Would A2Z strip sealent?

zesty-man

how do ya like it?
today i was cleaning my garage and i looked at my rims and they were pretty black, but for the most part, it was all surface brake dust. what i usually do is get a bucket of car wash and clean my rims the hard way, one by one, scrubbing all the little grooves etc etc. but this time i got eagle one A2Z (something i havent used in quite a while), and gave it a try. i was feeling lazy so i just sprayed and didnt use any agitation, after all, the rims only had surface brake dust and they had been sealed. the brake dust came rite off, no agitation required! A2Z did a great job on taking it off. all i had to do was wipe the rims dry (in a way, that serves as agitation), and they looked like new.

my initial thoughts on this were, A2Z works well with some kinda sealent on the rims. the brakedust literally slipped rite off the rims as i sprayed on the A2Z. however, i began to wonder, if A2Z is strong enough to take off brake dust without any agitation, would it also be strong enough to take off sealents? from what i can tell, my rims dont quite feel as smooth as the first time i sealed them, but thats expected.


any of you guys have any theories?




i would also like to add that the A2Z was great....... it was so easy to get to all those hard to reach places were brakedust accumulates. just spray and rinse, hehe. i felt that it was more practical than hand washing rims twice a week, but also better than S&W on the rims becuase it eats up my MFs, turning them all black.
 
Yeah, I'd be highly surprised if the sealant remained intact. Definitely re apply. I would clay the wheels at this point before hand too. Although A2Z is a wonderful cleaner, I bet the brake dust would have been more difficult to get off without the sealant
 
i cant answer the ? but i have sealed my wheels with nxt and have had good luck for over 10 weeks without a problem, brake dust washes right off, but i am curious to know how much residue was on the towel when u wiped the water off the wheel after rinsing and no agitation ?i should say i HAVENT used any wheels cleaners in the 10 weeks just nxt wash
 
heres a pic of the mf that i used for all 4 wheels. it looks worse than it really is. for the most part, the brake dust is light on all places except one. i think i had missed a part, and thats why its dark.
 
Just to clarify.
Did you spray the A2Z on, rinse with water, then wipe the wheels dry
Or
Did you spray the A2Z on and wipe it off without rinsing.

I'm not going to have anything to add, just trying to find out your procedure.

Charles
 
sorry, let me clarify....


first, i sprayed the dry rims with A2Z. i let A2Z sit for about 30 seconds wtihout any agitation what so ever. i then rinsed the wheel with water. after rinsing with water, i dried the wheel with a mf (the one in the picture above)
 
zesty-man said:
sorry, let me clarify....

first, i sprayed the dry rims with A2Z. i let A2Z sit for about 30 seconds wtihout any agitation what so ever. i then rinsed the wheel with water. after rinsing with water, i dried the wheel with a mf (the one in the picture above)
Kind of what I thought, but I wasn't sure.
The A2Z left a lot of dirty residue for your MF to pick up. I guess I thought it would rinse cleaner than that. :dunno

Charles
 
I've got to think that the A2Z took the sealant off...besides, re-applying sealant and then wiping it off takes about 15 minutes (assuming you're just doing the outside and not the interior). I'd re-do it.
 
hmmm, maybe ill experiment a bit.... i was very satisified with the results i got with A2Z. the whole purpose of using A2Z was to avoid doing more work, hehe
 
zesty-man said:
hmmm, maybe ill experiment a bit.... i was very satisified with the results i got with A2Z. the whole purpose of using A2Z was to avoid doing more work, hehe

Once your wheels are clean, the sealant will really keep them clean. I only went 3 weeks between cleaning and a re-application of sealant on my wheels, but I didn't even NEED A2Z to clean what was on the wheels after 3 weeks....in fact, I didn't even need soap and water, S&W or water alone would have taken the junk off.

Not sure where you live, but for me, I just did my winterizing, so I didn't mind re-applying 2 coats of sealant to the wheels only 3 weeks after giving it their 1st coat of EX-P. If you live somewhere were the winters are tough, I'd get them really clean and then double-sealant them. Then if you have to clean them in a few months, or wait until spring, they should clean very very easily based on what I saw from my 3-week test.
 
i live in hawaii, and the winters are really harsh here. ill try testing... ill put sealent on two rims, and leave two rims bare. lets see what happens after a couple of weeks.

also, i have a BMW and BMW's have a nasty reputation of accumulating brake dust quickly. sure the brake dust comes off really easy with S&W, but it makes my mfs literally black because of all the4 brake dust.
 
Why leave 2 rims bare? Trust me, they WILL accumulate dust and grease and it will stick alot toughter than if you have sealant.
 
just testing... i wanna do a comparsion. this test is also good beucase it would indicate if A2Z actually did strip it off. if the grease and brakedust is hard to come off, that means that theres no sealent. however, if the grease and brakedust comes off easily, that would indicate that there is indeed sealent left
 
I just have one question...."WHY ARE YOU USING MF FOR YOUR WHEELS" :eek :bigscream :doh :nono :rolleyes: :nono :rolleyes: :confused: :dunno :wait :ranton ...use soft cheap cotton and then throw them away!!!

did i use enough smilies:D
 
:yeah Hehe Welcome to brake dust! As Poorboy said, you can just use some cheapie throwaways. I use the Detailing Solutions MF from Sam's. Less than a buck each. I personally don't like em at all so gotta sell em. Zesty are those JT International microfibers?
 
Yes, the A2Z will remove the sealant.

I also agree about the MF towel use on wheels...you will go through an awful lot of MF towels rather quickly if you keep this up.
 
The Woob said:
:yeah Hehe Welcome to brake dust! As Poorboy said, you can just use some cheapie throwaways. I use the Detailing Solutions MF from Sam's. Less than a buck each. I personally don't like em at all so gotta sell em. Zesty are those JT International microfibers?



nah, those are ranney's mfs. those are the old ones, i have new ones specified for paint work and QDing. for me, its wash, dry, and its like new. as for using cotton, i hate how it leaves lint behind, very annoying. another thing about the mf is that it doesnt leave any light marks behind. sometimes when i use cotton, it leaves traces of water which annoys me.
 
zesty-man said:
i live in hawaii, and the winters are really harsh here.
Was that a typo or are winters really harsh in Hawaii?

I think the consensus is that A2Z will remove some, if not all, protection. I've only used A2Z once so far and applied sealant to my wheels afterwards. I use old Costco-bought MFs for my wheel cleaning.
 
Ty,

If you do decide to only seal 2 wheels, make sure you do it passenger side vs. drivers side, and not front and back :nono Most of your brake dust will be on the front 2 wheels for sure. Good luck with your observations!!
 
hehe nick, i was thinking ahead on that one. however, i had a better idea. i decided to seal half the wheels, to see is there was a difference. now only time can tell...
 
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