ALDI shower cleaner for wheels

[MattSAU2XR8]

Hey guys, not sure if this is the correct category but happy for mods to move it.

I've been ruminating for a while about how to source an economical wheel cleaner for my current drive which is a VE SS - sorry, prior to that AU XR8 and G6E Ecoboost. At any rate the Bendix Ultimates I'm running make a lot of dust and it gets expensive to remove, particularly if I want the chemicals to do the work rather than scrubbing/scratching up the wheels.

Pretty much all the commercial cleaners seem to use acid or alkali to render the brake dust (which is probably mostly disc rotor) soluble. The only question then becomes how strong, and concentrated, the acid or alkali is.

Main concern seems to be that it may damage or tunnel under the plastic clear coat on the wheels.

Which brought me to thinking about food acids used as cleaners. As it so happens ALDI shower cleaner in the silver bottle contains citric acid and lactic acid and costs $2.29 for a 750 ml bottle. And doesn't seem to damage plastic fittings, eg. perspex soap holders, in the bathroom.

So I bit the bullet, bought a bottle, diluted it by 50 % with tap water, and then went to the usual 'wash your own car' wash with the pressure hose. Made sure the brakes/wheels were cool, sprayed about 1/4 bottle on each wheel, and then hosed it off. Removed about 98 % of the gunk (5000 kms of bendix ultimate) with a single application and no apparent damage to clear coat. Only problem is that the spray bottle doesn't spray very easily so hands get tired.

I think though it would work quite well in future if it were further diluted to one part in 3 in a pump up parts cleaner spray bottle and used once a month for a cost of about $1.00 per clean.

Only thing to be careful of is aftermarket wheels - I note a lot of them don't guarantee their finish with commercially available wheel cleaners...