I have a 2010 coupe I recently purchased. The wheels have some minor pitting and brownish stains on them. Nothing too bad. It's a ten year old car after all. My usual procedure of a stiff brush and simple green cleaned the wheels up but not the stains. I was thinking of taking a brillo pad or something to them next. Any suggestions for how to do a deep clean on stained wheels?

 

in general MINI wheels are painted and clear coated the very same way the body is ... so I wouldn't suggest any cleaning method you wouldn't use on the body paint.

What you probably have there is pitting from baked on brake dust .... you might try some brake cleaner with a toothbrush or some rubbing compound .. but remember you CAN easily scuff the clear coat . . .

 

Thanks! Excellent advice. I will post back my results if the weather cooperates and I get a change to try it this weekend.

 

p.s. after an aggressive cleaning of the body paint .... what would you do?

with a painted and clear coated wheel ... shouldn't the same apply?

you already did simple green and a stiff brush .....

 

Excellent point. I am a fan of Zaino for my paint after a deep clean. Will give it a try

 

I have used Griot's Heavy Duty Wheel Cleaner with some sucess, but if it's baked on brake dust you may need to try an alternative. I was given some great SSR wheels by a neighbor that had plenty of deep dust and found that denatured alcohol and plenty of elbow grease made a huge difference. Keep it wet and keep rubbing...

 

Have you tried any other products like Chemical Guys, or Sonax? I use Chemical Guys and it really works well on getting the wheels clean.

 

I use Sonax Full Effect, the regular version, not plus. However, it smells really bad, even the bottle doesn’t fully contain the smell, but almost all of the iron/brake dust eating wheel cleaners smell bad.

Here’s a before and after of the back of an R90.

 

YouTube wheel cleaning, there will be plenty of videos that pop up, search for the products above and you will see how detailers use them.

 

I treat painted wheels mostly like paint on a car. I use Meguiars fine cut cleaner it's basically a mild cutting wax. I do get a little aggressive with it if needed. Then use a wax after. Most wheels are powder coated especially aftermarket, makes them more durable then automotive paint.

 

Iron-X from CarPro. Can't be beat and it goes a long way. Sonax also works well but their application method results in a lot of wasted product.

 

I use this all the time. Best stuff: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-sonax-parts/v-mini/

 

I ended up using Chemical Guys Sticky Gel Citrus wheel cleaner. Just sprayed on and hit with a soft brush like I usually do then attacked the problem areas with a green pad. That did the trick and my wheels look much better. Not perfect, but the baked on gunk staining them is gone.