Concern about alloy wheel cleaner

[McG_XB]

I've been using that alloy wheel cleaner in a spray bottle that that takes the grunt work out of cleaning the wheels. I think that most of these wheel cleaners are an acid base and my concern is whether or not this stuff will cause premature deterioration of the brake lines and/or CV boots, or any other rubber stuff that the cleaner may come in contact with.

[kagero79]

Well, most of CV & brake lines are pretty tough to withstand beatings, so I wouldn't worry too much about damaging your rubber or plastic materials, as long as you hose them down with lots of water as soon as you spray those products. I use Meguiar's all wheel cleaner, it says it's safe for all kinds of wheels and you're supposed to hose it down 15 seconds after you spray their product. I'd be more careful with rims rubbing on any hoses in the wells though. Try using like Simple Green, they're great on stains & grease for serious cleaning and their also environment friendly.(so they say)

[rjsalvi]

I'll concur with Kagero79 -- Simple Green works well as a cleaner and I've not found it to be damaging to any metal. I use it mainly to keep the painted areas in the fenderwells clean, but I suspect it would as well be a good choice for wheels. Since I use it on painted surfaces, I would also venture to guess that it's safe to use on painted/clear-coated wheels. As always, YMMV.

[scionracerxb]

i like to use the "orange clean" degreaser...just a couple shots of that and the dirt will run off. I used to use that new castrol purple degreaser on my last set of rims, but it was too powerful and ate the clearcoat off in about 6 months!...never worried bout the cv boots or rubber tho