contents
- What materials are rims made of?
- Where can I clean my rims?
- How do I get heavily soiled rims clean?
- Which home remedies help to clean and care for the rims?
- The rim check during cleaning
- Conclusion
What materials are rims made of?
As before are Steel rims on the market because they are inexpensive, very robust and ideal for winter tires. The reason for this is that aluminum rims and road salt are not a good combination. If an aluminum rim is not sufficiently protected against the salt on the road, this can eat into the material and destroy the rim. This is not an unlikely scenario as dirt is thrown up more frequently during the cold and wet months.
Nevertheless are Light metal rims or aluminum rims are now the most commonly used car tire carriers. A good aluminum rim is significantly lighter than a steel rim of the same size, which affects fuel consumption and braking performance.
Formula 1 racing cars and supercars are reserved for new types of rims, which are largely made of carbon consist. These are extremely stable and very light, but must be permanently cooled while driving.
Where can I clean my rims?
The car cleaning on private property is only permitted in rare cases, on public roads it is generally forbidden. It is up to each municipality to decide whether to allow washing the car by hand on private property. The reason for this is that when washing the car and cleaning the rims, oil residues, lubricants and brake dust end up in the waste water and thus in the ground or the sewage system. According to the Water Resources Act and the Federal Soil Protection Act, this is an absolute taboo. However, it is permitted to clean the glazing of the vehicle, to polish the car and to clean the interior.
This leaves the car wash and cleaning the wheel rims only officially designated car wash areas and car washes. If you like it particularly careful, you can also hand your car over to a vehicle detailer. These professionals even transform an older used car into a new vehicle – at least visually.
How do I get heavily soiled rims clean?
In general, for all types of rims, careful pre-treatment can save a lot of work if the wheel is heavily soiled. In this guide we will show you how to proceed when cleaning the rims and how aluminum rims can be cleaned perfectly:
1. Pre-cleaning of the rims with the high-pressure cleaner
To the rough cleaning the rims, a pressure washer is quite handy. This allows stubborn dirt and the toughest stains to be removed or at least dissolved.
2. Clean the inner parts of the rim
With the high-pressure cleaner, however, only the surface of the rim that is visible from the outside can be cleaned. The cleanliness of the internal surfaces is also important. If this is not cleaned, the dirt can settle permanently. Much worse is that brake dust, benzene or oils eat into the material and destroy it if these substances are not removed regularly. Especially when there is a mixture of several substances, chemical processes that attack the material can take place unnoticed from the outside. Therefore have to the inner surfaces of the rim with a brush to be cleaned. Toothbrushes have proven their worth here. An alternative is a nozzle head, such as is used to automatically clean gutters. The powerful spray nozzle is mounted on the tube and can be used flexibly inside the rim. However, if the holes in the rim created by the design are too small for the brush or spray head to reach the inside, the only solution is to dismantle the wheels.
3. Clean the rims with a brush and rim cleaner
After this first pre-treatment sprayed the rims with a rim cleaner from the car accessories. It has been shown here that high-foaming agents often have a better effect. The reason for this is the foam, which does not flow off immediately but sticks to the surface, so that the exposure time is extended. It is also important that the rim cleaner does not contain any abrasives, such as are common in some car polishes. Although cleaners with abrasives make the job easier, they roughen the surface of the rim so that dirt can settle more easily.
With a practical rim cleaning brush from the accessory trade, you can now get to the bottom of the dirt. If this work is too strenuous for you, you can use a drill or a polishing machine to help. Brush attachments for both machines are mostly available in DIY stores, sometimes also in car accessories shops. Wheel rims can be cleaned in a short time using mechanical power.
4. Make rims shine again: polish and protect
If the rims are spotlessly clean again, they should be protected. This is the only way to prevent dirt from stubbornly settling again. Depending on the product and manufacturer, such a rim seal is either sprayed on or applied with a rag or cloth. It is important to also protect the inner surfaces of the rims. such Rim seals usually last up to 6 monthswhich is why vehicle specialists recommend cleaning the rims in spring and autumn.
Which home remedies help to clean and care for the rims?
Some car owners tackle the dirt on the rims with coke, others swear by vinegar cleaner, oven spray, toothpaste or baking powder. TÜV, DEKRA and ADAC have at least partially got to the bottom of these myths. The result is rather sobering, because most home remedies for cleaning the rims only work in special cases or not at all. We’ll show you why.
Oven spray when cleaning the rims
In fact, a wheel rim can be cleaned with oven spray. However only if little or no brake dust is involved. And if the dirt is not particularly stubborn. If brake dust has settled thickly on a rim, oven spray is almost ineffective.
Another disadvantage of oven spray or an oven cleaner is that these agents do not affect the brakes, especially the brake pads allowed to reach. Some of these cleaning products from the kitchen contain substances that can permanently damage the brake pads.
Clean rims with WD-40
An independent chemical analysis of WD-40 revealed a fairly precise composition of the alleged miracle cure for all cases – including for wheel rim cleaning.
It turned out that WD-40 is mostly a mixture of baby oil, petroleum jelly and the fine slime found in homemade lava lamps. In addition, WD-40 contains an abundance of alkanes hydrocarbons.
These hydrocarbons, C10H22, are a common ingredient in gasoline. They help keep WD-40 liquid in cold temperatures, because the agent only freezes at around -21 degrees Celsius.
The alkanes include nonane, tetradecane and cyclohexane. Some of these substances come from nature. The origins are, for example, the pheromones of cockroaches and ants. The advantage of these alkanes is their water-repellent property. Dimethylnaphthalene is included as a solvent and carbon dioxide ensures that the alkanes do not stick together.
With the exception of the isomer dimethylnaphthalene, there is no substance in WD-40 that has an efficient cleaning effect. There is plenty of mineral oil in WD-40.
If the mineral oil contained in WD-40 gets on the brake discs or the brake pads, you must visit the workshop immediately. The brake pads absorb the oil and must therefore be replaced because they can no longer provide the required braking power.
Clean rims with detergent
In fact, painted steel rims and aluminum rims polished to a high gloss can be cleaned quite well with a conventional detergent from the kitchen. However: If brake dust or tar spatters stick to the rims, the detergent has reached the limit of its cleaning power. Even with such products with plenty of surfactants, the cleaning effect on really stubborn dirt is minimal or not noticeable.
Clean rims with baking soda and vinegar
The recipe is simple: sprinkle baking soda generously on the car rim to be cleaned, cover it with paper handkerchiefs and then pour vinegar over the rims. It is also said that the paper towels should be removed after an exposure time of only 20 minutes. After that, it is sufficient to rub the rims with a soft cloth and then rinse them thoroughly with clear water.
If the procedure sounds familiar to you, it’s no wonder: it works with the grill grate from the garden and the rusty pan from the gas stove – but not with tar spatters or brake dust on car rims. In addition, aluminum rims in particular do not like highly acidic agents. Discoloration can occur and the aluminum can bloom, i.e. form an ugly white film.
The rim check during cleaning
Usually, drivers rarely look at their rims up close. If the rims are cleaned, this is different. It is therefore advisable to take a closer look at the entire rim. With such a Rims should be checked for small holes caused by acid corrosion or rust, for scratches, cracks and deformations.
Most drivers are unaware of the forces on a wheel, especially when cornering. A normal wheel on a car with an 18-inch rim rotates around 1,200 times a minute at 100 km/h, or around 18 times a second. If the rim is damaged, its stable integrity is compromised. Then the rim can no longer absorb the forces for which it was designed. In the worst cases, the rim breaks, the tire is thrown off the rim, the rim positions itself at right angles to the direction of travel, or the rim causes the car to jump. Normal braking performance is almost always reduced when the rim is damaged. In addition, the vehicle can no longer stay on track, is difficult to steer and cornering can become an adventure.
Ban on repairing rims
Cracks mostly occur on steel rims. An aluminum rim usually breaks because this material is stable but quite brittle. If the crack runs through the entire thickness of the material, the rim can be replaced without any ifs or buts. With aluminum rims, a scratch is enough if it is more than 1 mm deep. Or if it is less than 50mm from the edge of the rim. In these cases, repairs using the gentle and commonly used WheelDoctor method are prohibited. Of course, this prohibition also applies if an aluminum rim has to be welded. In principle, the Road Traffic Licensing Regulations (StVZO) prohibit all measures on the rims that have a lasting effect on the original material structure.
Conclusion
The care and intensive cleaning of the rims is not just a question of aesthetics, but touches on serious reasons for driving safety. Vehicle owners should follow the basic rules to properly clean rims. Otherwise, even an improperly selected or used means can lead to a significant impairment of road safety.
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