You’ve scrubbed your car inside and out and gotten rid of those lingering crumbs and annoying smudges on the windshield — but how are your tires doing? There’s a good chance all that wear and tear on your tires has left them in need of some extra love! Luckily, cleaning your vehicle's tires is easy and can be done in four easy steps.
Your tires are the only part of your vehicle coming in contact with the road. That means they are usually the first thing to get dirty! And while a little dirt won't hurt, what could be hiding underneath the dirt and grime just might — think nails, cracks in the sidewall, and low or uneven treadwear. Follow these four easy steps to get your tires squeaky clean to help you determine if it's time for new tires from Firestone Complete Auto Care.
To start your tire-washing process, you'll need a bucket, microfiber towels, a hose and spray nozzle, and a soft-bristled brush. For a deeper clean, use a light-duty pressure washer, a waxing mitt, and a wheel brush.
Use non-abrasive cleaning agents like dish soap, warm water, and wheel wax. If you’re curious about how to clean car tires naturally, try using a 70/30 mix of white vinegar and baking soda.
After you’ve collected your tools and materials, rinse off all the loose dirt using your spray nozzle or the lowest setting pressure washer (if you have one). Try to work the water from multiple angles — above, below, and both sides — to knock out the most grime from the interior of the rim.
After you've rinsed the tire, scrub the surface thoroughly. Begin with the tires, and move on to the wheels to avoid having tire grime drip onto a clean wheel face. With your bristled brush, scrub the tire with warm water and dish soap (about a tablespoon of soap per gallon of water). For stuck-on grime, let the soap mixture sit on the tire for a few minutes to help soften things up.
Then, repeat scrubbing and rinsing as much as you need.
Once your tires are glistening, you can start washing the surface of the wheel. Wet the wheel face, and use your brush with warm, soapy water to scrub everything down. If you want to apply a natural cleaning solution on your chrome wheels, pour equal parts of white vinegar and water into a spray bottle and spritz onto the wheels to melt away stains.
Use a smaller brush to tackle tougher spots on the wheels, then fully dry both the tire and the wheel with a clean, microfiber towel.
While a wax application isn’t totally necessary, it’s the perfect final step to get your tires looking their best. For maximum results, apply a cream or paste wax with a waxing mitt, and make sure to follow the instructions provided on the container. After applying the wax, give it a final polish with a microfiber cloth, and marvel at that amazing shine!
Cleaning your tires is important if you want your car to look its best! Since tires are the only part of your vehicle that touches the road while you’re driving, they can require a bit more TLC than the rest of your ride when it comes to keeping them clean.
Aside from dirty wheels not being aesthetically-pleasing, cleaning your tires is also a great way to limit corrosion or similar damage. Letting dirt and grime hang out too long can cause your wheel finishes to peel and can even make the rims more porous (which could create tire pressure leaks).
Cleaning your tires on a routine, bi-monthly basis can help remove the salt, dust, and oil buildup that are a natural part of driving and keep your vehicle in top shape for years to come.
Paying attention to your tires’ health is essential in helping extend their lifecycle and keeping things running smoothly out on the road.
If you’re cleaning your tires and notice that any one of your tires is balding, wearing unevenly, cracking on the sidewall, or has an obstruction, it's time to make an appointment at Firestone Complete Auto Care. We provide expert tire repair, alignment services and can even help you pick out a whole new set of tires for your vehicle! Whatever your vehicle needs may be, our team is here to get your car back on course.
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When tires are left uncleaned, not only are they unsightly, they can also get damaged. They also won’t be able to grip and balance well on the road. Thankfully, you don’t need to spend a lot to maintain their cleanliness, as long as you know how to clean tires with household products.
Just read the information below.
Table of Contents
What You Need:
Step 1: Prepare the Natural Tire Cleaner
In two gallons of warm water, pour in 30 ml of dishwashing soap and 50 ml of borax and mix them. Then, while continuously mixing them, pour in 15 ml of lemon oil.
Step 2: Clean the Tires With a Brush and Towel
Dip the brush into the cleaning solution and use it to clean the tires. Afterwards, dip a towel into the solution, wring out the excess moisture, and again clean the tires with it. Then use another dry towel to remove the cleanser from the tires.
What You Need:
Step 1: Prepare the Homemade Tire Cleaner
Mix a teaspoon of dishwashing liquid with a gallon of warm water. Then dip the sponge in the mixture. Afterwards, sprinkle some baking soda on it.
Step 2: Clean With the Solution
Scrub the tires with the sponge using circular motions. Make sure you clean all surfaces. Scrub the dirt and grime off the tough-to-reach areas with a brush or toothbrush.
Step 3: Rinse and Dry the Tires
Rinse the tires with warm water starting from the top. Then dry them immediately with a towel.
What You Need:
A spray bottle would be needed for applying the cleaning solution onto the tires.
Towels would be needed for rubbing baking soda onto the tires and for wiping the tires dry.
Step 1: Prepare a Lemon Juice and Warm Water Mixture in the Spray Bottle
Pour a cup of warm water and two tablespoons of lemon juice into the spray bottle. Then shake the bottle well.
Step 2: Spray the Wheels and Rub Baking Soda on Them
Spray the lemon and warm water mixture all over the wheels. Then put ½ cup of baking on the wheels, and use a clean towel to remove dirt from them.
Step 3: Dry the Wheels
Dry the wheels using other towels.
4. Clean Rust Off Screws and Lug Nuts With Coca-ColaWhat You Need:
Step 1: Prepare a DIY Tire Cleaner and Coke Spray
To create the DIY cleaner, mix a cup each of dishwashing soap and vinegar into a bucket of water. For the Coke spray, simply pour a cup of Coke into a spray bottle.
Step 2: Clean the Rust With Coke
Spray Coke on rusty surfaces. Leave it to sit to take effect. Then scrub out the rust with a brush.
Step 3: Clean the Tires With the Tire Cleaner
Clean the tires with the DIY tire cleaner. Rinse the tires well and dry them with towels.
5. Clean Rust Off Chrome Wheels With Vinegar and WaterWhat You Need:
Step 1: Prepare the Cleaning Solution
In a spray bottle, pour in a one-to-one ratio of white vinegar and water and shake it well.
Step 2: Clean the Surface Contaminants With the Solution
Spray the vinegar and water solution onto the wheels and scrub them thoroughly with a sponge. If necessary, redo the cleaning until the wheels are completely clean.
6. Clean Rust Off Rims With Cream of Tartar PasteWhat You Need:
Instructions:
Apply the cream of tartar paste onto the rusty rim. Then work the paste onto the surface with a wheel brush to remove the rust.
What You Need:
Step 1: Prepare the Solution in a Spray Bottle
Pour ½ cup of water, three drops of dish soap, and a cup of baby oil into a spray bottle. Then shake the bottle well.
Step 2: Clean the Tires With the Solution and a Towel
Spray the solution on the tires. Then use a towel to wipe them clean.
Now that you know what to clean tires with and how to clean tires with household products, remember and complete the steps as often as needed to keep your tires in good condition and safe for driving.
If you have any opinions or questions about this article, you’re more than welcome to leave them in the comments. It would also be great if you shared this article to help spread these tire cleaning hacks.
Furthermore, if you want to clean car tires as a professional, don’t forget to read this guide. Moreover, some related posts about tires & wheel you can explore, such as:
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In addition to washing, it is worth treating car tires with protective agents. The process is also called "tire blackening". Protective agents protect car tires from cracking, dirt sticking, give a black tint.
Let's figure out how to wash and blacken rims and tires, taking the "guinea pig" model Toyota Prius Since 2012.
Step 1. Wash the wheels separately from the body and interior. At the same time, use a separate bucket of soapy water so as not to transfer grease and dirt from the wheels to the rest of the body surface.
Such shampoos contain substances that prevent the sticking of dirt, tar, oil products. Apply detergent following the instructions on the package. Wheel cleaners may have a creamy consistency that must be applied with a soft cloth or sold as an aerosol to be sprayed over the entire area of the wheel rim. Separate "rubber blackeners" are sold for tires.
They come in the form of aerosols, which do not need to be washed off after application, they themselves drain along with the dirt. There are liquid ones that need to be washed off after application. There are combined detergents for tires and wheels, their action is ineffective.
Step 3. Moisten the wheels and scrub thoroughly with a stiff (not iron) bristle brush. Make sure you flush the area where the brakes are located, if you have access to them. Along with road dust, brake pad dust accumulates in the gaps of the rim, so this place is most sensitive to corrosion from accumulated dirt. How to properly protect your car from corrosion, read here.
Step 4. Wax or car tire blackening agent applied to a wet surface will not do any good, so wipe the wheels with a terry cloth, preferably microfiber.
Step 5. After washing, apply wheel wax to dry surface. Wax will give the wheels a shine, protect against road dust, dirt, engine oil, tar, and reduce exposure to ultraviolet rays.
Step 6. If you don't stock up on rubber ink, you can color them with folk remedies. Shoe polish, shoe polish will not work, they will be washed away by the first rain. Buy regular glycerin at a pharmacy, mix 100 grams of glycerin with 100 grams of water, then apply with a sponge to the rubber. Do not spare water, otherwise dust will stick to the tires.
Tires are also blackened with silicone oil, which will save tires in cold weather, protect against cracks and sunlight that age rubber.
Laundry soap - the third way to blacken car tires. It can be crumbled into water, mixed, applied to the surface of the rubber and allowed to dry, after which the rubber will blacken thickly. The disadvantages of this method are that laundry soap dries the rubber, causing it to crack.
Tires can be washed with household chemicals - dish or glass cleaner. Tires will turn black, but the effect will not be long, but safe.
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We checked common folk remedies for tire blackening and found out that not all of them can be recommended for use.
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You don't have to go to a car wash or a spare parts store to get your tires back to a deep black color. You can get by with improvised means, and some of them are sure to be found in almost every home.
There are several ways to blacken tires that are safe and do not affect traction. In the absence of special means for restoring color, for example, shoe polish, glycerin, silicone oil, and even laundry soap and household chemicals are used. Each substance has its pros and cons, but it should be remembered that none of them fully possesses the qualities inherent in special solutions: neither long-term effect, nor protective properties, nor ease of use.
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Blackening tires with shoe polish or other shoe care product is the first thing that comes to mind.
At the same time, the processing process itself is no different, only instead of a brush it is better to use a sponge so that splashes of shoe polish do not stain the body. We simply rub the sidewall of the washed and dried tire with shoe polish and let it dry.
To be honest, the result does not look very good, even when using the product with wax: there is neither shine nor color depth. The application process itself is also inconvenient - imagine what it would be like to process four wheels. The downside is that you have to wait for the shoe polish to dry completely before driving. Otherwise, road dust will quickly stick to the treated surface, reducing all the efforts made to nothing. Of course, there are also quick-drying paint creams, but their cost is such that it will still be cheaper to buy a special product for blackening tires.
Due to its consistency, glycerin creates a stunning jet-black shiny tire effect, and the degree of "greatness" can be adjusted by diluting the product with plain water.
For one procedure, only one hundred grams of glycerin and the same amount of water are enough. We mix them, taking into account the fact that the less water in the composition, the more "fat" the effect will be. But it’s better not to spare water, otherwise dust will stick to the tires, as in the case of wet shoe polish. The composition is applied with a simple sponge without rubbing. By the way, unpainted black plastic body parts can also be processed with this compound.
The advantage of this method is its low cost and the availability of glycerin in any pharmacy. The disadvantages overlap all the advantages: glycerin quickly ages rubber, causing it to crack. In addition, the composition is very well washed off with water - the very first rain or driving through a puddle will not leave a trace of glycerin. In dry weather, tires will only stay black for a couple of days.
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Blackening tires with silicone oil is not the cheapest way because it is not sold in small containers and you will have to buy an annual supply of funds right away.
This method is the simplest, most efficient and less labor-intensive than the others. It is better to use medium viscosity oil, which will also come in handy for treating tires before winter or summer storage - this is the only substance described that somehow protects rubber from cracking, drying out, ultraviolet radiation and moisture.
Tires treated with silicone oil last longer and tires look blacker than new. Silicone oil is also treated with door seals and trunk lids so that they do not freeze.
Laundry soap is probably the cheapest product available for blackening tires. It can be applied with a pre-soaped brush, or by dissolving a crumb of soap in water, apply the composition with a sponge. There is no need to rinse off the soap: when it dries, the rubber will acquire a beautiful and deep black tint. Like most artisanal methods, blackening tires with laundry soap has its drawbacks. Rubber because of it, as in the case of glycerin, ages faster and may begin to crack, so we do not recommend this method of blackening.
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Household chemicals are often used in car washes. This is a cheap, effective and harmless method for rubber and its adhesion to an expensive method, which can be offered as a bonus or "gift". It is mainly used for washing glasses, as well as dishes. The first is sprayed onto the sidewall of the tire and rubbed quickly, while the second is applied with a damp sponge. It is not necessary to wash off the compositions.
Also on the forums it is advised to blacken tires with drinks. More often than others, Coca-Cola is mentioned. But because of the sugar in the composition of the cola, it creates a sticky layer, on which dust quickly settles, and is easily washed off in the first puddle.
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All of the listed products, of course, are inferior to the special compounds sold in auto chemical departments.
