Cleaning your alloys can really improve the look of your car. Whether you're gearing up to sell it or just want it to look good, here are nine alloy wheel cleaners tested and rated...
Filthy alloy wheels, along with smeared glass or body panels covered in bird muck, make your car appear shabby. And, somehow, the more impressive the wheels are, the worse they look when uncared for.
The trouble is that the most stunning, usually intricate, wheel designs are also often the most horrendously fiddly to revive. Some reveal so much of the entire width of the rim that it’s impossible to get implements in to agitate away stubborn dirt – unless you remove the wheel completely and work from its inner face.
A good alloy wheel cleaner, therefore, should dissolve tough dirt without agitation, and allow it to simply flow away when water is introduced. In other words, it should be effective on the areas you can’t reach easily.
Here, we reveal the best alloy wheel cleaners available today, while also outlining which one you should avoid.
1. Bilt Hamber Auto-wheel – BEST BUY
Contact: 01277 658899Web: www.bilthamber.com
Volume: 1 litre
Since 2007, Essex-based Bilt Hamber has quietly established itself as a car care tour de force, formulating home-grown – and frequently class-leading – products that are often tremendous value for money too. Auto-wheel is a case in point. Three cleaners in this group test pip the rest, and Auto-wheel is the best all-rounder of the lot. The safe, pH-neutral brew is a doddle to use: spray it on, wait until it turns red, then rinse off and dry. Its brake-dust-removing power has to be seen to be believed, and agitation simply wasn’t required on our test wheels.
What Car? rating Five stars out of five
How we tested them
To find the best alloy wheel cleaners on sale, we tested nine off-the-shelf products which ranged in price from just £5 to a whopping £16.50. They clean wheels using a range of methods – some are more traditional acidic cleaners, for example, while others rely on the caustic cleaning of alkaline chemicals.
2. Farecla G3 Pro Wheel Cleaner – RECOMMENDED
Contact: 01920 465041Web: www.G3Pro.comOverall score: 4/5
Volume: 500ml
A bottle of G3 may be cheaper than our winner below, but you only get half as much – making it one of the priciest brews here when volume is taken into consideration. If our winner didn’t exist, you’d probably feel G3 was money very well spent. Its pH-neutral formula is as safe as a wheel cleaner can possibly be (it’s usable on almost all wheels, and even adjacent paintwork is fair game), and cleaning power is awesome and effortless.
What Car? rating Four stars out of five
3. CarPlan Demon Wheel – BEST BUDGET BUY
Contact: 0161 764 5981Web: www.carplan.co.uk
Volume: 1 litre
The fiver-for-a-litre price makes this the cheapest cleaner here, but it’s not an old-fashioned acidic brew. Much like Halfords’ Alloy Wheel Cleaner, it uses alkaline action to unseat baked-on debris. In fact, the two products are very similar to use, but we prefer the Halfords formulation. Dirt that the Halfords cleaner melts away required minor agitation with Demon Wheels. Perhaps the biggest usability issue is that this formulation felt a bit too dry. Adding water brings it to life, so if you factor that in, rather than using water purely for rinsing, the cleaning process becomes easier.
What Car? rating Four stars out of five
Other alloy wheel cleaners to consider…
4. Chipex Seeing Red Wheel Cleaner
Price: £14.95Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk or www.chipex.co.ukContact: 01295 258308Web: www.chipex.co.uk
Volume: 750ml
A Chipex product performed well in our recent best upholstery cleaners test so we expected great things from this too – and we weren’t disappointed. In fact, our only minor reservation came immediately after spraying the stuff on. While G3 and Bilt Hamber disguise their formulations’ whiffs under a half pleasant fruity aroma, this brew just pongs – think rotten eggs or an old school catalytic converter. That matter aside, everything else is good: the formulation simply melts away the grime.
What Car? rating Four stars out of five
5. Halfords Alloy Wheel Cleaner
Contact: 0161 764 5981Web: www.halfords.com
Volume: 500ml
While lacking the debris-shifting power of our top cleaners, this really isn’t far behind. By that we mean that in a few awkward corners of the wheel a tiny bit of agitation was required, and repeat applications may well be necessary on really neglected wheels. The formulation is alkaline, which is safe for use on all wheel types but not quite as surface friendly as the pH-neutral brews. Having said that, alkaline formulas are more pleasant to use than traditional acid formulations, and they’re kinder to a wheel’s underlying metal when it’s exposed through nicks and scabs.
What Car? rating Three stars out of five
6. Autoglym Clean Wheels
Contact: 01462 677766Web: www.autoglym.com
Volume: 1 litre
Surely, these days, acid wheel cleaners are the preserve of cheaper products from budget brands – yet here we have an acid formulation from one of the leading names in car care. Surprised? Well, don’t be. Clean Wheels is an amazingly good cleaner. The acid mix needs more careful handling than alkaline and pH-neutral cleaners, and use is restricted to lacquered alloys, painted wheels and plastic finishes only. Fortunately, Autoglym does countless newer brews for other surfaces.
What Car? rating Three stars out of five
7. Simoniz Alloy Wheel Cleaner
Contact: 0161 866 4800Web: www.holtsauto.com/simoniz
Volume: 500ml
This is a good example of why acidic wheel cleaners aren’t quite dead in the water just yet. While ultimately this is no more effective a cleaner than others we’ve tested here, there’s an immediacy to its action that newer technologies can’t replicate. It’s completely understandable that anyone used to fast-acting mixes like this would want to stick with them, but the odds are stacked against them. The main issue is compatibility (wheels must be lacquered or painted) and this harsher older technology is not cheap.
What Car? rating Three stars out of five
8. Mirror Bright Wheel Cleaner
Contact: 0870 241 6696Web: www.meguiars.com
Volume: 650ml
Here’s a cleaner that’s hard to classify. It doesn’t claim to be pH neutral, but behaves just like it is – even down to turning red a couple of minutes after application, indicating that it’s time to rinse. Cleaning wise, you’re unlikely to be disappointed, unless you’ve previously used the Bilt Hamber, Chipex or G3 cleaners – which just have the edge. Considering the bottle’s 650ml capacity, the price is hard to justify, and while the cleaner is rated safe for all wheels, no mention is made of use on paintwork
What Car? rating Three stars out of five
And the alloy wheel cleaner to avoid…
9. Normfest Rimol Gold
Price: £16.49Buy from: www.amazon.co.uk or www.eurocarparts.comContact: 0203 788 7842Web: www.normfest.de/en/
Volume: 500ml
This product, from premium German automotive chemicals brand Normfest, is the dearest here. Yet, in use, the product it most resembles is Car Plan’s Demon Wheels – the cheapest cleaner we’ve tried. This formulation really starts to bite when wetted. As with Demon Wheels, if you use water as part of the clean – rather than just for rinsing – you’ll get better results. Ultimately, though, with its top drawer price tag, Rimol Gold should trounce the opposition. And, very simply, it doesn’t.
What Car? rating Two stars out of five
The products or services referenced in this story have been reviewed independently by our experts. When you buy using the links on our site, we may earn a commission, but this will never influence our opinion or ratings.
Keyword: Best alloy wheel cleaners 2023