Cleaning your car

[charlie]

How many members take there wheels off to clean there car I only ask because I have seen it posted on the mk7 side

[dubber36]

I do about twice a year.

Having Vancouvers, there is enough room to get my mitt between the spokes and wash the insides of them as part of my normal wash regime. This won't get rid of tar spots, to they need to come off to be able to clean them off. Whist the wheels are off, it gives access to the parts of the wheel arch liners that can't be reached with the wheels on the car. It's also better to polish and seal the wheels when they are up on the bench, rather than crawling round on the floor.

[Booth11]

I think if you're doing a full on decontamination and protection detail once or twice a year then yes, you'd want the wheels off.  Otherwise for regular weekly, fortnightly etc clean, then no, that would be overkill, and I for one have a life 

Similarly if you use winter wheels then you'd clean either set at switchover time.

As with dubber's wheels, with Glendales you can reach right through spokes to the back, so they get pretty well cleaned during the normal wash.

[Snoopy]

Once or twice a year at most i would say.
Ive only done it twice In 4 years.
My leons get done during winter to summer wheel changes.
If the wheels have been properly cleaned and sealed they should clean up will with just a normal wash. I think what your reading is people sealing and decontamination of their wheels from new.

[JoeGTI]

I've done it in the past and it's hard and time consuming work. It'd be a lot easier of course if you had access to a ramp! There's also the danger you'll do more harm than good - i.e. scratching the wheel when unbolting it or heaven forbid dropping it on its face on rough ground when it's off! I scratched around one of the bolt holes on one of my MK6 Vancouvers when undoing a bolt and after that I decided it wasn't worth the effort.

Luckily the Mk7 GTI wheels are fairly easy to get between the spokes.

[Beddie]

Twice a year for me at winter/summer wheel changeover time 

[seabrook132]

Pretty much what others have said, just when decontaminating and sealing or if cleaning while swapping from winters to summers and vice versa. For normal washes they stay on

[andygo]

top tip when taking your wheels off is to wrap some tape around the socket etc so it cant scuff the wheel bolt hole area.

[Mattyj]

top tip when taking your wheels off is to wrap some tape around the socket etc so it cant scuff the wheel bolt hole area.

I've done this for yrs if you can get any self vulcanising electrical tape is perfect its rubberised and it only sticks to itself so no mess left on socket just wrap it on tight