Cleaning Your Tires

Let’s talk about something that’s probably never crossed your mind: cleaning your tires. Honestly, most of us put our tires on our vehicle and forget about them until it’s time to change them. But, clean tires can actually make your vehicle look really nice! This is especially true for whitewall tires, which can really spruce up your ride when they’re cleaned. Even if they’re old tires, they can look almost new again if you clean them right.

But say you’ve got a VW Bug. It’s not like you’re going off-road with that, so how dirty can your tires get? The answer is filthy! Have you looked at them lately? Even driving on paved roads, you’re still outside, and dirt can get everywhere. Your tires will pick up mud when it rains and dust when it’s dry, but they’ll also pick up all kinds of oil and even brake dust from your car or other cars. The brake pad dust alone is a good reason to clean your tires, as it can be abrasive. (Keep that in mind when you wash your tires, you don’t want to go using those sponges or rags on your car!)

So maybe now you’re thinking about cleaning your tires. Well, because it’s pretty likely to be your first thought, let’s start off with what not to do...

Avoid Mechanical Cleaning

Be honest, your first thought was probably to hit the tire cleaning option the next time you’re at the car wash. This is the easiest option, and it does get your tires nice and shiny (especially if you use a sealant). Unfortunately, the fast rotating brushes might be okay for your tires, but they can wreak havoc with your rims. They can cause serious damage, especially to wheel covers, and the cleaner they use is so strong it can eat away at the clear coat that makes your rims look nice. Now this isn’t to say avoid the carwash completely! If you want to go through it to clean your vehicle, go ahead! But maybe pass on the tire cleaning options.

All right, now that we’ve covered what not to do, we can move on to what you can do. If you’re washing your car anyway, you may as well wash the tires. I mean, why not? Just make sure you use a separate bucket, water and sponges for your tires. Not only is there that abrasive brake dust we talked about earlier (don’t want to scratch up your car!) but you wouldn’t want any of the tire dirt getting on your vehicle and you wouldn’t want vehicle dirt getting on your tires (think of the bugs!) But there’s another good reason to keep your water and sponges separate: cleaners. Vehicle cleaners and tire cleaners are going to be different. Even if you just use soap and water on your car, that may not cut it for your tires, and tire cleaners will be pretty harsh on your paint job. So let’s get into some options...

Natural Cleaners

Maybe you wash your car with just soap and water because you don’t want to use all those harsh chemicals! Well you’re not alone! But if you’re finding that it’s not getting your tires clean (or that it’s taking a lot of scrubbing), you may want to try some natural cleaners. As with a lot of cleaning products, there are always companies that put out natural alternatives that work just as well as the chemical cleaners. For tires they’ll use things like eucalyptus oil to cut through the oil and grease that gets caked on there, and they’re usually nontoxic. Simple Green is a good option, and it cleans so well that some mechanics will even use it to clean grease from gears and parts instead of petroleum.

Even though it’s a natural cleaner you might want to test it on the inside facing part of your rims before you just slather it on there, just to be sure it won’t mar the finish.

How to wash tires with Simple Green:

Spray the full strength Simple Green on the tires. Blackwall, whitewall, white letters, it doesn’t matter. Spray it on there.Leave it on for about a minute. This gives it time to start working through the grease.Scrub the sidewall of the tire (not the wheel!) with a medium-stiff brush.Rinse the whole thing (tire and wheel) off with a hose and dry with a rag or a towel.

*Dry the wheel with a separate towel from the tire to make sure no extra cleaner gets on there.

The tire should be clean, black and shiny, and any whitewall or white lettering should shine. If it still looks brown or yellow or gross, just repeat the process! Off-road tires especially may require a few extra cleanings.

Specialty Cleaners

It seems like there’s a specialized cleaning product for everything, so of course there’s going to be some for tires. ArmorAll and Black Magic are probably the most well known. Unlike the natural cleaners, using these specialized tires is going to require you to be a bit more careful. Since these cleaners are designed for tires, there’s a greater chance that they’ll damage the wheel finish, whether it’s a polish, clear coat or paint.

As with the natural cleaner, you’re definitely going to want to keep the bucket, sponges, etc. separate from what you use on the car. For these cleaners you’ll want to follow the steps on the container, but here’s the general steps:

How to wash tires with specialty cleaners (generally):

Go over your tires with soap and water, then rinse.Spray or apply the cleaner to the tire only, making sure to avoid the rim.Let sit for the time recommended on the container.Scrub the sidewall not the wheel with a medium-stiff brush.Rinse everything off with a hose and dry with a rag

*Again, dry the rim with a separate rag from the tire to keep the cleaner off.

Make the Tire Shine

Now your tires are nice and clean and you want them to look it! After they dry, you can finish the job by applying a tire finishing agent, like ArmorAll or Black Shine, to make sure they stay shiny (at least for a while). These sealants can be either water or silicone based, and you’ll find different opinions on which is better so it’s really all about preference. Some of these will come with their own applicator, but if not you can just use a sponge or a rag, and you can apply multiple layers to get more shine. Again, though, you’re going to want to keep it off the wheel.

So there you have it! Nice, shiny, clean tires!