Brown tires immediately after using Power Clean

[Grant]

Hello,

I need a little help here after cleaning my 1 year old tires with Power Clean. I diluted it 3 parts tap water to 1 part PC and sprayed onto the dry tires till wet but not dripping. Then I scrubbed thoroughly with a nylon tire brush and then rinsed off with a garden sprayer (pump style). The tires turned brown as soon as the water dried!! They actually look worse than before I cleaned them, sadly.  Was my process wrong?

[Ron@Optimum]

try concentrated Power Clean - the brown is oxidation and it can be hard to remove.

[Setec Astronomy]

Did you have dressing on the tires?  I have found that dressing can mask browning and then cleaning can reveal the browning.

So you have two options--reapply your dressing, or continue to clean, either by perhaps multiple applications of your 1:3 OPC, or using it full strength as Ron suggests.  Tires are all different, as are dressings.  Some tires really want to brown, some less so (I've found the softer compounds, like snow tires, tend to brown more), some you can dress without fully removing the browning, some you can't.  Similarly there are some dressings that seem to pull the browning out of the tire (which is anti-ozonant), while some don't.  Opti-Bond is a very good dressing.

[Ron@Optimum]

There seems a large variety in success with tires, not sure if it's different rubber compounds, reaction to conditioners, or driving conditions.  Yesterday I had a call from a customer who wanted a refund on Opti-Bond because he only got 2 weeks looking good.  I explained 2-3 weeks is all you could expect from tire treatments, he should consider a coating like TPC for more durability.

[Grant]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. The tires had the cheap tire dressing from the car wash tunnel about a month ago so visually you couldn’t tell it was there.

[Ron@Optimum]

good call, Setec

[dlc95]

On 10/23/2023 at 10:14 PM, Setec Astronomy said:

Did you have dressing on the tires?  I have found that dressing can mask browning and then cleaning can reveal the browning.

So you have two options--reapply your dressing, or continue to clean, either by perhaps multiple applications of your 1:3 OPC, or using it full strength as Ron suggests.  Tires are all different, as are dressings.  Some tires really want to brown, some less so (I've found the softer compounds, like snow tires, tend to brown more), some you can dress without fully removing the browning, some you can't.  Similarly there are some dressings that seem to pull the browning out of the tire (which is anti-ozonant), while some don't.  Opti-Bond is a very good dressing.

The owner of the shop where I work wanted to experiment with a tire coating. So I offered to use my Optimum Tire Coating. I went to prep the tires, and they just would NOT come clean, even with straight Power Clean. At lest once a week he's using whatever we have readily available at the shop. It's usually that cheap blue junk from the parts truck. 

 

His tire shine is really nice (he's starting his own product line), but I'm not sure if it clings with the same tenacity as the stuff he has been using - he wants to use up the bue stuff before he starts using his - although we're encouraged to use the company's products on customer cars. 

 

I'm very interested in trying the new Optimum Wheel and Tire Cleaner, to see if it can do even better than Power Clean. 

[Ron@Optimum]

I tried the new Tire & Wheel Cleaner and felt it did a better job than Power Clean (frankly surprised me) - not sure it it's the foaming action.  Really bad spots took a 2nd application, but that's typical for tires in my experience.