cleaning tires

what do you guys use to clean tires? these are the hardest things for me to get totally clean. I usually have to do 2 or 3 rounds of meg's apc scrub downs and even then sometimes they arent totally clean.

if you guys could share what products you like to use and/or any tips, that would be great.

 

I've found Power Clean to work pretty well for me. Only downside is the cost of it.

 

Zep citrus 1:1 worked great for me today, at its cheap at 10 bucks a gallon.

 

Meguiar's APC is a great product, but for whatever reason, it isn't the greatest product at cleaning tires.

Better to turn to Meg's Super Degreaser for a job like tires.

Personally, I usually use whatever wheel cleaner I am using and a medium-stiffness brush.

Sometimes if I know the tire is dirty, I will spray the wheel cleaner on the tires, let it dwell for a minute or two, rinse off, then start again but using a brush the second time around. It helps even more if the brush is dwelling in a bucket of car wash soap.


-Almost forgot, don't confuse a tire's bulit-in wax protection with dirt. When I am applying tire shine to my father's car, no matter how clean I get the tires, once I am done, my applicator is completely black by then.

 

Zep Citrus or if they're really nasty, Zep purple at 4;1. scrub with a good brush too.

 

grime reaper at 3:1

 

+1 for Zep Citrus

 

I use Zep Citrus or P21S Total Auto Wash,
either one I let sit for a bit and scrub in with a stiff brush.

 

I use Autoglym Custom Wheel Cleaner! It's fantastic on tires AND wheels.

 

Megs Super Degreaser @ 4:1. I saw Clark using it, and gave it a try and been using it ever since...does it's job well, and pretty cost effective too.

 

+1. AG CWC will pull more dirt out of your tires than anything else.

 

I can attest to that. I had "new" tires that were dirty from being stored unwashed, and CWC cleaned them up good!

 

+3 on AG CWC. Ken is right, nothing pulls out more grime than this stuff.

 

i have a question about AG CWC. the description of the product states that it dissolves brake dust, so does this stuff work similar to sonax full effect in that it actually dissolves the brake dust and makes it easy to rinse away, or is it more like p21s in the way that it cleans?

 

i also use zep citrus for tires, since it is cheap like said but works well. But for dirty tires or if im in a hurry i use detail king tire and whitewall cleaner, this product releases so much gunk from the tires its unreal. plus it has a darking agent witch leaves the wheels nice and not browing.

 

i need to try the zep citrus and see how that works on tires. Right now i am using westley's bleach white and that stuff really works but if i can use a citrus cleaner which will be a little more bang for the buck and be safer i'll go with that . . . . .

so far though the cleaning power of bleach white has been un-touchable.

 

Dont use Sonax Full Effect on your tires dude lol. Not sure if tires can be damaged from chemicals but just not worth using a product of that value on tires.

I use Megs APC 4:1 and scrub them with my wheel well brush. Once the gallon is done I'm going to Power Clean or something.