How Harsh Can you Go on Tires

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pingable

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In light of the IronX thread, I figured I would start another thread on something that I don't really have a clear understanding of. Granted, any dressing will last longer on a clean tire. That's a established fact.



How Harsh and or what is truly acceptable to use on tires.



I'm somewhat hestitent to even use APC on my rubber for various reason and would rather use a very diluted APC 20:1 and just scrub and dress. Often when you go stronger, all the brown that comes out - I'm not sure if that is just grime, dressing, and more road grime. I've never gotten a full understanding if I am leaching out any of the anti aging/anti-oxidents out of it.



Granted, I'm a tire WHORE. I'm that *type* that will generally get new tires every 2-3 years, and just flip the used ones forsale, as I prefer having a *fresh set of rubber with more tread*. It does cost me $$, but I take tires fairly seriously - it's the 4 things that keep me planted on the ground.



Anybody know if there has been any empirical testing on the effects of cleaning a tire with APC, it's frequency and whether or not, there is substantiated support to say harsch chemicals do leach out of the rubber. Rubber is porous, so I'm going to expect and presume it's a 2 way street...it's absorbs and it leeches.
 
I'm curious about this too! And I have the same concerns.



There have been suggestions that some "rubber/tire cleaners" are just relabeled APC :nixweiss



I keep using GG Rubber Cleaner (sooo mild) and sometimes their Rubber Prep (wonderful stuff), but I might be interested in something different if it's safe, effective, and cheap.
 
I've been on the quest for this for over a decade now. Accumulator's two mentioned products seem to fit that bill best so far. I'm stubborn about insisting on dedicated products for dedicated surfaces even though I'm fairly sure today's APCs probably make them obsolete.
 
I'm going to find out real soon - but I ordered up some Tuf Shine. I plan to do a ball-2-wallz cleaning, then Tuf Shine it.



From various reports, it looks like the longevity is awesome. May need to top it every in a awhile to give it a hint of gloss, but I'm hoping this will be the end all of 2 week dressing time. This is my most least aspect of things, but unfortunately, the right black on tires completes the car as a whole
 
Mothers has a new dedicated tire cleaner out Mothers® Back-to-Black® Tire Renew Back to Black Tire Renew (this is not the Back to Black trim dressing), but I haven't been able to find it anywhere yet. Their Tire and Wheel cleaner seems to get good reviews so was hoping to give this a try.



What's attractive to me is that it doesn't require rinsing--just spray on and wipe off--so the potential exists to clean the tires without removing the LSP on the wheels.
 
This is going to be a terrible analogy but here goes...



The tire is like my skin. I drink water, keep myself hydrated. However, if I take 2 hot showers every day, even with the most gentlest of soaps, let's say in the dead of winter, I will see a difference in dryness in my skin.



I have never gone too harsh / deep clean on my tires. I would rather have less longevity on the dressing and dress more often cause I don't have a fundamental educated answer on how far can one can clean. In the literall sense, the brown goo you start getting with a cleaner - I wonder of what percentage of that is just dirt/grime versus possibly something I am leaching OUT of the tire that I should not be. At the bare minimum, there must be flex agents in the compound to keep the tire somewhat pliable in the elements. Does APC accelerate the process of it out diminishing just due to the nature of it's cleaning abilities.
 
I'm not trying to be a smart a$$ here, but I don't understand the need to be deep cleaning tires on a regular bases. I use a strong cleaner on my tires once maybe twice a year (up until this point it's been Wesley's Bleach White, but looking for something less caustic) and then just scrub them with a soft brush and normally diluted car wash soap at each wash. For the last 6 or so months I've been using Mothers FX Tire Shine (really not a high gloss shine, but not matte either) and it's usually 4 weeks before I need to re-apply. When I replaced my last set of tires they looked fine--no cracking etc.
 
The thread is not about deep cleaning on a regular basis.



It's simply about even the effects of what a deep clean can have (whether it be harmful or not) just by the process of deep cleaning...



I've often wondered.



There's been some *scientific* high knowledge talk about IronX and I was inspired to see if any of the chemists out here might be able to shed some light. Granted, it would be even Kewler if there was someone in the tire/rubber compound industry to shed his 2 cents ;-)
 
I deep clean with a tire cleaner about twice a year, APC+ about four times a year. My tread area starts cracking way before I notice any sidewall damage. Good enough for me.
 
chefwong said:
The thread is not about deep cleaning on a regular basis.



It's simply about even the effects of what a deep clean can have (whether it be harmful or not) just by the process of deep cleaning...



I've often wondered.



There's been some *scientific* high knowledge talk about IronX and I was inspired to see if any of the chemists out here might be able to shed some light. Granted, it would be even Kewler if there was someone in the tire/rubber compound industry to shed his 2 cents ;-)
Click to expand...



Agree, but I don't think there's any evidence that infrequent deep cleaning causes any harm, but it would be interesting to hear from tire experts.
 
Back in the late 90's I wrote a technical article for Professional Car Wash and Detailing magazine.

I don't have it in my files, and doubt that the magazine could go back that far and find it.

It covered the composition of tires, what makes them, why some components are in a tire, what damages may be done by using the wrong cleaners and dressings, how UV rays damage a sidewall, how the various special components are in a tire to protect them, how 'blooming" works, etc.

It was "well" received by the industry.

Perhaps if you contacted Beth at ValuGard, she has it in a PDF file and could send to anyone who wishes to read it.

contact is bethb@autoint.com

Not sure she has it but worth a quick email to her.
 
I have been using Westley's Bleche White Tire Cleaner on my 2002 Firebird since it was new. It's a garage queen with only 16,000 miles on it but the tires are the original ones actually dated 2001. Repeated washing for all these years have showed no apparent damage so far. I started out dressing these tires with Meg's #40 for a few years and switched to Opti-Bond and Garry Deans tire gel ocasionally. It is stored inside a heated garage year round but washed frequently. After over 11 years with the same tires I can't complain with Westley's Bleche White Tire Cleaner.
 
In 20+ years of detailing I don't recall any problems cause by water based products. The same can not be said about solvents and solvent dressings.
 
David Fermani said:
Brass tire brush and some high alkaline cleaner does the trick.
Click to expand...



Just a caveat: I've had a number of soft-compound tires that would be marred to the point of cosmetic unacceptability if scrubbed with even a regular plastic-bristle "tire brush". Had to be cleaned with sponges.



(Note that I too have scrubbed plenty of tires, lots of whitewalls and raised white letters, with brass brushes and various abrasive materials, so I'm not :nono: or anything. "Horses for courses" and all that...)
 
If you have some strong all purpose or some water based degreaser, save some money.

Add about 10% house hold bleach to the all purpose or the degreaser, you now have white wall cleaner. Just make sure you mark your "new product" on the bottle so you don't use it for other things. (other than it makes one heck of a bathroom cleaner)

In the old days, sold a lot of "white wall cleaner", all we did was add common bleach to our water based degreaser and a new label. In the late 80's, early 90's, sold thousands of cases of it.

You may have to adjust the percentage, depending on the strength of your all purpose or degreaser.

 
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