I have the forged aluminum 19's on my '06, I wanted to know....what's the best thing to clean them with? Is dish soap and water ok? would that do harm to the finish of the rim? and how about using Mother's aluminum polish afterwards? thanks for your help!

 

I would recommend never using any kind of dish soap, detergent, hand soap or anything thats not specified for carwashing. This wil only harm the paint and finsh and rims for that fact. As far as rims, I usually wash them with carwash soap and get them waxed once in a while at a good carwash detail shop.

Hope that helps!

 

False False False!


Do you have *proof* that dishsoap will harm your wheels? Did you know wheels are lacquer coated, which is MUCH stronger than a standard clearcoat? Did you know that every wheel cleaner on the market, safe or not, is more harsh than Dawn?


If you take care of your car and wash it often, you should be able to just clean your wheels with car wash soap and water. I like to keep a paint sealant on my wheels to enhance gloss/slickness and repel dust. This helps keep them much cleaner. WAXing your wheels is pointless as your wheels will get over a couple hundred degrees Farenheit after some hard braking and the melting point of a standard paste wax is around 130*.


Oh, and BTW, they are WHEELS not rims. Rims are the outer ring, wheels are the entire piece.

 

I would agree with stilez on the dish soap...I use it on everything from the factory 19"s on the Infiniti to the Fikse's on my track car. No issues. It does a great job of removing oil and other junk. I don't use it everytime as most of the time it just takes water with a tiny bit of QEW to get them clean.

As far as waxing the wheels, standard wax does break down at standard wheel operating temperatures. PB Wheel Sealant and Wheel Max are formulated somewhat for these temperatures. They won't last all that long, but I do think they help a bit from keeping contaminants from adhereing to the wheel surface. I have also found that Werkstatt Prime Strong does a pretty good job of that as well.

-GT