Hey guys, just wanted to give a heads up with my slightly scary experience with wheel cleaner.
So the other day I bought that Maguire’s rim cleaner, should be called Hydrochloric Acid in a bottle!

Anyways, yesterday I started hearing a wobbling noise and I was like "oh ****, don’t
tell me a wheel bearing is going". So I shook the wheel back and forth and it was fine.
When I went to remove the wheel to further inspect it I could remove the lug nuts with my hands!

The only thing I could think of is, that wheel cleaner is so corrosive that it cleared the
dirt out behind the lug nuts and they loosened on their own.

So I guess if you use that stuff make sure to tighten your lugs the day after, or right after.

 

So...what you're saying is that it cleans really well. Noted

I looked up the ingredients online for that cleaner and there really isn't anything overly corrosive in it. The worst thing it has was citric acid (1-10% by volume). As an organic acid, it isn't very corrosive, but will help remove dirt and other grime.

When i first read this thread, i was under the impression that the tire cleaner melted your rims and they fell off . I was kinda hoping for some cool pictures lol

 

Yes, maybe a little too well! I wonder what it would do if you
acidentally got it on your paint. Better clean it off fast!

Oh and make sure you use latex gloves, i made the mistake
of not wearing them and got a bad chemical burn, lasted like 12hrs
and felt like a sunburn on the back of my hands. Crazy stuff.

 

lol.

Sorry, my mistake not the Meguires stuff, thats what i probably should have bought.
It was in an orange bottle and i picked it up at Walmart. I will find out the name.
I want to pick some more up just in case i ever need to melt down some metal!!

 

Maybe someone tried to steal your wheels...I'm a little skeptical that cleaner loosened lugnuts torqued to 80ft/lbs.

 

 

I have an orange bottle wheel cleaner! Mine is transparent i believe it is the turtle wax brand.Bout to check my wheels right now. . .

 

wheel cleaner def didnt cause this.

 

not a chance.

 

goes outside and checks on wheels.

 

when did you check your lug nuts were loose? might have been a thief..

 

...You didn't tighten them down completely

 

Unless you knew how tight your lug nuts were on there before, you wouldn't know if the "wheel cleaner" caused that to happen...so did you check them before applying the chemical?

 

i am going to have to agree

 

lol USER ERROR! You forgot to tighten those lug nuts y0! Don't worry about it, we've all done it. Several times myself in fact

 

I guess it could be the case maybe I loosened them in my sleep! The thing is I very rarely take all 4 wheels
off when working on the car, and I would never forget something as simple as tightening the lugs after
working. I'm just too organized and careful when working on the car, it just wouldn’t happen.

I also have one wheel lock on each wheel and they were loose too, so I’m sure it wasn't a theft attempt.

skipper28-DC I think that’s it the turtle wax version, when I’m back in Wal-Mart I will find out for sure.

I just looked up the MSDS sheet on turtle wax’s website, look at this - 3 different corrosive agents. Wow!

Phosphoric Acid (Orthophosphoric Acid) 5-8%
Oxalic Acid (Ethane Dionic Acid) 1-3%
Ethylene Glycol Butyl Ether (2-Butoxyethanol) 1-3%

 

still, wheel cleaner will not loosen lug nuts. If they did as you suspect, there would have had to have been a CRAP TON of dirt between the nuts and the seating surface on the wheels.

 

Yeah i guess, Unless it ate away the e-coating on the seating surface of my centric rotors which would have the same result.

 

i'm gonna roll with somebody was either trying to grab your wheels, or they were trying to play a nasty joke on you. All the nuts are loose? I've never seen a wheel cleaner that unscrew 80 to 100 pounds of torque. And trust me on this: It doesn't matter what kind of locks you have on your wheels. It's just a peace of mind factor. All you need is the right tool.