tar/brake pad adhesive on wheels

[Benjamin Kwan]

Brett,
	I've used oil eater on my 92 100CSq and my sisters 90S with great
success.  Every winter when the summer tires come off they get a thorough
cleaning with Oil Eater from places like Costco.  It works great on the
inside of the wheel where most of the dirt is.  I looked at the oil eater
website and they do not recommend letting oil eater sit on aluminum for
long amounts of time.  I haven't seen any side effects from using the
product.

Ben Kwan

85 4000S
92 100CSq
94 90S
01 A4 1.8Tq

On Wed, 23 Jan 2002, Brett Dikeman wrote:

> Guys, I got a problem.
>
> I accidentally only rewaxed the passenger side ronals a month or two
> ago, and despite regular cleanings, the left wheels are now covered
> in little black+brown specs.  Wonderful.
>
> I have tried:
>
> -several washings with P21S wheel cleaner(not the gel), including
> scrubing etc and letting it sit for 10+ minutes while keeping it wet
> etc.
> -same with P21S total auto wash(strong degreaser/cleaner that's paint safe)
> -Stoner tarminator, several tries/letting it soak
> -3M Adhesive, Bug and Tar remover(same)
> -Simple Green
> -Mother's prewax cleaner
> -Pinnacle Paintwork cleaner
>
> Some of the spots come off with fingernail rubbing for several
> seconds until I 'catch' the little dot with my nail and it flicks off
> at least partially, then the 3M stuff seems to get the rest with a
> LOT of rubbing.  I've -never- had brake dust/tar this stubborn...
>
> I've made -very- little progress(not much is coming off) and I need
> to get the wheels all waxed up so I can actually use the car etc.
>
> Any suggestions?  Anything that maybe can be left on the spots for a
> long time to soften them?  I tried using the prewax cleaner to get a
> fresh surface for the 3m/stoner stuff to get in and soften it as I
> have read this works, but no luck.  At this point, the only thing I
> can think of now is wd40 or Liquid Wrench, but I'm worried it would
> seriously damage the otherwise nice finish on the wheels.
>
> Help!
>
> Brett
> --
> ----
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>