Cost: £12
Date of Review: 22 April 2019
The Sales Pitch from Auto Finesse:
Auto Finesse Iron Out intensive iron-contaminate and fallout remover safely and effectively removes the tiny pieces of ferrous shrapnel that can embed itself into practically any surface. Auto Finesse Iron Out targets and dissolves these iron particles before significant damage to your vehicle can occur.
Auto Finesse Iron Out is an advanced, pH neutral, reactive gel formula that specifically targets only iron-based contamination. It is suitable to use on most exterior surfaces, including paintwork, aluminium (not bare alluminium), magnesium, stainless steel, anodized finishes, chrome, glass, plastic, and even rubber. Iron Out also contains strong degreasing agents to help loosen road films, making it a powerful force in the decontamination process.
Source: https://shop.autofinesse.co.uk/iron-out-500ml
What You Get:
Product Description:
A colour changing product to remove contaminants from multiple surfaces. Spray on, let it change colour and rinse off. This can be used on bodywork, trim and for my test – wheels. If it can clean these wheels then it will work anywhere!
Instructions:
Note from Auto Finesse; Iron Out should be used as part of a multi-stage decontamination process, in between tar removal and claying. This process should be performed at least twice a year (before winter and after,) on daily-driven vehicles before applying a car wax or paint sealant, or before any polishing work is performed. If you are unsure of whether or not your car has ferrous contamination, spray Iron Out directly onto a yellow Foam Pad, and wipe the product on a small section of your vehicle’s paint or wheels. We can almost guarantee that you will immediately witness a chemical reaction, alerting you that you have iron fallout that needs to be removed. This reaction is often referred to as ‘Bleeding’, as the solution turns blood red where it contacts iron fallout, temporarily highlighting the contamination while it is dissolved.
Application & Removing
Very simple, aim and squirt. that’s providing that you can get these stupid small triggers to work. Mine was a brand new bottle and was leaking pretty much after half a dozen squeezes. I hate these tiny AF triggers, in my big hands it’s awkward, along with the fact that the product also leaked down the bottle it became hard to hold and apply. The smell is typical brake cleaner and no nice citrus fruits to be had here.
I was going to test this on wheels. That is where the vast majority of the contaminates will be. This car had not been cleaned for a few weeks deliberately to see how it would cope. Not just one car but both my cars different types of wheels, the smart car being the worst.
Liberal application of the mixture was sprayed to the front wheels everywhere I could. Within a few seconds the colour started to change.
I left it to work until it didn’t change colour anymore and rinsed off. The results were not good.
The instructions do say to repeat if necessary, so again I applied more.
Then rinsed off for the second time. Better, but still not that good.
Rear wheels
Second application
Other test car;
After first rinse and start of second application.
After second rinse
Results:
It’s worth noting this quote from Auto Finesse ‘Guide to cleaning Wheels’, the last sentence being of particular interest;
“Imperial wheel cleaner will help remove built up grime and brake dust. Or for that deeper clean we offer Iron Out. Iron our is our dedicated iron fall out remover that will safely deep clean your wheels.”
Source: https://www.autofinesse.co.uk/wheel-cleaning-guide/
With that being said above the results are very varied depending on level of contaminate and what you intend to do with it. These tests were based on heavy brake dust, not just a few little deposits on the paint.
- The Smart car was heavily caked in brake dust and was a fair test, the product performed poorly in fact. After two applications the brake dust was still there.
- The Toyota was much less caked in brake dust and had been alloy wheel sealed previously on the last clean. The product performed much better this time removing all the deposits with a much easier test.
Using this product on light contamination will work, but if you are expecting to remove heavy build up this from your wheels in two or three goes – don’t bother in my honest opinion. You could get a brush and work it in and scrub it, like Meguiar’s advises for their product. Or, just spray leave it and rinse it off with the Poor Boy’s World product. Links at the end for much better products and my reviews of them as well. One of them even has a 10 score!
The fact is I used almost half the bottle on eight wheels, I was liberal like it said and soaked everything.
Rating: 3 out 10
Very disappointing from Auto Finesse, they make some great products, but this is not one of them. A low score because I had heavy contamination on my wheels and I followed the instructions. The leaking product trigger didn’t help with the rating.
The cost of this product is pretty much the same as other products, but it didn’t do my test I tried. For only a couple of £ more I could get one litre of the awesome Poor Boy’s World product!
Ease of use – Very easy, spray on, watch it change colour then rinse off. Then do it again.
Finish – Rubbish, overall.
Conclusion:
I am not convinced that just because something turns blood-red it’s the best out there. I get it that this product has to be used on paint so perhaps it’s not the strongest of the products out there. But, the product does say to “deep clean wheels”, that’s what I used it for, and it was rubbish on heavy deposits. If this product was for decontamination of paintwork then this product should be fine, but a stronger version for wheels? Have Auto Finesse missed a marketing ploy here? On the second car the wheels were half as bad although covered similar mileage and driving conditions. These wheels had previously been waxed with proper wheel wax, so in theory the brake dust shouldn’t have stuck to the wheels anyway. However, on the Toyota this product did remove the deposits – but again it still took two attempts with an obvious head start.
I think that the product starts to dry out a little to quickly and doesn’t really get a chance to dissolve the deposits. Maybe the instructions should say, ‘don’t let the product dry out and agitate with a brush, rinse after one minute. Repeat if necessary’. Even then I still don’t think it will work without a lot hard scrubbing.
Would I recommend it? No way, not for wheels. It could be useful for paint.
Would I buy it again? No.
Links:
Meguiar’s – Hot Rims All Wheel & Tyre Cleaner
https://onemanandhismustang.com/meguiars-hot-rims-wheel-tyre-cleaner/ or click here
Poor Boy’s World – Spray and Rinse Wheel Cleaner:
https://onemanandhismustang.com/spray-and-rinse-wheel-cleaner/ or click here