1997 Q45 Wheels

[180maniac]

Hey, I was washing my dad's Q45 the other day and when i got around to cleaning the wheels(and they are horrible to clean), well i got done with 3 and they were all looking good. But then when i got to the 4th one it was all rusted in the seperate spokes. Now i know they are like 6 years old, but the thing that makes me mad is only one of them is rusted. Does anyone have any idea how i could clean them off, so that it isn't really noticable, or if anyone has any special tricks to clean those wheels. Oh yeah if you didn't know what they looked like then here you go. Man i hate cleaning these things.

[180maniac]

sry pic didn't work but you can go to http://www.edmunds.com and look at the 98 Q45 and the wheels on it. Any suggestions on how to clean and trying to remedy the current rust problem would be appreciated.Thanks

[maxnix]

Aluminum wheels don't rust. I would check the hub, drum and rotor. Did you use an acid based wheel cleaner and leave it on too long? Perhaps it dripped form the brake/hub assembly onto the wheel while you were doing the other three wheels.

I assume they are the 20 slot wheels? Easy to clean.

[AZhitman]

Aluminum will corrode but not rust. However, the brake dust is VERY damaging to those rims, partially due to their design. My 20-spokes are chromed, but they have some pretty decent pitting inside the machined "slots" as well.

PepBoys has an alloywheel bristle brush that fits into the spoke holes for washing.

[180maniac]

Ok thanks guys, it just looks like rust and it wouldn't come off. I will go and get one of those brushes and see if that works. Thanks for the help