wheel cleaning - Rubbermaid "dish mop" and BMW wheel cleaner a p

["Aaron Bohnen" <bohnen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi everyone,

I just washed the car today and cleaned the wheels with a good combination 
of products. It was pretty successful in fact and I figured I'd share it. 
(No, I'm not bored at home at 11:30 at night with nothing else to do except 
reflect on cleaning the wheels of the car...)

Well, anyway - I use the Pagid brake pads which work well but they sure are 
dusty - and it's that horrible black sticky dust. Can be tough to keep the 
wheels clean - I wanted a quick way to get them clean since I seem to be 
doing it every three or four days.

The BMW wheel cleaner (part # 97-00-9-100-204) currently $CDN 5.50 for a 
500 mL spray bottle at your friendly neighbourhood dealer works like a hot 
damn. They claim it's biodegradeable on the bottle but there is also an 
octagonal poison warning as well, so don't get excited about drinking it. 
It is reasonably thick greenish blue fluid and sprays easily. DO NOT 
INHALE! This stuff may be biodegradeable but it will give you a pretty good 
defensive breathing reaction if you sniff it while spraying. That means 
your body is giving you fair warning and so am I. DO NOT INHALE. Best is to 
hold your breath, spray the wheel in question, exhale while walking on to 
the next wheel, inhale, spray, repeat all the way around the car. Takes 
about a minute.

Wait a minute - if it's so nasty to breathe won't it wreck my wheels? Well, 
your favorite and mine car company says it's recommended for all wheels - 
alloy, steel, painted, plastic sculptures (sic), etc. It didn't seem to 
have any deleterious effect on my painted TRX alloys. And of course if it 
does mischief to your wheels you can take it back and insist on new wheels 
:> since it's the recommended BMW part and you have a warranty on it.

I found that the BMW wheel brush kit is a little pricey at $CDN 49.50 (!) 
right now, but the "Rubbermaid Dish Mop" is a perfect soft wheel cleaning 
tool and comes right in under budget at $CDN 1.49. Much better. This 
product is much like a string mop you would use for the floor in your 
kitchen, but is plush all the way around and about 3" in diameter. Cleans 
the ins and outs of my E28 TRX wheels like a champ and never even threatens 
to scratch anything. At this price I bought two - other BMW wheels with 
smaller wheel slots might need to have a few strings removed from the mop 
to fit.

Anyway, back to the car - after the spraying take a few swipes around the 
rims with the Rubbermaid dish mop, a plunge into each of the slots in the 
wheel and spray off with the hose. Elapsed time 30 seconds, if that.

Repeat all around the car. Total elapsed time 4 or so minutes. And the 
result is great.

Anyhow, just thought I'd share that :>

best regards,

Aaron

p.s. - many thanks to all those with suggestions for getting the 5-spd logo 
for the shift knob. A kind soul is sending me a surplus used one.
___________________________________________________________
Aaron Bohnen                     email: bohnen@domain.elided
- -Ph.D. Candidate, Civil Engineering Department, U.B.C.
- -Technicraft Engineering Services

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