crazy orange dust on STI BBS wheels post-detail

[builthatch]

i have never had this problem before on any of my personal vehicles...

2012 STI with the OE bazillion spoke BBS 18s

in terms of washes, i haven't done anything other than full washes with this car. no opti-clean or no rinse washes. regardless, i like to do full wheel washes. the whole car plus wheels are coated with 2.0 so it's pretty darn easy. usually it's a pre-treat with 3:1 power clean or sonax followed by a really good rinse. i am really anal about inner wheel barrels so i do a daytona brush cycle, hit up the details with a small brush, the face, spokes and tires with the mitt and then rinse well. when i pull the car in to dry it off by hand, when i'm done with the car i will blow off the wheels/tires and wells with an electric blower. i do the wheels last because i don't want anything blowing from the garage floor onto the surface of the vehicle before i dry the panels.

well, the rotors on this thing are HUGE (along with huge calipers); the rotors oxidize extremely quickly, even after blowing everything off post-wash. so what happens is, when i take the car out, the orange dust goes all over the calipers, wheels and tires. i mean, it's bad. within the first couple uses of the brakes everything is covered. i could drive a quarter mile and everything would be orange!!!!

what i've been doing is after the post-wash drive (could be a day or a few after the wash, it just depends because the car usually is put away after it's washed), i will let the wheels cool down and spray them with ONR mixed in a bottle, let it soak and then spray them down...then blow it all off and drive again to heat it all up and eliminate any water from remaining. this assures that the orange dust doesn't show up and i'll only eventually have to deal with brake dust.

it's a terrible pain but i honestly can't think of anything else to do. i could just wipe them down with opti-clean but that leaves the tires, barrels and calipers still orange. it's such a pain. i have had a bunch of performance cars with relatively open wheels and never had this issue.

[GoldBl4d3]

well, you def wanna blow it off right a way. I know what your talking about, it happened to me. Its not all that hard to combat, make sure you use a wheel wax to seal your wheels. Maybe even scrub the rotor with some alcohol or something to get the rust off before driving it. What I do is I do one tire at a time, and blow dry them 1 at a time after I finish them. Then I take large tarps and cover the wheels, then I wash the car. So the wheels are nice and clean and dry while I wash the car.

[builthatch]

Originally Posted by GoldBl4d3

well, you def wanna blow it off right a way. I know what your talking about, it happened to me. Its not all that hard to combat, make sure you use a wheel wax to seal your wheels. Maybe even scrub the rotor with some alcohol or something to get the rust off before driving it. What I do is I do one tire at a time, and blow dry them 1 at a time after I finish them. Then I take large tarps and cover the wheels, then I wash the car. So the wheels are nice and clean and dry while I wash the car.

i have the entire wheels plus calipers coated with opti-coat so they are easy to clean and the actual finish is protected very well but it's just such a pain.