when pulling 'em off isn't feasible.



I bet the brushes are great for the calipers and for around the lugs too :xyxthumbs



SYDWAZ- It's been forever since I had bare aluminum wheels, but maybe you should look into some stuff called "Zoop Seal".



ricka- I've been doing that on a few of our drivers...I have mixed feelings about it, it's not something I'd want to do on the S8 where I'm *so* paranoid about marring the wheels' clear. As long as I have 'em good and sealed I don't have problems with letting them get pretty bad, they still clean up just fine.



Are you cleaning inside the barrels/the back side when you QD/ONR? I find it a real pain so I usually try to just clean the outer portion when I'm doing that, which can be tricky if I get the QD/ONR back where I don't want it.



Also, something I didn't expect is that after ONRing my wheels, when I finally do a regular wash I find them harder to get (perfectly) clean. It's like the ONR leaves some kind of residue that brake dust/etc. then bonds to, and that's even after I FK425 them afterwards just as I do after a conventional clean up. This has me a bit :confused: as I've never heard anybody else complain about it :nixweiss
 
Mostly use DG 521 QD on the wheels more than ONR. Leaves them plenty slick and the 521 has darn good cleaning abilities--but remember, I wipe down my wheels often so not sure how this process would work on badly caked brake dust.
 
I'm a skeptic about just using the spray products directly onto the wheels. Don't like stuff getting on pads or rotors. Usually do them with the wheels off or slowly with a cotton terry sponge as the summer setups are usually a race mesh of some sorts - unlike the winters which is nice and easy to do as it's just a big ole 5 spoke.



Zoopseal. I've search and searched and searched, and never came across a truely glowing & or negative review of the product. I know there's a following but I have yet to come across a physical review on the damm thing and I myself have always been interested in the product, cost aside.



Funny you mention ONR. I love the usability of the product (1st season using it during the winter season) but me wonders what residue it use or the chemical makeup that is in it that cause the attraction or dirt to the mitt......It totally threw me off the 1st time I had to rinse out my sheepskin mitts as a regular rinse/wash would not get them clean. I've had to APC spray and then rinse my mitts after each ONR session. Others had advised to add just a touch of car soap to the mix.



I often wonder about what's in ONR when I use the WW to dry the car....as my WW, I just throw them in the washer with a touch of woolite on hot setting. Sofar though, it's still soft and ever as absorbing....
 
ricka said:
Mostly use DG 521 QD on the wheels more than ONR. Leaves them plenty slick and the 521 has darn good cleaning abilities--but remember, I wipe down my wheels often so not sure how this process would work on badly caked brake dust.
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OK, I'd only tried the ONR followed by FK425. FWIW, I was doing it on wheels that looked mighty clean...maybe 10-20 miles of driving on 'em. If they actually look dirty I'll wait until the next conventional wash.



chefwong- Yeah, the dirt sure does stick to the wash media...first thing I thought of when I noticed the tough (conventional) cleanup :think:



FWIW, I've never had any problems from getting stuff on the pads/rotors. I *am* kinda careful when I first move the vehicle, but by the time I'm down the driveway things seem to be wiped clean.



I have the Zoop Seal sitting on the shelf, but I never found anything I wanted to use it on :nixweiss Can't even remember what (potential) application I bought it for :confused:
 
I use a product called Wheel Wax on my cars. It cleans off tar spots and anything else that gets on the wheel. It also seems to make future cleaning much easier. I use what I consider gentle cleaners and sponge type devices to minimize scratches or other type of damage. The wheels clean up very easily.



In regards to waxes/sealants going away at the high temperatures, I am not sure that melting points are the numbers that would be most important. If the very thin layer of wax should liquefy to some extent, it may or may not leave the surface of the wheel. Once it cools back down, the wax would be there just like it was before. More important would be whether or not any of it would volatilize off at the higher temperatures.
 
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