Help with brown tires

G

gchristopher9

New member
Hello all,

I have tires that are fairly new (<1 year). I clean my car at least once a week. with a good thorough, but amatuer, detail maybe 6 times a year. One thing that has been driving me crazy is my tires. For some reason, after my tire shine wears off my tires just look BROWN, and it really gets to me. I see other cars on the road that a clearly not even taken car of, and their tires remain black. I am wondering what is going on to make mine look brown. I use turtle wax F21 wheel cleaner before i put any water on my car at all. it seems to work well, becoming very dirty looking on contact. after i let it sit for a minute or so, i hose all the tires off with the hose. After cleaning and drying the car and wheels, I go with some tire shine. For a while i was using armor all detailers advantage tire foam, and i still use it occasionally as it is pretty quick and easy, and looks nice. The only other product to ever touch my tires is the Zaino perfect tire gloss, which i absolutely love. Looks great and lasts a long time. Can someone help me to figure out what is going on? are my tires just THAT filthy that they look brown, or is something happening and somehow turning my black tires to a more brown color. any help is appreciated.



THANKS!
 
what type of tires do you have? I had Kumho on my Acura CL and they did NOT like tire care products at all, I could NOT keep them shiney what so ever. So it could be just the type of tire you have. Also, I would try Wesley Bleach White next time you wash your car. I can spray it on the tires, and then just literally see all the black/brown dirt roll down the tire. Also I hear alot about a product called Amazing Roll Off..might look into that too. Heck, even try an APC diluted to maybe 4:1..
 
They are Yokohama tires. i am nervous that what i think might be "dirt" coming of my tires when i'm cleaning is actually the black color that i want to keep on there. is this possible?
 
gchristopher9 said:
They are Yokohama tires. i am nervous that what i think might be "dirt" coming of my tires when i'm cleaning is actually the black color that i want to keep on there. is this possible?
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Most likely what you're seeing is the breakdown of the silicone in your tire dressing. When silicone breaks down, it turns brown. What you want to do is clean the tire up and then use a WATER based dressing. If you're looking for a good OTC solution, Black Magic Matte Tire Finish is a great product.
 
gchristopher9 said:
is the Zaino stuff not a water based dressing?
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Not sure--I'm not a Zaino guy. Keep in mind, though, that if a silicone dressing was *ever* applied to the tires, you may run in to this issue until it is completely cleaned off.
 
ok that is good info. i looked up the detailers advantage foam and it is claiming 50% silicone than regular armor all tire dressing so i am going to assume that is the culprit. will be throwing that can away as soon as i get home. so i'll go at the tires this weekend real good with some APC and a stuff bristled brush. maybe go over them twice to be sure, then stick with my zaino in the future. thanks for your help.
 
gchristopher9 said:
For some reason, after my tire shine wears off my tires just look BROWN, and it really gets to me.



<snip happens>



Can someone help me to figure out what is going on? are my tires just THAT filthy that they look brown, or is something happening and somehow turning my black tires to a more brown color. any help is appreciated.
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Some dressing seems to attract grunge, especially silicone-based products, IME. Cleaning off the crud before reapplying a dressing is key to keeping things looking good. I started using Soner's More Shine aerosol and find it doesn't attract grime as much as other dressings. Spray it and leave it for shine, give it a buff for a matte finish. Seems to last on my tires... my GF's tires don't seem to retain *anything* after a wash. ::::shrug:::



As the OP mentioned, Westley's Bleche White is an excellent cleaner, I dilute it 1:1 for tires and have used it full strength on really crummy stuff. You can see the brown stuff roll off and white walls or RWLs become whiter while it dwells. It's a pretty harsh cleaner, don't get it on uncoated, polished aluminum or you'll be polishing out stains.



Amazing Roll Off is also excellent. It's water-activated and I usually use it diluted as well. Not nearly as harsh as Bleche White but it cleans just as well. Kinda pricey by comparison though and I've never seen it OTC, which means shipping charges on top of your purchase. I keeo finding new uses for the stuff... it's great on patio furniture, greasy grills and all sorts of stuff around the house and garage.



TL
 
I think what you may be seeing is tire Blooming, it is the UV protectant in the tires working its way to the surface. Some tires seem to be more affected than others, just depends on the manufacturer.



Basically when you use a harsh cleaner on the tire you also remove some of the protectant in the tire and more works its way to the surface during the following heat cycles after driving.



The solution is to use a milder cleaner that will not cause blooming in the first place. I generally wash the tires with the same product I use to wash the paint. Never had an issue with getting the tires clean.



There isn't a lot of info out there on blooming but a Google search will bring up some references...
 
gchristopher9 said:
i looked up the detailers advantage foam and it is claiming 50% silicone than regular armor all tire dressing so i am going to assume that is the culprit. will be throwing that can away as soon as i get home. so i'll go at the tires this weekend real good with some APC and a stuff bristled brush.
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IMO it's not quite that simple. BTW, the "silicone" that posters are referring to as causing browning is the silicone oil, not the "water-based" PDMS dressings that have the milky-white color. And yes, I believe that the Detailer's Advantage does have some silicone oil in it. I have also had a problem with the defunct Long Haul tire shine which seems to also have some oil in it.



To compound the problem, as rjstaaf mentioned, some harsh cleaners (even APC's) seem to pull stuff out of the tire, and just make the problem worse. If when sprayed on it seems to "melt" the brown off the tire (speaking of a tire that has been regularly cleaned as any good Autopian would, not a car that hasn't been washed in 2 years), that's a bad sign. I had a thread some time ago mentioning a product that I kept scrubbing and scrubbing and the brown just kept coming and coming.



The last thing that affects this IMO is the age of the tire; IME the older the tire it seems like the more browning problems...but this may be an inaccurate observation.



The Zaino tire dressing seems to be one of the best, so sticking with that is a good thing.
 
RZJZA80 said:
simple green at 100% strength, wait 20 seconds, scrub with a bristle brush, rinse.
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Thanks for reminding me, I had pretty good luck beating the browning with some of the "lemon" SG (which is somewhat different than the regular green stuff).
 
mrclrider said:
what type of tires do you have? I had Kumho on my Acura CL and they did NOT like tire care products at all, I could NOT keep them shiney what so ever. So it could be just the type of tire you have. Also, I would try Wesley Bleach White next time you wash your car. I can spray it on the tires, and then just literally see all the black/brown dirt roll down the tire. Also I hear alot about a product called Amazing Roll Off..might look into that too. Heck, even try an APC diluted to maybe 4:1..
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You are right. I have Kumhos also on one car and they hate every dressing I try to put on them.. I use Megs ASD and it works ok on most tires. Not sure about Yokohama, never had them.
 
well i brought some APC into work today, and on lunch when to the local wash to make a run at the wheels. I sprayed the tires with APC, worked it real good with the self serve brush, then hit it with high pressure soap, and rinse. I must say they look better already. Definitely not perfect, but 10 times better than they were. With some more time and a stiff bristled brush I am sure I can get them back to looking new again. Thanks all for your help in diagnosing this problem. Just another reason to be psyched that I found this site.



Oh yea, and I do feel bad for the poor slob that goes in there after me and rubs that brush all over his ride, but only a little bit. :xyxthumbs
 
gchristopher9 said:
Oh yea, and I do feel bad for the poor slob that goes in there after me and rubs that brush all over his ride, but only a little bit. :xyxthumbs
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Anyone that uses those brushes on their paint really wouldn't notice the scratches from the brush anyway ;)
 
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