Cleaning A4 2.8 Wheels

[Tom Lazay <tlazay@ultranet.com>]

I did some very unexciting mainenance on my 97 A4Q recently. This past
weekend, I decided to remove all four wheels scrub all the dirt and brake
dust off the rims, inside and out. It took a lot of elbow grease to get
that black stuff off. Then I put a coat of "New Finish" on them in hopes
that dirt would easily spray off in the future. I'm trying to prevent
pitting from occuring in the long run. 

Anyway, I noticed that when I removed the wheels there a significant amount
of corrosion where the wheel makes contact with the hub. In fact, one wheel
was stuck to the hub from the rust. This seems a bit weird since the car is
only 3.5 months old. I used metal polish to remove the rust from both the
hubs and the wheels. Then I used a small amount of chassis grease on both
surfaces to protect them.

I would recommend that other A4Q users check their wheels and hubs for
corrosion. I guess some salt got in there from the roads. Please respond if
you have noticed the same thing.

-Tom  '97 A4Q