OEM Wheel Polishing and cleaning

[JLLG]

I have just shy of 9000 miles on my wheels and have regularly cleaned them. I occasionally used a wheel cleaner with the iron decon agent (the stuff that turns purple). Rims have seen no salt (no winter driving). The photos show a good close ups with an LED light magnifying all the pitting or whatever is going on with the clear coat. They don't look bad from a distance and a sealant or wax would probably "hide" a lot of this. I am really disappointed in how these are not holding up. The brake caliper paint seems literately perfect compared to this. Much of this could be polished out but I am looking to see if anyone has done this with any level of success and with what tools. I had intentions to ceramic coat right after purchase (didn't happen of course) but figured after this amount of mileage and regular cleaning, didn't think things would get this bad. At some point I would love to get an 18" setup but don't want to drop that money quite yet.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

The only way to fix that is to have them repainted or powder coated.

the calipers look good because they’re powder coated.

 

[jayy_swish]

Should try running it through the warranty

 

[FifStreet]

Do you drive though gravel regularly? My stock wheels have 10k miles on them and don't look anywhere near that bad.

 

[JLLG]

Do you drive though gravel regularly? My stock wheels have 10k miles on them and don't look anywhere near that bad.

Never. My miles are mostly highway miles too.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

My stock wheels have about 3k on them and they look about a 1/3 as bad as that.

 

[Coldpizza]

That pitting looks pretty serious. Also recommend seeing if they can be replaced under warranty, it’d be worth a shot.

Any concern that your wheel cleaner might be contributing to that damage?

 

[R-10552]

Wow, they are really beat up. Looks to be a concentration of rock chips. Could be from highway use....but still. The paint on these cars sucks, so I'm sure that extends to the wheels.

 

[FifStreet]

I have 2 sets of stock wheels and I noticed that one set seems to have thinner paint, especially on the inside of the wheel. Could be that the paint is not consistent from the manufacturer?

 

[JLLG]

That pitting looks pretty serious. Also recommend seeing if they can be replaced under warranty, it’d be worth a shot.

Any concern that your wheel cleaner might be contributing to that damage?

I have thought about the wheel cleaners (Eagle One and Meguiars mostly) but I don't they are a factor. Through out the same time period, I use the same cleaners on my other 2 cars and there is no issues like this at all.

Another quick note, the photos I took show the worse possible case, up close and with a bright LED light. I will take another photo at a distance in normal sunlight. I would venture to guess that many of our wheels look like this.

I really think its the brake dust melting into the clear coat if that is possible. The inner radius right behind the spokes exhibits a roughness that gets marginally better as you go farther toward the inside rim.

I am going to try some clay and maybe hand polish to see what happens.

 

[samji]

I have thought about the wheel cleaners (Eagle One and Meguiars mostly) but I don't they are a factor. Through out the same time period, I use the same cleaners on my other 2 cars and there is no issues like this at all.

Another quick note, the photos I took show the worse possible case, up close and with a bright LED light. I will take another photo at a distance in normal sunlight. I would venture to guess that many of our wheels look like this.

I really think its the brake dust melting into the clear coat if that is possible. The inner radius right behind the spokes exhibits a roughness that gets marginally better as you go farther toward the inside rim.

I am going to try some clay and maybe hand polish to see what happens.

I think your issue is with the wheel cleaner still. The FK8 OEM wheels has a clear coat on it. Usually factory polished wheels should be fine with most wheel cleaners but the ones that are higher in pH tend to mess up wheels with clear on it pretty bad, especially if you're using a pretty rough brush or tool to agitate it. I would steer away from using this type of cleaner on any wheels that has a clear coat on it. And because of this, I wouldn't use any sort of degreaser or all purpose cleaner to clean clear coated wheels.

So its probably a combination of these things

- Has factory clear coat on it unlike other OEM wheels
- Road debris and etched brake dust
- Non pH neutral wheel cleaner
- Rough agitation with an aggressive brush or tool
- No protection layer (ceramic or some sort of sealant)

It could also very well be a crappy factory paint job too, which is worth considering.

Regarding your choice in products, if you're using eagle one, they have multiple cleaners with ammonium thioglycolate or sodium thioglycolate which is the active ingredient that accelerates iron fallout oxidation (when you start to see the surface of the treated panel turn red). I would suggest using the one for plastic trims as that one is pH balanced and can be used on paint surfaces as well.

 

[Patrick Bateman]

It’s not the wheel cleaner lol. It’s the shitty paint.

I have the same pitting on mine and I’ve never used a wheel cleaner in my life.

 

[ayau]

I would say it’s the OEM pad material. They’re slightly more aggressive than your standard passenger car. I doubt the Type R wheel finish is any different than any other wheel.

You can try less aggressive aftermarket pads and see if that helps. You may lose a bit of braking performance though.

 

[JLLG]

I think your issue is with the wheel cleaner still. The FK8 OEM wheels has a clear coat on it. Usually factory polished wheels should be fine with most wheel cleaners but the ones that are higher in pH tend to mess up wheels with clear on it pretty bad, especially if you're using a pretty rough brush or tool to agitate it. I would steer away from using this type of cleaner on any wheels that has a clear coat on it. And because of this, I wouldn't use any sort of degreaser or all purpose cleaner to clean clear coated wheels.

So its probably a combination of these things

- Has factory clear coat on it unlike other OEM wheels
- Road debris and etched brake dust
- Non pH neutral wheel cleaner
- Rough agitation with an aggressive brush or tool
- No protection layer (ceramic or some sort of sealant)

It could also very well be a crappy factory paint job too, which is worth considering.

Regarding your choice in products, if you're using eagle one, they have multiple cleaners with ammonium thioglycolate or sodium thioglycolate which is the active ingredient that accelerates iron fallout oxidation (when you start to see the surface of the treated panel turn red). I would suggest using the one for plastic trims as that one is pH balanced and can be used on paint surfaces as well.

Great feedback and thank you to all for the responses!

-I think both my Honda Odyssey and my GTI has clear coats. GTI I have the detroit street wheels, black and machined face. I have one wheel that is original, 105k and 2013, looks better than these Honda wheels.
-I really feel its the etched brake dust for sure. Just never seen this bad, even with a previous Mercedes with similar major dusting.
-I have mostly used the Eagle one for black and plasticoat (ph neurtral) and the mequiars ultimate, I think also ph neutral. I probably used an APC lightly a couple times, but it would have never dried on it or anything.
-I use boars hair brushes and a microfiber wand (wooly worm it) for the barrels. I am pretty confident these tools don't scratch.
-I never really protected the paint, just tried to keep it clean, typically never more than 2 weeks between wheel cleanings.

I am probably going to attempt some kind of warranty claim. Any advise on doing this?

I cleaned, clayed, and paint sealed a rear wheel. Much less pitting but its there. They turned out okay.

 

[Harlaquin]

I had my wheels ceramic coated the first week. And I only use top tier ph neutral cleaners and even then only about every third wash or so and mine pitted just like yours. At times there were even chunks of break pad burnt into the paint I had to pop off. I believe its the pads doing it. As for warranty LOL yeah I probably wouldn't bother. I had paint literally just peal off my calipers and they tried every excuse in the book to blame it on me. 3 dealers flat out told me to basically fuck off. I finally found an out of town dealer who switched them out but it was a massive ordeal. I can bet they will blame wheel cleaner or your cleaning of the rims as the problem and deny the claim. MY rims even had primer showing in spots and you could tell they were not fully painted and when I asked they said yeah we wont cover that. I like the cars but Honda is very quick with a no to anything warranty and to blame you. They even tried to say because I had an aftermarket exhaust is why my caliper paint was pealing ???? I was like in what world does that even make sense?

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