Brown tires - can't fix

**Hawk75** · 02-02-2024, 01:03 PM

Hey all - hoping someone has a good solution for this. I put new BFG KO2s on the wrangler back in August. After a month or so I started getting the browning on the tires. Not a big deal, I've dealt with it before on new tires. I started with just dawn soap and water and a tire brush as that has normally worked. No luck, actually I think it made it worse. Ok I thought, time to go to the tire cleaners. I went through Mother's, Armor all, and Turtle wax bottles of tire cleaners with no luck. At this point the tires had been washed 5-6 times and I've used 5 bottles of cleaner with no results. I gave up and put a light coating of VRT to get them black again. Looked good, figured maybe the gases would work themselves out. Since that episode, the browning has come back about every few months as the VRT has worn off. I've reapplied the VRT a couple times, but now they are browning again.

Shouldn't the browning and gassing process be done now? What else am I supposed to use to fix this?

**Eldorado2k** · 02-02-2024, 01:14 PM

You mentioned Mothers. Did you use this specific Mothers tire cleaner?

**evo77** · 02-02-2024, 02:59 PM

If your tire is STILL brown after thorough scrubbing and cleaning, then its not because its dirty. The rubber compound and conditioners in your specific tires are just formulated in such a way that they are causing a more brown-ish appearance.

Unfortunately there isn't anything you can do about it.

The best you can hope for is that if you continue with a regular maintenance of cleaning the tires with a quality tire cleaner (NOT dish soap!!!) and maybe, just maybe in time the brown color becomes less brown.

**Hawk75** · 02-02-2024, 03:21 PM

Originally Posted by Eldorado2k

You mentioned Mothers. Did you use this specific Mothers tire cleaner?

Yep that's the one

**Eldorado2k** · 02-02-2024, 03:42 PM

Originally Posted by Hawk75

Yep that's the one

What brush are you using to scrub?

IME especially when tires are new you sometimes really have to go at them to get that initial film off them. If you have a Tuff Shine Tire Brush or similar they tend to work best at it.

Spray the tire, scrub, spray again, scrub then rinse. Or if it was me I’d go 3 rounds of spray & scrub before rinsing once and repeat at least twice. After the 3rd time of scrubbing and rinsing you should hopefully start seeing the rubber turn a deep clean black.

Sometimes you’ll literally see that brown film peeling off as you’re scrubbing it with that Mothers tire cleaner. If that somehow doesn’t work Stoners Tarminator would be my next bullet, but the Mothers should work better leaving the tires properly clean & black.

**Bill D** · 02-02-2024, 05:19 PM

Tuff Shine tire cleaner got the film off my new tires and left their white walls nice and bright. Set aside plenty of time for scrubbing.

**Hawk75** · 02-02-2024, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by Eldorado2k

What brush are you using to scrub?

IME especially when tires are new you sometimes really have to go at them to get that initial film off them. If you have a Tuff Shine Tire Brush or similar they tend to work best at it.

Spray the tire, scrub, spray again, scrub then rinse. Or if it was me I’d go 3 rounds of spray & scrub before rinsing once and repeat at least twice. After the 3rd time of scrubbing and rinsing you should hopefully start seeing the rubber turn a deep clean black.

Sometimes you’ll literally see that brown film peeling off as you’re scrubbing it with that Mothers tire cleaner. If that somehow doesn’t work Stoners Tarminator would be my next bullet, but the Mothers should work better leaving the tires properly clean & black.

Using the tuff shine tire brush. Went 1 round with the Mothers before I ran out. Switched to the Turtle Wax Hybrid solutions tire cleaner, 2 bottles and did 2 rounds on each tire. Crazy but if there was any improvement it was minimal. Had some basic TW tire cleaner in garage so tried that as well. That's when I gave up and put on the VRT. Supposed to be nice this weekend here in Iowa so maybe I'll give it a go again. frustrating

**Hawk75** · 02-02-2024, 06:04 PM

Originally Posted by Bill D

Tuff Shine tire cleaner got the film off my new tires and left their white walls nice and bright. Set aside plenty of time for scrubbing.

Thanks. Haven't seen that in the local stores, I'll look online to order.

**Rsurfer** · 02-02-2024, 06:48 PM

Originally Posted by Hawk75

Using the tuff shine tire brush. Went 1 round with the Mothers before I ran out. Switched to the Turtle Wax Hybrid solutions tire cleaner, 2 bottles and did 2 rounds on each tire. Crazy but if there was any improvement it was minimal. Had some basic TW tire cleaner in garage so tried that as well. That's when I gave up and put on the VRT. Supposed to be nice this weekend here in Iowa so maybe I'll give it a go again. frustrating

Get a tire brush that fits a drill. Will save you a lot of time and energy. If using Tuff Shine..scrub till the foam is white and not brown.

**Eldorado2k** · 02-02-2024, 09:44 PM

This sucks. I feel for you. You went and bought the tires you wanted and so far this has happened. Well if the so called proper cleaners can’t get results, maybe it’s time to test the hard stuff. LA’s Totally Awesome, straight undiluted.

They say Dura Shine Tire Cleaner that comes with their tire coating kit works amazing. I’ve never tried it though.