[Aries Astonopolis]

Hi all. I just got my 1LE fully ceramic coated which included wheels-off ceramic on the wheel, face and calipers.

When I picked up the car, there was still a layer of black soot/brake dust on the wheels. I was expecting them to fully clean the wheels so the ceramic would bond with the metal surface.

Would you question the detailer as to why the wheels were still dirty? Do you think they screwed up, or maybe they didn't even touch the wheels at all?


Thanks!

[kropscamaro16]

call them and ask but i doubt they touched them

[22SS1LE]

was the dust on the wheels before you even drove it?
If thats the case they did a hack job didnt even clean the wheels properly and just slapped the coating on. it will not stick in those areas.
WhenI coat my wheels I pull them off and scrub them till they are basically new and not one spec of brake dust on it before I apply my ceramic on them.

Now they may have coated them and when the car was washed the rotors will develop surface rust on them in mins. They could have coated the correctly and moved the car around with lightly braking to remove that off the rotors to give a cleaner look but got dust on the wheels from it. If thats the case it should be fine

[Aries Astonopolis]

Originally Posted by 22SS1LE

was the dust on the wheels before you even drove it?
If thats the case they did a hack job didnt even clean the wheels properly and just slapped the coating on. it will not stick in those areas.
WhenI coat my wheels I pull them off and scrub them till they are basically new and not one spec of brake dust on it before I apply my ceramic on them.

Now they may have coated them and when the car was washed the rotors will develop surface rust on them in mins. They could have coated the correctly and moved the car around with lightly braking to remove that off the rotors to give a cleaner look but got dust on the wheels from it. If thats the case it should be fine

the wheels were fairly clean when I dropped off the car, but not nearly clean enough to apply ceramic. I had cleaned them a couple weeks before.

When I picked the car up, I ran my finger on the inside of the rim and there was black residue on my finger. It absolutely did not appear to have been cleaned.

So either they didn't actually put the ceramic on the wheels, or they applied the ceramic over the existing layer of grime/soot/brake dust.

I'm trying to figure out if there's another feasible explanation; I would hate to think that a Ceramic Pro Elite detailer straight up lied to my face.

[arpad_m]

The most likely explanation is that they didn't apply ceramic to your wheels at all. The level of incompetence that would lead a professional Ceramic Pro shop to coat dirty wheels and not noticing that the product does not apply correctly is unthinkable.

Another possibility is that they "test drove" the car after coating the wheels and that's where the dust is coming from, you can easily verify this with a water beading test.

A third, least likely one is that it was regular dust, not brake dust, because they stored your car in a dusty environment with a lot of air movement after finishing the job. This does not apply if you're certain that you wiped brake dust off the wheels when you picked up the car.

I would drive the car back to their site and give them a chance to come clean. If they do not, I'd perform the test right there and see how the wheel surfaces end up behaving.

[22SS1LE]

Originally Posted by Aries Astonopolis

the wheels were fairly clean when I dropped off the car, but not nearly clean enough to apply ceramic. I had cleaned them a couple weeks before.

When I picked the car up, I ran my finger on the inside of the rim and there was black residue on my finger. It absolutely did not appear to have been cleaned.

So either they didn't actually put the ceramic on the wheels, or they applied the ceramic over the existing layer of grime/soot/brake dust.

I'm trying to figure out if there's another feasible explanation; I would hate to think that a Ceramic Pro Elite detailer straight up lied to my face.

you say you swiped in the wheel. Was the face of the wheels clean looking? Is it maybe they only did a wheel face coating and did not coat the barrels. Some people will charge extra for barrel cleaning and coating it vs just cleaning and coating the face of the wheels.
if nothing was clean there is no way they would get proper bonding of the coating on a poorly cleaned wheel.
I would go back and find out and see what they say. There are alot of hacks out there.

[Aries Astonopolis]

Originally Posted by 22SS1LE

you say you swiped in the wheel. Was the face of the wheels clean looking? Is it maybe they only did a wheel face coating and did not coat the barrels. Some people will charge extra for barrel cleaning and coating it vs just cleaning and coating the face of the wheels.
if nothing was clean there is no way they would get proper bonding of the coating on a poorly cleaned wheel.
I would go back and find out and see what they say. There are alot of hacks out there.

I paid extra for wheels off and full coating of the entire rim. The wheel faces came with the ceramic package. The guy who worked on the car claimed he took the wheels off and fully coated the wheel interior and caliper.

This shop is somewhat high-end and their facility was very clean and modern. They get very good reviews on Google and Yelp. I got the impression of quality and competency in my short time in the shop.

But I still can't think of a more likely explanation than what you guys have pointed out above. I'm kinda dismayed I have to have this conversation with them next week. Definitely a big hassle after paying a large bill to have this done correctly. I will say the CeramicPro Ion on the painted surfaces seems to have been done well.

[22SS1LE]

Sounds like they forgot or just tried to screw you.
I would go back and find out. If you paid i would expect them to look spotless when you picked up. Even if they drove it up and down to wear off the rotor surface rust a quality shop still still clean up the wheel so its perfectly clean for the customer

[Aries Astonopolis]

Originally Posted by arpad_m

you can easily verify this with a water beading test.

I know how to do this on the painted surfaces, but how do you do it on the wheel interiors?

Spray the wheel with a hose and look for water beading & water sheeting? Will it be dead obvious whether they coated it?

[arpad_m]

Originally Posted by Aries Astonopolis

I know how to do this on the painted surfaces, but how do you do it on the wheel interiors?

Spray the wheel with a hose and look for water beading & water sheeting? Will it be dead obvious whether they coated it?

The stock 1LE wheels are painted satin graphite metallic (WA784U), so the test works the same as with normal (body) paint. If you have a fresh ceramic coat, you should see crazy beading on the surface, otherwise water will just sheet. This way you can also easily tell if only the wheel face was coated.

[Aries Astonopolis]

Originally Posted by arpad_m

The stock 1LE wheels are painted satin graphite metallic (WA784U), so the test works the same as with normal (body) paint. If you have a fresh ceramic coat, you should see crazy beading on the surface, otherwise water will just sheet. This way you can also easily tell if only the wheel face was coated.

So I did this and there was extreme beading of water, not just on the wheel faces but also on the interior of the wheel. Looked just like the YouTube videos showing the hydrophobic properties.

SO it certainly was ceramiced, but I still can't square why the wheels were so dirty. Just rubbing my fingertip on 1" of the wheel interior turned my finger dark black.

So perhaps they did a shit job cleaning the rims and simply applied the coating over a dirty wheel?

[Gunkk]

OEM pads will dust up the wheels very, very quickly. So yeah if they were dusty when you picked it up, they might have taken it for a spin. If you didn't see dust until you got home, it was probably your drive home that did it.

So the shop might be completely innocent here.

If you don't track the car, consider switching to a low-dust pad like Powerstop Z26. I've had them on my Z for 8600 dust free miles of garage queen bliss.

If you do, then dust is the least of your issues.

[22SS1LE]

If they applied to coating to the wheels and were not fully cleaned and you paid extra I would no accept that.
When I coat wheels I will clean them till they are basically brand new looking before any coating is applied

[22SS1LE]

So here are my wheels after a 24mile round trip back and forth from a car show I just got home from.
My wheels are coated and I am a bit more ocd about things but there is hardly any brake dust because it doesn’t stick that well to the coated wheel. If they look worse then this when you picked up I would be pissed that the service was paid and you got that.