Wheel cleaning woes
 

It takes me 4 times longer to clean my wheels than the rest of the car. All those nooks and crannies are a pain in the ass. I have every brush and wooly known to mankind.

What wheels do you have?

Clean and ceramic coat your wheels -- makes all the difference in the world!

-- John

The main cause is the dust produced by the factory brake pads. I can't wait to change them the moment the pad life light illuminates.

I don't understand?

My S4 19" OEM wheels take under 10 minutes to clean & dry all 4 of them. That's 2.5 minutes per wheel using 2 buckets, a wash mitt to do 80% of the wheel, and 2 different size woolies to get the caliper and barrel sparkly clean.

How anal are you being about this? I know there is some hyperbole built into your rant but 4x longer than the rest of the car sounds like you are doing something wrong or giving too much attention to the one single area of the car that gets dirty the quickest. All performance-biased cars generate brake dust. It gets even worse when you start putting the car sideways to where the tires shed material too. This is not a thing to get hung up about IMO...

It’s the oem 18” wheels. Next time I will go for the Cavos
 

The cavos

Yes, it seems that cleaning the wheels takes longer than the entire care, probably because you are crouched over trying to clean multiple different surfaces as opposed to a large simple hood. That said, in reality it does take less 10 minutes.

My wheels are ceramic coated and, I use Sonax Wheel Ceaner Plus: spray and then rinse off with hose resulting in 90% clean. Works like magic. Then use wheel woolies to clean in-between spokes and inside the wheel. Actually, for my wife's Macan, chose wheels based on what seemed easier to clean :D and, more importantly replacement tire options (fewer as size increases).

Agree with being a bit anal in cleaning. If the wheels look filthy, so will the car -- no matter how well you washed it :cool: Cleaning the car has become a worthwhile addiction. I feel like a pusher, having addicted several co-workers who have asked for my cleaning materials. (Nothing fancy, just quick and effective.)

A pain to clean?
I have my pressure washer do all the work, rarely do i ever have to scrub anything off.

My Routine
 

1. Separate Bucket
2. Scrub under fender
3.Mitt
4. Big brush
5. Bendable brush for wide openings and back of spokes
6. Smaller brush
7. Tiny brush for tight spaces
8. Lug nut brush
9. Rinse
10. Dry
11. Repeat 3 times
total time: 20 minutes

wash rest of car: 5 minutes

car was ceramic coated. I assume wheels too.
2018 s5 prestige coupe

By “11. Repeat 3 times” — i’m Assuming you mean 3 more wheels?

— John