Cleaning wheels and tires Questions
 

When I clean my car (about once every week or so) I clean my tires and rims as well.

Here is how I do it:

1) Spray the tire and rims down with water from the hose
2) take a sponge and clean the rims
3) Spray the tires with "Tire Wet"
4) Take a cloth and dry the rims

My questions are as followed

1) Is there a better way to clean the tire and rims and should I be cleaning around the tires (like inside or on the sides - the body of the car)
2) By spraying the rims with water and allowing water to get on the metal mechanical stuff behind the tire, is that going to hurt those mechanical features?

A few things:

First...the water will not hurt anything as long as you don't spray the water on hot rotors. The rotors might rust a bit if the car isn't driven for a while after the washing.

The way you clean your rims is just fine. If you haven't already waxed them, do it. It will make future cleaning much easier.

For really stubborn brake dust, you can use a dedicated wheel cleaner. Below are a couple pics of an I30's front wheel I detailed yesterday...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...heelBefore.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v6...WheelAfter.jpg

I always wash out my wheelwells on every wash, but that's just me. I also take my wheels off twice a year to clean the backsides and re-seal them. You can see that the I30's wheelwells look much better when clean.