Cleaning yellow Calipers

[MIGZ]

Interested to learn what other are doing to keep their yellow calipers clean.

I love my car but the brake dust is a bit much and calipers are not looking as clean as I would like.

 

[Go Kart]

Interested to learn what other are doing to keep their yellow calipers clean.

I love my car but the brake dust is a bit much and calipers are not looking as clean as I would like.

This product has been excellent with wheel faces and barrels, tires, and calipers. I’ve been using it for years. I dilute it to a 1/5 ratio with water and it still cleans with great results. Spray on, scrub with a soft bristled brush, and spray off.

Amazon.com

Happy cleaning!

 

[netsinah]

One thing I've done with my past 3 sport cars, is putting ceramic coating on the calipers. This discourages brake dust from sticking to them and makes them easier to clean.

 

[K_Squared]

+1 on the ceramic. It's still tiresome, however, as the wheels and calipers seem to collect brake dust and appear dirty after just an hour of driving. For me, it's almost impossible to keep these wheels clean. I've never had a vehicle generate so much brake dust in just a few miles. I absolutely love this car but the silver wheels, while beautiful, are a real PITA.

 

[SONOFEMERY]

+1 on ceramic coating, and still waiting to hear if anyone can report good experience with some low dust brake pads

 

[ADC]

+1 on the ceramic coating of wheels and calipers, and +1000 on hoping somebody finds a good low-dust pad... my "silver" wheels currently look like I spec'd them as anthracite grey

Thing is, I'm not that keen to take a chance on something only to find it squeals / eats rotors / fades after a few hard stops... the standard pads (Ferodo DS2500) are freakin' awesome for everything I want (fast road, maybe a track day or two) besides the fact that they dustier than the goddam Sahara!

 

[Nova]

+1 on the ceramic coating. I have CQuartz UK 3.0 on mine and all it takes is a blast from the power washer and it's 97.6% clean.

 

[scc.131.fe]

Sonax wheel cleaner.

 

[Drevil]

One thing I've done with my past 3 sport cars, is putting ceramic coating on the calipers. This discourages brake dust from sticking to them and makes them easier to clean.

I got my wheels and calipers including barrels ceramic coated is there a product you think I can use to safely clean without disturbing the coat? Also is it safe to use wheel brush?

 

[Drevil]

+1 on the ceramic coating. I have CQuartz UK 3.0 on mine and all it takes is a blast from the power washer and it's 97.6% clean.

Did you coat yourself or have a shop do it? No risk to the coating with power washer ? Do you use soap ?

 

[luciddaydream]

Yeah the wheels def do get dirty quick.
I hate paying for ceramic coating.. .. wondering if there is a way to slap some shit on at home.

 

[Time2Fly]

@luciddaydream you can do ceramic coating yourself.

 

[netsinah]

I got my wheels and calipers including barrels ceramic coated is there a product you think I can use to safely clean without disturbing the coat? Also is it safe to use wheel brush?

I just use soap/water and a rag. A coarse brush will remove the ceramic coat. That said, no ceramic coat is permanent and depending how often you rub the brake dust off, my detailer said it could last up to a year+. As others have said, anyone can purchase and put on ceramic coating. As usual, there are good references on YouTube. The real skill is doing the paint correction before applying ceramic coat, but that doesn’t apply to rims and calipers.

 

[GlobalPilot777]

I had post this earlier I think, impossible to get these callipers back to yellow. I feel the dirt ingresses and now whatever I try it doesn't get clean (tried 3/4 products now without succes). i think i need to have them painted again

 

[Vintage]

As much as I love the look of Yellow Calibers, I'm thinking of just going black as they hide the brake dust. I usually just run my cars through a car wash.
Would anyone of change to black after owning the yellow calibers ?

 

[Nova]

Did you coat yourself or have a shop do it? No risk to the coating with power washer ? Do you use soap ?

CQuartz UK 3.0 is a DIY product, most shops probably would not install it as they would want something more durable with a 5-10 year life span. I think CQuartz UK 3.0 is officially only 2-3 years?

Power washer are generally fairly gentle to the paint if you use it correctly. Don't use anything more aggressive than a 45 degree spray head and stay at least 6 inches away from the paint. Let the soaking do most of the work. I use Chemical Guys snow foam. The process is generally: quick wetting down with the power washer, spray foam cover and wait 3-5 minutes, rinse off with power washer. At this point, if I decide to contact-wash the car, I would spray on another layer of snow foam and rub the car down with a towel, then rinse off. To dry the car, I now use my electric leaf blower, which does a great job.

 

[cyanmauve]

I usually just run my cars through a car wash.

Brave man!

I wouldn’t recommend that if you have the upper black pack. I think a car wash would, in the words of my father, “scratch the fool out of the paint”.

Kudos to you for treating it like an object and not a baby!

 

[NoelT]

CQuartz UK 3.0 is a DIY product, most shops probably would not install it as they would want something more durable with a 5-10 year life span. I think CQuartz UK 3.0 is officially only 2-3 years?

Power washer are generally fairly gentle to the paint if you use it correctly. Don't use anything more aggressive than a 45 degree spray head and stay at least 6 inches away from the paint. Let the soaking do most of the work. I use Chemical Guys snow foam. The process is generally: quick wetting down with the power washer, spray foam cover and wait 3-5 minutes, rinse off with power washer. At this point, if I decide to contact-wash the car, I would spray on another layer of snow foam and rub the car down with a towel, then rinse off. To dry the car, I now use my electric leaf blower, which does a great job.

Drying your car with a leaf blower? Genius idea, I will have to give it a try!

 

[Nova]

Drying your car with a leaf blower? Genius idea, I will have to give it a try!

Yea, with ceramic coating, it works really well. There are short nozzles sold for popular electric leaf blowers to make this task easier. I 3D printed one for mine.

 

[NoelT]

Yea, with ceramic coating, it works really well. There are short nozzles sold for popular electric leaf blowers to make this task easier. I 3D printed one for mine.

View attachment 46999

Excellent, I'll give it a go!