[Randy Johnson]

I have the blue msport brake calipers on my f36. They have built up brake dust and road grime. I’ve cleaned them with brake cleaner but that only gets the surface stuff. Is there a cleaner out there that can remove the tougher stuff without damaging the paint? It seems to be in good shape.

[Billfitz]

As part of my yearly touch up with caliper paint I first clean them with Flash Brown Royal. I also re-lube the pads and carriers.

[AlmondJayRoM3]

Brake cleaner will not remove stuck on brake dust and not really meant for detailing. Use a good iron remover like carpro ironx. Meguiars ultimate wheel cleaner is basically the same thing. Let it soak for a few minutes then agitate with a brush and rinse. Once clean go to something a little less harsh and less expensive for your normal routine car wash routine. Something like Meguiars D143 non acid wheel and tire cleaner. I use it diluted 4:1.

[bellguy]

Bilt Hamber Korosol or Alloy wheel cleaner, extremely safe on paint and alloys, more often than not doesn’t need much agitation with a soft brush

[sqwinny]

Meguiars purple transparent "hot wheels" wheel cleaner bottle is your friend. Cool calipers + wet them + soak for 60-100 seconds, hit with wheel brush or microfiber towel in car soap. Does the trick everytime. Florida brake dust and road grime comes right off.

[Commerce]

IronX, polish and coat with CarPro DLux. My calipers are always clean now.

[AspektUSA]

Sonax Full Effect Plus will melt the brake dust right off, and you can agitate it with a brush as it works.

[thejeremyman9]

Originally Posted by Randy Johnson

I have the blue msport brake calipers on my f36. They have built up brake dust and road grime. I’ve cleaned them with brake cleaner but that only gets the surface stuff. Is there a cleaner out there that can remove the tougher stuff without damaging the paint? It seems to be in good shape.

There are some good suggestions above, but definitely do not use brake cleaner. It eats paint.

The key is to clean them every time you wash the car so you dont have buildup. I use some of the cleaners mentioned above, and i use a foam bug sponge to get behind the wheel spokes and hit all areas of the caliper without removing the wheels. Similar to this: https://www.amazon.com/Viking-845100.../dp/B001GJ7HCI

[1QuikWS6]

Originally Posted by AspektUSA

Sonax Full Effect Plus will melt the brake dust right off, and you can agitate it with a brush as it works.

This^^^^

How I clean my wheels and blue calipers at the same time

[Randy Johnson]

Thank you all. I did not know of these cleaning products. I’ll go shopping this weekend and hopefully can clean the calipers.

[Randy Johnson]

I tried the Meguiars ultimate wheel cleaner with only ok results. I took my front wheels off to the do the inside of the rim and the caliper. It did remove a lot of dirt but the is still a lot of baked on dirt on the inside of the rim. The caliper has caked on black marks. I left the Meguiars ultimate wheel cleaner on for several minutes and scrubbed with a stiff brush on both the wheels and calipers. I will try another type of cleaner when I have a chance. I'm also debating changing out the front pads for some that don't dust as much. These are dealer pads with maybe 12k miles. Lots of meat left.

[Billfitz]

I've never found anything else that works nearly as well as Flash Brown Royal, but even that needs a bit of help on the inside of rims. I use a medium Scotchbrite pad and the baked on crud comes right off.

[johnung]

Originally Posted by Randy Johnson

I have the blue msport brake calipers on my f36. They have built up brake dust and road grime. I’ve cleaned them with brake cleaner but that only gets the surface stuff. Is there a cleaner out there that can remove the tougher stuff without damaging the paint? It seems to be in good shape.

Sonax wheel cleaners work well. My go to cleaner is Formula 409. No other household cleaner works as well. I use it to scrub brake dust off calipers and rotors. Then use brake cleaner to rinse it off.

[Desertnate]

Like everyone else, I simply us wheel cleaner. My weapon of choice is Griots Wheel Cleaner (the original green stuff)

The key is to keep them from getting too grimy in the first place. Whenever I'm washing my car, I try to hit them as much as possible with my Speedmaster wheel brush and the wheel cleaner I'm using on the rest of the wheel. When I swap out my winter/summer wheels, I take the opportunity to go with with the wheel cleaner and an old rag and get to the small areas I can't reach when the wheels are on the car.

[Boostedphil698]

Tuga wheel cleaner is also great. It's made in Germany. I recommend cleaning your car once a month at the very least.

[sqwinny]

Black grime on the inside of the wheel is most likely road tar. You're going to have to spray the insides with goo gone and scrub with a green scotch guard pad. Same one you'd buy for dishes. Don't use this on the face of the wheel, otherwise it'll scratch it to hell and back. Had to do this to my 400m wheels after driving up and down the i95 and nighttime construction.

[BWbimmer]

I noticed the alumilium part of the rotors doesn't agree with the wheel cleaner. Until I was using the cleaner the rotor was nice and shiny but afterwards I had a lot of black spots on the inner part of the rotor. So make sure you really wash it off or even dry the ring. I was quite annoyed