How to Clean Chrome Rims

Chrome rims are an enduringly popular specialty car accessory because chrome plating is durable and has a unique shine that looks, well, cool.

Road debris, brake dust, and environmental considerations like acid rain wreak havoc on your wheels. And if you’ve invested in chrome rims, you’ll do anything to ensure that wow-inducing mirror finish keeps looking its best.

Read on to learn how to clean chrome rims.

Step 1: Rinse Your Wheels

The first step in cleaning your rims is learning how to clean wheels in general.

Squirt all four wheels with a garden hose or, even better, a pressure washer. If you don’t have either of these items, you could also throw a bucket of water over each wheel. This will remove road debris, leaves and twigs, and brake dust.

If you really want to get into all those crevices, a car wheel has, try using different nozzles to see how easily you can direct the water or up the pressure.

Step 2: Spray and Scrub

Any car detailing guide worth its salt will tell you how to clean car wheels. But there’s an extra step when cleaning chrome rims; you need to use the right products to ensure you project the finish.

Spray a quality wheel and tire cleaner or specialty chrome wheel cleaner all over your wheels and leave it there for a few minutes. Take a soft-bristled tire brush—they usually have a longer handle to help with angles—and gently but thoroughly scrub every inch of your tire, wheel, and rims.

Step 3: Clean the Lug Nuts and Wheel Wells

If you’re only focused on how to clean rims, you might forget about a couple of wheel parts that also need extra attention—the lug nuts (and their holes) and the wheel wells.

While your initial rinse and scrub should have loosened a lot of the dirt that collects in these areas, you’ll need to use a bit of elbow grease to get them really clean.

You can get a special lug nut brush to reach right into lug nut holes. Use a long-handled brush with sturdy bristles to get under the wheel wells.

Step 4: Rinse and Dry

Finally, you need to work out how to clean brake dust off rims—at least those last spots left after your thorough scrubbing. And that means it’s time to rinse and dry your wheels!

Rinse your wheels as you did in step one of this guide. Then take a microfiber towel and dry every part—including the wheel wells, lug nuts and holes, and rims—thoroughly. Water spots not only look ugly, but they can also damage the chrome finish over time.

How to Clean Chrome Rims Explained

Learning how to clean chrome rims is an essential part of car maintenance—especially when you’ve invested a lot of money in your wheels! If you want to tackle the job at home, start building your chrome rim cleaning kit and practicing the steps.

If you’re not sure you’ve got it right, pay a car detailer for a couple of cleans. You can learn a lot from watching the pros at work!

For more advice on car maintenance, browse the other articles on our website.