Best wheel cleaner? (Cupra 290)

DrEv1l

Active Member
Mar 17, 2017
35
8
I have the same wheels as OP, there is some corrosion in every "spoke" on the black surface in the corners. I'll try and get some photos, but any idea how I can get that off? It looks a bit like brake dust but it's very hard and baked on.

I use an EZ detail brush, a mitt, some light citrus degreaser, followed by regular shampoo for the wheels.
I have those wheels and my detailer hates them! They are so difficult to get into the nooks and clean. Mine have also got some defects on them as well as a little curbing so I'm going to have to just get them refurbished.

The bilberry wash is very good and does not smell too evil.
 

SRGTD

Active Member
May 26, 2014
2,388
1,278
I have those wheels and my detailer hates them! They are so difficult to get into the nooks and clean. Mine have also got some defects on them as well as a little curbing so I'm going to have to just get them refurbished.

The bilberry wash is very good and does not smell too evil.
I had a Vauxhall in the early / mid 1990’s that had quite an intricate design of wheel - from memory, each wheel had 32 small holes in it and it took me as long to clean the wheels as it did to clean the rest of the car. I vowed to always avoid intricate wheel designs from then on, and I think I’ve managed to.

Valet Pro Bilberry is good, although a friend of mine used it on his wheels and left it on to long - it stained the wheels and he had pink / purple tinted wheels for quite a while after that. He didn’t make the same mistake again!
 

rcwsr

Active Member
Jul 5, 2019
34
3
Yep they're a right pain to get in the nooks and crannies! Other than cleaner, what equipment go you use for cleaning these wheels?
 

mitchybenny

Active Member
Oct 19, 2019
33
3
I have the same wheels as OP, there is some corrosion in every "spoke" on the black surface in the corners. I'll try and get some photos, but any idea how I can get that off? It looks a bit like brake dust but it's very hard and baked on.

I use an EZ detail brush, a mitt, some light citrus degreaser, followed by regular shampoo for the wheels.

Haha, I think I need to find myself some time. Think I’ve stumbled upon some time consuming cleaning lol
 

ChrisM75

Active Member
May 10, 2019
423
182
Normally I say Bilt Hamber auto wheels is the best one, but with Diamond cut wheels you have to be very careful not to encourage the white worm.

Bilt Hamber Atom-Mac is a corrosion inhibitor and does foam up (at 5% dilution), so im using that to clean the wheels. Its good enough to clean well protected wheels (waxed or nano coated) and adds corrosion resistance.
 

SRGTD

Active Member
May 26, 2014
2,388
1,278
Yep they're a right pain to get in the nooks and crannies! Other than cleaner, what equipment go you use for cleaning these wheels?
I don’t have a Cupra with multi spoke diamond cut alloys, but I use the following on my wheels as part of my wash routine;

I clean the face and between the spokes on my wheels with one of these;
https://wo-wo.co.uk/collections/wo-wo-car-detailing-products/products/microfibre-wheel-wash-mitt

I use a small, soft bristled detailing brush to clean around the wheel bolt covers, valve stems and any other intricate parts;
https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/valet-pro-inch-round-wheel-brush

I have a set of these to clean the barrel of the wheels, and brake calipers (they’re good for many other parts of the car too, like grilles, exhaust tailpipes, underside of sills etc);
https://www.cleanyourcar.co.uk/wheel-woolies-wheel-brush-kit

And I dry the wheels with one of these;
https://wo-wo.co.uk/collections/wo-wo-car-detailing-products/products/alloy-wheel-drying-towel
 
  • Like
Reactions: rcwsr

Cuprobbie

Active Member
May 4, 2016
91
26
Hamilton
I have the multispoke diamond cut wheels on my 2016 Black Edition. These are the features I hate about my Cupra. Otherwise I love everything else as it’s a brilliant car. The gloss black parts of the wheels are easily scratched and almost every spoke has corrosion under the lacquer. My neighbour’s RS3’s wheels look much better and they are ‘normal’ alloys, not diamond cut.
 
  • Like
Reactions: SRGTD

SRGTD

Active Member
May 26, 2014
2,388
1,278
I have the multispoke diamond cut wheels on my 2016 Black Edition. These are the features I hate about my Cupra. Otherwise I love everything else as it’s a brilliant car. The gloss black parts of the wheels are easily scratched and almost every spoke has corrosion under the lacquer. My neighbour’s RS3’s wheels look much better and they are ‘normal’ alloys, not diamond cut.
I’ve voiced my opinion on what I think of diamond cut alloys many times on the forum - I dislike them with a passion! If manufacturers offered a painted / powder coated alloy as an alternative to diamond cut, I’d have the painted / powder coated version every time.
 

ChrisM75

Active Member
May 10, 2019
423
182
The black part very easily swirls up. Ive been using CarPro Essence plus to deal with this. Its basically a ceramic filler that hides swirls. It works well and should help with corrosion on the diamond cut part.

Being a lease car Im being very careful with the wheels.
 

Dannnnn

Active Member
Dec 9, 2018
440
200
Hampshire
Bilt Hamber auto wheels is my go to.
Tried loads and always go back to the BH stuff. It just works.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 
  • Like
Reactions: neiloid

Jay280

Active Member
Oct 7, 2015
252
62
I've always used Valet pro bilberry with good results, but just bought autoglym acid free wheel cleaner from the rep that comes into my work. Has anybody tried it? Hope it's good as it's a concrete so there's 10 litres of the stuff
45b5477e68e045d33e287c207b47e2b3.jpg


Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 

Brimfull

Active Member
Nov 7, 2018
1,385
418
Wrexham
Check out power maxed range of cleaning products, fantastic quality and very reasonably priced.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 

rcwsr

Active Member
Jul 5, 2019
34
3
If it is corrosion, then no wheel cleaner will remove it; the wheels will need to be refurbished. However, if it’s baked on grime and brake dust that’s giving the appearance of corrosion

Sorry for crap photo. I've wiped some dust away and you can see the problem area right in the corner. IMG_20191023_125200.jpg
 

SRGTD

Active Member
May 26, 2014
2,388
1,278
Sorry for crap photo. I've wiped some dust away and you can see the problem area right in the corner. View attachment 10743
I don’t think it’s corrosion. If it was corrosion, then I’d expect the black paint / powder coating to show signs of blistering, and I don’t think aluminium alloy corrosion would be reddish brown in colour.

I think it’s brake dust build up that’s baked on the surface. Brake dust build up can have a brownish colouration to it.
 

rcwsr

Active Member
Jul 5, 2019
34
3
Thanks, that's a relief, hopefully I can get it off - gonna be a long job, there's about 100 of these little corners .

I do have one small patch of blistering on the machined surface, I expect there's not much I can do other than not make it worse!
 

S4BiT

Active Member
Dec 8, 2018
163
115
That is a build-up from the brakes and shows that your alloys are not cleaned properly for some time. It can also show a issue with the brakes, as the cars with worn brake pads and/or other problems with the brakes can be having this kind of metal build-up in a very hard way. For cleaning it easily you have to use some wheel cleaner with the ph1 to ph5, that is acidic and removes this kind of “dirt”. All the neutral wheel cleaners can be nice to look when they are going purple, but i would use them more to clean the bodywork if needed.
As im doing it every day as a work, I know what im talking about.