Dedicated TIRE Cleaner

My own take is that I don't want to interfere with the tire's chemistry by using strong cleaners or tire dressings that will disolve into the rubber. And acidic/alkaline or even worse fluorinated cleaners just seem like a bad idea.



The tire is supposed to leach brown stuff over its lifetime as the anti-ozone chemicals work their way to the surface.



The only tire care products I would use are



Tire Care Products: Tire Care & Buying Guide: Michelin Tires



But they don't have those in my area. I have used Turtle Wax F21, and it seems to get the tires pretty clean, though you do need to scrub the rims to road grime/brake dust off.
 
I don't want to use cleaners that leeach anything out...or leech excessively these das.



Prior to using P21S on the wheels, I was primarily using EF HI. This stuff always leeched brown stuff out of my tires. Over the years, I've settled in on P21S for summer wheels (and using up my Mothers Tire Cleaner) and winter is just 4:1 APC on wheels/tires/everything.





Granted, I'm still leaning on less harsh than more harsh. I have never found a dressing that wins on both looks and durability. So while I agree that a clean tire surface does help on proper tire dressing, Z16 (my tire dressing of choice), doesn't seem to last long enough regardless if I get the tires clean vs. squeaky clean. I use Z16 somewhat pretty regular enough to keep the *look* of Z16 on. On the DD, I wash the wheels every 2-3 days, and it Z16 probably get's a daily 7 day turnaround on another coat.



And as I type this, and thinking outoud, I don't think in the last 3-4 years have I even used ANY cleaner strong enough to leech brown *gunk* off the tires.....Meg APC+ 4:1 or 1Z Blitz 4:1 does not make it leech like how EF HI does. Now whether it not it's means it's not as effective....I'm getting decent results with the dressings I am using ..



Been playing around with UTGP. Results are mixed. And there is still to much sheen IMO. But that would be inevitable as the sheen that is easy on my eyes generally tend to favor water based dressings.
 
Are there some recommended tire cleaners which don't strip the wax or sealant off the wheels? I'd like to clean and dress my tires every wash, but it's a lot of work to reseal the wheels so often. Thanks.
 
chefwong- Yeah, I got that with my EFHI too (though I still really like EFHI for other things).



Heh heh... wow, you're way off *my* scale with the way you care for your daily driver :eek: doing its wheels/tires that often, but I guess it evens out come winter as I treat those the same as the summer ones :D



GoudyL- I certainly understand your desire to *not* damage your tires. FWIW, I've used Griot's stuff and/or Z16 on some tires for *years* and I've never had any problems. E.g., I still have the original wheels/tires for my '85 Jag (though I usually drive it on newer ones), and I'm still running the original tires on my '01 S8...yeah, I know, they're kinda old and some would say I oughta replace them just over the age issue :o



Jam said:
Are there some recommended tire cleaners which don't strip the wax or sealant off the wheels? I'd like to clean and dress my tires every wash, but it's a lot of work to reseal the wheels so often..
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While the Griot's Rubber Cleaner is supposedly effective at cleaning *anything* off, I find that as long as I exercise reasonable care the little bit that inevitably gets on the wheels doesn't do much of anything to their LSP.



I try to spray it carefully and I shield the surrounding body of the car with my free hand to avoid getting the Rubber Cleaner on it. I spread the Rubber Cleaner around with my tire brush/sponge to cover the tire somewhat evenly instead of trying to *spray* it on with total coverage.



Note that I'm not knocking myself out being careful when doing the above, and when I rinse the Rubber Cleaner off it gets on the wheel anyhow. But again, it isn't working out to be a big deal and it's not like I have to re-LSP my wheels all the time.
 
Wow...I guess I'm the only one who uses car wash soap on their tires. On my DDs car wash and a stiff brush cleans 'em up nicely and doesn't strip my DG 253.
 
citizen arcane said:
Wow...I guess I'm the only one who uses car wash soap on their tires. On my DDs car wash and a stiff brush cleans 'em up nicely and doesn't strip my DG 253.
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Ha ha, not at all, that's my normal, it's just if they start getting brown I will sometimes use something else, or if I'm doing a rotation/heavy cleaning.



This discussion got pretty interesting regarding the different products and tire reactions. I have to say in my pre-Autopian days when I used to use (P21S) wheel cleaner at every wash, I used to just scrub the tire with the overspray/runoff and that worked pretty well.
 
EisenHulk said:
I know it's going to come as a shock, but Eagle One A-Z Rim & Tire Cleaner. One round, two at the very most, will remove pretty much every ounce of dirt from the dirtiest of tires. I also use ARO, but the EOAZ is my go-to product.
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one spray for me does the trick. i let it sit for a few seconds and tons of dirt/brake dust come off from the tire and wheel just from the rinse. and its a OTC. been using this for years.
 
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