When you wash your car, you may find yourself focusing on the large, obvious areas such as body panels that gleam like new once you've stripped away the surface grime. However, other parts of your vehicle require the same care in the form of regular, proper cleaning, including the wheels and tires.
Just as simple errors in judgment can make your car look worse instead of better after a cleaning, the wrong approach to wheel and tire cleaning can yield unsatisfactory or even destructive results. Keep the following four points in mind as you create your new and improved car cleaning and exterior maintenance schedule.
1. Regular Cleaning Can Extend the Life of Your Wheels and Tires
Your car's wheels and tires see a lot of action, whether you simply drive your car around town on errands or you regularly set off on extended road trips. Countless quantities of dirt, dust, road salt, and other debris fly up onto these structures, where they can eventually corrode the wheel rims and wear down the tire's rubber.
Your wheels also make regular contact with the brake components that provide your vehicle's stopping and slowing power. Over the course of many brake applications, these parts naturally lose material. Rotor shavings and brake dust break free and get into the works, accelerating tire wear while potentially pitting your wheels.
You can't prevent natural wear and tear from affecting your wheels and tires, but you can reduce the progress of these changes by cleaning your wheels and tires when you clean the rest of your vehicle. The periodic removal of dust, dirt, caustic chemicals, and other debris will expose your wheels and tires to less damage over time.
2. The Wrong Tools and Supplies Can Do More Harm Than Good
Even such a beneficial routine as regular wheel and tire cleaning can create problems for your car if you use the wrong tools and supplies for the job. Many car owners simply assume that they can use any cleaning products they have on hand, from ordinary dish soap to abrasive scrubbers and cleaning agents.
The problem with these choices lies in their ability to damage your wheels and tires while removing dirt and debris. For instance, manufacturers design tire brushes to scrub more aggressively than wheel brushes, which can clean aluminum rims without scoring or pitting them.
Make sure that your car's wheels and tires always receive professional-grade cleaning tools and supplies suitable for their particular needs and materials. A professional detailer will always perform a check to determine which products your vehicle requires.
3. Timing Makes a Big Difference in Wheel and Tire Cleaning
Although you can't really clean your wheels and tires too frequently, an overly eager approach could result in damage. For instance, if you scrub your wheels and tires before you've rinsed them off, you'll grind any dirt and debris more deeply into the materials, scratching or weakening them in the process.
Always wash the rest of your car before you wash your tires. If you follow the wrong sequence, you may end up with spotless wheels and tires that get filthy again the minute you rinse the grime and cleaning agents from the body.
Washing all four of your wheels and tires by hand at the same time can also create problems. You'll find it impossible to rinse your cleaning products away from all four without your early efforts drying in the sun. The results may include streaky-looking wheels and insufficient penetration of cleaning agents into the tires.
4. Professional Auto Detailers Can Ensure Optimal Results
Professional car wash techniques eliminate all of the challenges listed above. Professional detailers know how to use the right products and apply those products in the right sequence for good-looking results. They can also attach an entire team of technicians to the job so that all four wheels and tires are cleaned at once.
Instead of trying to juggle all the dos and don'ts of wheel and tire cleaning on your own, offload that important but tedious task to Grand Prix Car Wash. Our car wash and car detailing experts can make sure that your wheels and tires receive the professional cleaning they need for optimal results.
Contact us today.
