REVIEW: Meg's D101 (as a tire cleaner)

[dc52nv]

I decided to purchase D101 on my last order based on some reviews of people saying it was a hidden gem as a tire cleaner. Roshan (ihaveacamaro), made a couple of vids demonstrating how well it works and I have been curious to give it a try for myself. My wheel cleaner for the last few months has been OPC 1:1 and have had great results. Never-the-less, if there was a better product that was cheaper out there, I wanted to get my hands on it.

Products used:
Meg's D101 (straight)
GG foaming nozzle
Tuf Shine wheel brush

I started to liberally foam the whole tire from bottom to top. Immediately I noticed the white foam turning brown. So far so good. http://www.detailcity.org/forums/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif I should note the tires were dressed 2 weeks ago with Opti-Bond full strength. After letting it sit for about 30 seconds, I proceeded to agitate the tire with my wheel brush and it left a nice brown lather. I scrubbed for a good 30 seconds making sure not to miss a spot. I then rinsed off my wheel brush and noticed something I never experienced with OPC...it left my brush bristles black and sticky. Not too concerned I proceeded to rinse off the tire and watched all the brown crud wash away down my driveway. I applied D101 liberally once again on the same tire and even put some on my tire brush and proceeded to scrub my tire once more. I noticed I was left with a white foamy tire, which tells me the tire is clean. I rinsed off my wheel brush once again and it was still black and sticky. It seemed like nothing came off it from the first time. I then rinsed off my tire and there was no grime washing off it. Bothered by my dirty wheel brush, I applied some more product on my tire and scrubbed harder and longer, determined to come back to a clean wheel brush. Once again I was left with a white foamy tire and once again I was left with a black sticky wheel brush.

I decided to do a test and grabbed my OPC bottle diluted 1:1 and sprayed my tire. Keep in mind that this tire has already been cleaned 3 times by D101 and was left with white foam. As soon as OPC made contact with my tire my jaw dropped as I immediately noticed that so familiar brown foam start to form. I couldn't believe my eyes. I proceeded to scrub my tire and was left with a brown foamy tire. I grabbed my hose and rinsed off my wheel brush and wouldn't you know it, it was white again feeling like the first day I got it. I decided to clean the tire one more time with OPC and was left with a white foamy CLEAN tire.

Conclusion:
I must say that I was disappointed in Meg's D101 as a tire cleaner. I was hoping this would be the start of a wonderful relationship but I feel as if I was left at the alter. For those wondering, the tires were Firestone and they had 2 coats of Opti-Bond that was applied 2 weeks ago. I'm wondering if my dressing was too thick for the cleaner to break down completely. I am not giving up on it just yet. I will do another review on it on my car that has Bridgestone tires with a coat of PERL straight and will be 2 weeks of it on by next week. As for now, OPC is still the champ in my book. http://www.detailcity.org/forums/images/smilies/worship.gif By no means am I blaming Roshan or any members that had great things to say about this cleaner. I am confident D101 worked great for them and I'm glad it did. Like any other product out there, your mileage will vary. Just because it works great for others doesn't necessarily mean that it will work for you. I will post my review next week when I do my tires. I will include pictures next time to show the results. Thank you for taking the time in reading my long review of this product. I know it can get boring without pictures so I thank you for your time.

[Pureshine]

Pictures or it didn't happen :) 301 is way better for tire cleaning.

[Judge]

I've used both and found OPC to work much better. It can be kind of hard to breathe when spraying D101 as well...which is a significant con

[rjd598]

I don't understand how that is possible. How can you spray d101 three times and two of those times it shows up white. All that product and scrubbing and then opc shows brown? It's too hard to believe makes no sense

[dc52nv]

Pictures or it didn't happen :) 301 is way better for tire cleaning.
I'll be taking pics next week. :)

I've used both and found OPC to work much better. It can be kind of hard to breathe when spraying D101 as well...which is a significant con
I agree the smell is pretty bad.

I don't understand how that is possible. How can you spray d101 three times and two of those times it shows up white. All that product and scrubbing and then opc shows brown? It's too hard to believe makes no sense
Not sure how it doesn't make sense to you. It's quiete obvious OPC is a stronger cleaner even diluted 1:1. Therefore it will clean whatever the weaker cleaner left behind.

[silverfox]

D101 practically requires a gas mask to use. If you are downwind of it your eyes will burn and it reminds me of breathing in a whiff of chlorine vapor.

I don't find using products that are that offensive to be worth it no matter the cost savings.

I would not recommend it for tire cleaning. It gives you a false positive result in my opinion.

[Ohio Detailing]

Pictures or it didn't happen :) 301 is way better for tire cleaning.

Hehe, I didn't say it! :) I'll have to try 301

I went through around 4-5 gallons of Optimum Power Clean, and really liked it... until I found out about Meg's APC+ for $15 shipped! Then... when Meg's APC+ ran out before I ordered more gallons, I tried the APC from Sam's Club... AND IT WORKED AMAZING for $8!

So, yeah... I'm not paying $30+ anymore, haha. Which reminds me, I wanted to try that newer Tuff Tire Cleaner (I think it's called), but $50 a gallon to clean tires!?!!?!?!!??!?

[Pureshine]

I've never used 101 but 301 doesn't smell bad at all.

[dc52nv]

Hehe, I didn't say it! :) I'll have to try 301

I went through around 4-5 gallons of Optimum Power Clean, and really liked it... until I found out about Meg's APC+ for $15 shipped! Then... when Meg's APC+ ran out before I ordered more gallons, I tried the APC from Sam's Club... AND IT WORKED AMAZING for $8!

So, yeah... I'm not paying $30+ anymore, haha. Which reminds me, I wanted to try that newer Tuff Tire Cleaner (I think it's called), but $50 a gallon to clean tires!?!!?!?!!??!?

Well to be fair that $50 gal is concentrated and is dilutable 1:1. :D

[KillaCam]

I never used Meg's APC on tires anymore. It just wasn't cleaning them. Recently tried Meg's super degreaser and it works much much better.

[Quiksilver5882]

I like Meg's super degreaser on tires. Zep 505 is nice too. My favorite might just be LA totally awesome. It's cheap. It's effective. Haven't had it damage a wheel yet either.

[Calendyr]

Last time I cleaned a car I used Meg's Super Degreaser 4:1 dilution and it did a fabulous job. I don't know if it would outperform OPC, maybe you could try it if you have both products and let us know. I never used OPC but I like ONR so I would not be surprised if OPC was a better product.

[Ohio Detailing]

I like Meg's super degreaser on tires. Zep 505 is nice too. My favorite might just be LA totally awesome. It's cheap. It's effective. Haven't had it damage a wheel yet either.


Last time I cleaned a car I used Meg's Super Degreaser 4:1 dilution and it did a fabulous job. I don't know if it would outperform OPC, maybe you could try it if you have both products and let us know. I never used OPC but I like ONR so I would not be surprised if OPC was a better product.

I used Meg's Super Degreaser exclusively for tires for nearly two years... I loved it. For the last year or slightly more, I've used either Optimum's Power Clean, Meg's APC+, or the $8 a gallon APC from Sam's Club -- and I can't tell a difference between any of them. So, guess which one I'm using now :)

Super degreaser was great for wheel wells that were filthy though - but, I didn't find it served enough of a "multi-purpose" to keep it around. I was surprised at first when I bought the APC from Sam's Club in a pinch, and liked it more than enough to keep it around. So now I get all my microfibers and APC from "big box" stores, and really couldn't be happier.

[Calendyr]

No Sam's club here in Montréal. What kind of dilution can you get with the 8$ gallon? Super degreaser is used at 4:1 and costs 17$ so that comes down to 3,40$ per gallon (excluding the cost of distilled water if you choose to use that)... I am not sure that is necessary for something like degreasers.

Just a note of caution regarding super degreaser... that stuff is insanelly powerful. I used an old bottle of Fantastic Orange cleaner for it and it ate through it in about a week. It actually made holes in the plastic and had cracks at the bottom!

I don't know what type of plastic they use for the gallon size, there is no plastic code at the bottom (is that even legal?).

Pretty much all the bottles I purchase and use are type 2 plastic (High Density Poly Ethylene) they work well for all my products so far but I don't know how compatible they are for Super Degreaser.

[SlowWRX]

I tried that Tuff Shine tire cleaner and it worked pretty good. but for 9.99 for a small bottle its just to expensive. I used some Zep purple the other day mixed at 1:7 and as soon as I sprayed the tire it just started foaming brown and made a nice clean tire. at $10 a gallon and being able to use it at that dilution I think its pretty good bang for the buck. it also works very well at tar removal at that dilution as well. it just melts it away like TarX does but at a fraction of the price