Back in October I wanted to clean my summer wheels (OEM 18 inch, standard colour), but I only started cleaning one and left it sitting until now. I cleaned the inside of the wheel with the OEM BMW shampoo (the one without without wax) as I wanted to shift the loose grit first, and save my wheel cleaner for the stubborn dirt.

Now, like 6 months later, I countinued cleaning the wheel and noticed that lots of shampoo foam has dried op on the face of the wheel and left ugly stubborn white traces all over it! I've tried with wheel cleaner and I cannot remove them!

The shampoo was mixed with water back then, but in a rather generous ratio

What can I do to remove this sh*t from my wheel??

 

Try heating up the stain using plenty of steaming hot water then use a soft brush to agitate the area.

Good luck.

 

Thanks! will give it a go..

 

That's a great advice on top . You could also try an aggressive clay.

 

Thanks Antti, with aggressive clay you mean applying the clay aggressively, not a specific type of clay?

I also happen to have some acid wheel cleaner here, normally I would not use it, but I played with the thought to apply small quantities of it just to shift the white spots - you think it will help/harm?

 

Actually I do mean a specific type of clay. There are different clays on market, and I've noticed Zaino's clay is quite aggressive.
That acid wheel cleaner might do the job too though...

 

I'm still having trouble with this.

I tried a steam cleaner and it affected the white spots, but just spread the stuff around a bit - for some reason the chemical residuals cannot be really removed from the surface...?

I tried the acid cleaner (its a strange product, don't know how strong it is at all) and no effect.

I think I am able to clean the spots with wheel cleaner and a toothpick stick, but this will probably take 3-5 days for the whole wheel!

Next on the list is an abrasive paste for car paint cleaning. The wheel is not in a perfect condition and I'll be careful so not too worried about damaging it, I just hope it will work out. Fingers crossed.

 

Can you trouble to put some pix of what the stains look like on your wheels? I think there might be a problem with the OEM stuff. The white is just impossible to remove!

 

The suggestion I gave earlier was to be as easy/painless as possible, looks like that isn't going to work. When I had my car's paint corrected last year, the detailer used 1000 grit sand paper to remove some very nasty hard water spots. Worked like a charm.

 

I'll probably put on pics the coming weekend, the spots are horribly visible in sunlight. I'll also know if the abrasive paste worked by that time.