I need to clean my rough cast wheels on the miata and I think this would be the perfect approach. The brake dust from my racing pads is on there pretty good and does not want to come off.

I have a set of (nice) wheels that have such bad brake dust build-up that I have been scraping away at it with a small screwdriver. I can't even count the time that I've spent on the two wheels that have the problem. Probably 60 hours on the first wheel and 40 on the second with a lot more work to do.

Scott

It's pretty new, only about two-three weeks old. But the cobalt pads are pretty caustic and it's a pain. Maybe with a wire brush, but I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

There is a purple one with acid (real acid)in it and an orange one that is amazing.

I used a mixture of the two on an intake manifold with the baked on goop and it took everything off in a couple hours with only gentle agitation using a throw away paint brush. I suspect it etched the alu too. Think that was the purple stuff's acid.

The Orange stuff will clean wheels like crazy, but may be too strong? YOu get to decide how dilute to make it.

Damn... I guess it's the wire brush and patience then?? Fortunately these are not the nice wheels, but I do use them on the streets. The track wheels are nice and clean, I will put a coat or two of wax onto those to keep them that way though.

Any other suggestions?

They might eat your paint, and the one's I use need rubbing to really clean up a mess, but they are pretty effective on brake dust build up.

Comes with lots of cautions. The orange stuff claims to remove grease oil and soils from concrete, metal other hard non porous surfaces...

The purple stuff- sorry no package to quote from- says similar things but includes additional text with more cautions appropriate for acid.

As for suggestions...I have none. I think I've tried everything there is to try and nothing has worked. I've resorted to scraping it off with a tiny screw driver. A wire brush would certainly work, but I don't want to hurt the finish of the wheels.

I do plan on trying the stuff that patience is posting about.

nothing gets it. The wheels are rough cast, which makes it worse. On my smooth Audi wheels the mothers is the best. Plus it acts like wax and makes future cleanup easier.

the same as what you get from ZEP. It is a lesser product with ZEP's name on it. I will look later tonight, but they do make a heavy duty degreaser that I used for my IM that worked very well.

Of course, I probably have wimpy brake dust.

He-he... So what ever are you going to do with your Wednesday nights now???

Got one more race tonight- King of the Hill. Then, perhaps more coaching of the womans team. Was match racing with them last night.

Tons of fun, but it is getting dark earlier each night and soon the wind will be gone too. Sigh.

I have three on my calendar right now. Both upcoming weekends and one in October I think.