Wheel Cleaner

by: Hib Halverson

Description: All wheel cleaners work to some extent but, in my opinion, some work better at putting money in the maker’s bank account rather than they are at cleaning wheels. There just seems to be few "wheel cleaning" products sold to consumers which are both easy to use and clean wheels well. While some of that may be greedy manufacturers making weak products, part of it is, also, that really good wheel cleaners are not cheap and some folks, confronted with a shelf full of less expensive products with eye-catching labels, are hesitant to pay a fair price for a good wheel cleaner. During my years in the Corvette hobby, there have been few wheel cleaning products I’ve used which really worked well. Lately, the wheel cleaner I like is a new product by Corvette car care specialist, C-MAGIC. I've been testing its Wheel Cleaner for about nine months. One thing I like about C-MAGIC products–well, besides that the company is owned by Corvetters–is, while it markets its products, it doesn’t BS the car hobby about them. Too many wheel cleaning products claim you can just spray it on, rinse it off and your wheels look like new. Well, that never happens–unless the wheel is nearly clean in the first place. C-MAGIC says right up front, the product should be sprayed on, then agitated gently with a soft brush, allowed to sit a few minutes and finally, washed off. In most cases, that procedure does a good job of cleaning the wheel. The first time I tried the product was on my ‘04 Z06 which has clear-coated, polished aluminum wheels which show dirt easily. The ‘04 has stock brake pads which dust quite a bit. After a good run on some curvy roads during a weekend trip with my Club, those wheels were pretty dirty and ended up a great test for this product. I sprayed on C-MAGIC Wheel Cleaner. The product is somewhat concentrated, so you apply it sparingly. I lightly brushed the spots with heavy dust, waited a couple of minutes then turned the hose on them. After drying them with a microfiber towel–viola–clean, shiny wheels. I needed a tougher test, so I turned this Wheel Cleaner loose on the aluminum wheels on my daily driver, a 2001 Camaro. The wheels on this car are cast aluminum and painted with clear coat over an argent base coat. They have smooth and curved surfaces, so they really show dust and grime. The car sits outside, is driven in all kinds of weather and (shame on me) doesn’t get washed often enough so its wheels were way dirty. C-MAGIC’s product did a pretty darn good job cleaning the Camaro's grungy wheels. After applying it, I needed to agitate the cleaner in a few places. C-MAGIC's instructions say it's preferable to use a soft brush or a "bug removal pad” rather than a stiff brush. The instructions caution that any kind of abrasive pad must not be used with this wheel cleaner. I let the C-MAGIC Wheel Cleaner sit on the Camaro's wheels for four minutes, then hosed it off. After drying, other than some places on one wheel where the clear coat was dulled by some unknown aggressive liquid (perhaps brake fluid or MEK), the wheels looked much better. One characteristic of this product that I like is its gel-like consistency. This allows it to “stick” a bit after it’s sprayed on and not quickly drain away from vertical or downward-facing surfaces. Additionally, it has a slight yellow-green color and that helps see where the product has been applied and where it needs to be applied. This characteristic is part of why the stuff is so convenient to use. Turns out, this product is good at cleaning more than just wheels. I took my wheels off and used C-MAGIC Wheel Cleaner to wash the Camaro's red brake calipers. It also makes a pretty good suspension and chassis cleaner. That said, if your car has a lot of caked on mud and grease underneath, you need steam cleaning or a pressure blaster, but if you have a light coating of road grime, this wheel cleaner used once a month or so, will keep the chassis and suspension reasonably clean. Race teams use this product because it doesn't damage wheels, tires, paint, stickers or wraps and it's easy to use. Crew chiefs like it because one product can be used for several different cleaning jobs and, since it's concentrated, it's a good value compared having to purchase several different types of cleaning products which are not concentrated. I've been using this Wheel Cleaner for about nine months on wheels, chassis and suspension parts and the plastic inner fenders which are common on Corvettes since the C4 era. Compared with other wheel cleaning products I've tried, C-MAGIC Wheel Cleaner rates very high. It's convenient to use. It works quite well and, considering the product's great performance, it's a good value. For more information contact C-MAGIC at contactus@cmagicwax.com or by calling 866-760-CWAX.