How do I get that horrible muck incrusted inside the grooves of my OEM W124 wheels off!
I can get the rest of the wheel to look good but inside those holes it looks like a combo of break dust, loose particles, sand and rust. I have used different wheel cleaners and this seems to be a job for something tougher. Any suggestions?
THANKS!

Yal-
Unfortunately, what you are looking at is burned-on brake dust and it's about as easy to remove as weld spatter. It is actually burned through the paint and into the metal below. The only real solution is to have your wheels refinished and then try to wash your wheels weekly with a good wheel cleaner like P21S. I also wax my wheels.
You might be able to remove some of it by applying some P21S and let it soak for a few minutes before removing. I have tried about everything including Flitz, #7 glaze, clay, bug remover and paint thinner...all with limited results.

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Bill Wood - Webmaster
MercedesShop.com, LLC

Understood. I wish the original owner had cleaned it regularly. The spare wheel really looks great. By the way have you ever tried brake dust covers...and do they work at all?
Thanks Bill.

The dust covers work well, but dramatically decrease the cooling of the brakes. So much so, in fact, that using shields will invalidate a MBZ warranty...the rotors tend to warp more easily.

Hope this helps.



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Best regards, Michael
'92 500E
'88 300TE

yal,
Bill Wood is right, by what you describe it sounds like you are dealing with the burned on brake dust. There is no way to remove it short of refinishing. Even if you can remove the brake matter you still leave a depression that rapidly fills back up with crud/dust/etc. You may be able to reduce it with the steps Bill mentioned, but I highly doubt you will be able to get rid of it. By the time you are to that state it is time for a visit to Rennsport.

Though opinions vary, I back Michael's assesment of dust covers/shields. Virtually all the techs that I've talked to despise them as well. Washing the OEM wheels is so easy, why risk screwing up your brakes with dust shields, or your wheels with not washing often enough. Cleaning your wheels once a week (or more often if you drive lots of stop-n-go miles) will keep the dust away and let you keep your brakes at 100%.

Hope this helps...Lee

Water should not do any harm. Imagine driving fast in the mountains and then going through a small pond of water. Your brakes are going to be very hot and if the brakes should be damaged after driving trough the water (excluding temporary impediment of effectiveness) then I wouldn't like to own that car.

My rims on my 190e had the same baked on brake dust. I tried and tried to get it off by hand but it wouldnt work. One day I was using a pressure washer on my driveway and I thought of spraying behr driveway cleaner on the rims. I let it sit on the rims for about ten minutes and then pressure washed most of the dust away. I then used a toothbrush to get the really stubborn stuff off. Overall it got about 97 percent of the rim clean. If you try this be careful not to get any acid on the paint and test it out to see if it is safe to use on your rims.

I havn't used the driveway cleaner but I do use a pressure washer to clean the wheels each week after spraying them with wheel cleaner and they look new.

1988 300E.

Ah brake dust....the bane of every MBZ owner. My '88 300TE wheels are trashed...I drive VERY hard, and even with 2-3x/wk cleaning those wheels they still got toasted with the by-products of braking. MBZ wheels all pull air from the inside of the wheel, thereby pulling the hot air out away from the brakes and venting it to the outside. The dust, much of which is extremely hot, immediately goes to work on your wheels. I was not particularly picky when I cleaned those wheels (which IMO are nothing but a pain in the a...) and the buildup occurred. My solution: use those rims for winter tires and don't even bother cleaning the holes. Or sell them. Or melt them down (sorry, but those rims really bugged me...simply WAY too time-consuming to keep clean). Otherwise, if these are not viable options, Rennsport will refinish the rims for $75 per, and then at least you'd have the opportunity to prevent future harm by keeping them clean and coated with a nice layer of wax. And to boot, Rennsport trues the wheels up exceptionally well...just got 2 rims back and, when the tires were mounted, both balanced out with NO weights!

Sorry I can't provide better alternatives...good luck!

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Best regards, Michael
'92 500E
'88 300TE

Some times i think it is just better to get new rims they make the car look newer and keep teh old ones or mybe even try getting one of these echange programs with rims.

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1981 300sd 325k
1985 500sel 215k

AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!

People, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!

Look into getting some carbon kevlar brake pads for your vehicles. The german pads are the culprits here. This is a cheap, simple, easy swap to do (less than $200.00 if you do your own brakes) and it is so, so effective you will be kicking your self and asking why you didn't do it sooner and save those beautiful wheels. I am somewhat of a fanatic (O.K. I'm Nuts according to my wife) when it comes to keeping my vehicles clean and I could wash my car at lunch and have my wheels be visibly darker by the time I got home. Drove me up the wall. I posted this link in another forum http://www.porterfieldbrakes.com . Tim has apps for almost any Benz and if he doesn't, he'll make you some from an old set of stock brake pads. This noticably improves braking distances and reduces brake dust. I can make my 50 mile round trip to work and back every day for 2 to 3 WEEKS if it doesn't rain with no noticable darkening of my wheels. So please, I don't want to see any more posts about ruined wheels,. Kinda like sending your children out to play with big holes in their shoes, and asking why their feet are dirty when they come back in the house...

Paul

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'99 SLK230 (Bahama Blue)
17" O.Z. Racing "Vela" Modular wheels
Real carbon fiber interior
AMG sideskirts
Custom rear wing

'96 Impala SS (Black)
17" Boyd's "Phoenix" wheels
Custom exhaust
Full custom interior(black and purple) with real carbon fiber
Custom intake

'94 Firebird Formula (Turquoise)
17" Antera "Opus One" (three spoke) wheels
Full custom interior
Vortech Supercharger
Other Misc Craziness

I am in the process of re-finishing my aluminum wheels, the 15 hole variety. Yes, Brake dust is the bane of the Mercedes wheel, however, I found a way of removing the old, burned on brake dust fairly easy without alot of scrubbing. First, since I am refininshing the wheels, I removed them. I washed them very well with a high pressure wash...found at your local car wash. This removes all of the brake dust that is not burned on, make sure you get the inside of the wheel as well as the outside of the rim. Next I purchased a few packages of sandpaper wheels for my dremel tool and a package or so of the stainless steel sanding wheels. Total cost about $15. The dremel or any rotary style hand held tool works extremely well. Not only does it remove the burned brake dust, it removes any burrs on the lip, smooths out deep scratches...heck...I even sanded my bolt heads so they now look new! The coarse sandpaper will also leave a slight grooved surface in the holes of the rims which holds the primer, paint and lacquer finish nicely. I have primed and painted 2 of the wheels and will be applying the lacquer tomorrow. They look fantastic. I almost thought these wheels were throw aways..but now they rock! One last bit of advice. My dremel came with a flexible attachment that allows you to attach it to the dremel itself and then hold what looks sort of like a Dentist's tool in your hand. It makes for easy work on the inside and outside of the rim. I think they are available for about $15 as well. You can buy paint that is very close to original mercedes benz paint from Griots Garage. The wheel restorer kit includes 1 can of Zinc Primer, 2 cans of Silver wheel paint and 2 cans of clear lacquer as well as a paint prep solution to reduce "fisheyes" that occur due to oils from your hands or whatnot. The paint is of very high quality and it comes from germany. The wheel restorer kit costs $59 and will do at least 4 wheels, I expect I will be able to do the spare as well. Anyway, sorry this is so long, the job is easy and the reward is great. These wheels look new. I may post a pic of the results if anyone is interested.

Be safe out there...Jeff

Oh lastly, you may want to wear a respirator mask or paper mask while you sand the old brake dust off. 20 years of old brake dust is bound to have some asbestos in it...and eye wear is a must...you will be hit by some shrapnel from the debrading sandpaper disc and old brake dust.

Quite a few people have had fantastic results with Easy-Off oven cleaner. I have seen ancient wheels that look like new after using the oven cleaner. It even makes the back of the wheel look like new, and that isn’t an easy job. It makes sense, considering the burned on carbon residue that an oven cleaner is designed to remove.

If you complete a search for "easy-off", you can get some more technical information about the chemistry of oven cleaners and the special cautions for using it on your wheels. Try the link below.

EasyOff

My friend tried it on his stock 190E wheels. It really did an awesome job, but they were very old wheels and there was little concern about any further damage to the finish. I don’t think I would not use it on my almost new AMG Monoblocks.

__________________
I just couldn't give up on my 1995 E320.

I think it might be like always going back to that same bad relationship with an ex girlfriend.
You feel you love them too much, or you are just too stupid to know any better.



Flickr slideshow of my 1995 E320
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24145497@N06/sets/72157616572140057/

I'll throw in my 2 cents worth as an old auto shop teacher and now serious DIYer. Related to the dust, don't use the dust shields as the brakes run hotter. Some excellent cleaning messages have been suggested. The black dust is caused by the high carbon content in the OEM and some after-market pads. To lessen or eliminate the dust I recommend you use Rotex Disc Brake Pads. The friction material is blended KEVLAR with metalic soft steel wire and powdered sponge iron for maximun heat transfer, and silver virgin graphite for quiet operation. I have installed them on 3 MBs, 3 Japanese and 2 domestic. The MBs still product some dust, but it is only 1/10 or less as much. The brakes are definitely quieter. Use a good search-engine (google) and type in Rotex Disc Brake Pads. Find a whole sale supplier and order them up, or, contact www.brakewarehouse.net. Hope this has helped.
Forrest

I thought I would post an update on cleaning/painting my mercedes wheels, I just painted the wheels on my 1986 560 SEL. For the rear tires I used a dremel tool to basically sand the baked on brake dust off of and out of the grooves. It was a pain..insomuchas..(isnt that a long word?) brake dust filling the room and tasting like cancer. It works mind you, but then I read the thread on oven off...and I still had the front (and dirtiest) wheels left to do...so.....I used oven off. I sprayed it on at the firehouse, planning on washing it off almost immediately. However as fires go, we got dispatched to one and it ended up being on about an hour or so...When I returned I hosed the wheels off and whoa....heard music and angels singing. The wheels looked great! It look a little scrubbing on the very deep crevices but in a nutshell it reduced the prep work for painting by about 3 hours each wheel! The results are fantastic. Painted the wheels and they look like new. So, I use peanut butter on my black parts, I use oven off on my burned on brake dust...I wondering what household product will fix my monovalve? Hmmmm....I am working on it.....Jeff