Cost: £17.00 for 500ml
Date of Review: 6th April 2026
The Sales Pitch from Shelby:
What Sets It Apart
- Powerful formula removes brake dust, road grime, and embedded contaminants
- Safe for use on alloy, chrome, and painted wheel finishes
- Breaks down grime and brake dust making it easy to rinse away for a deep clean
- Provides a protective layer to resist future build-up and keep wheels cleaner longer
- Easy and Ready to use, delivering professional-quality results with minimal effort
Shelby’s Alloy Wheel Cleaner is the ultimate solution for restoring the shine and cleanliness of your wheels. Specially formulated to tackle tough brake dust, road grime, and embedded contaminants, this powerful cleaner quickly lifts and dissolves stubborn dirt, leaving your alloy wheels looking like new. Safe for use on all alloy, chrome, and painted wheel finishes, Shelby’s Alloy Wheel Cleaner ensures a deep clean without the risk of damage or discoloration.
Its advanced formula breaks down and encapsulates brake dust and other grime, making it easy to rinse away, while providing a protective layer that resists future build-up. Shelby’s Alloy Wheel Cleaner is perfect for both regular maintenance and deep cleaning, offering a professional-quality finish with minimal effort. Keep your wheels shining and protected with this easy-to-use cleaner that delivers lasting results.
Source: Alloy Wheel Cleaner – CSL Shelby
What You Get:
Product Description:
A spray on alloy wheel cleaner which is left to dwell and then rinsed off after a couple of minutes. The selling point here is that the product is ‘ Safe for use on all alloy, chrome, and painted wheel finishes’.
A very watery product with a blue tinge to the product. No spray supplied in this case for the bottle. This is non colour changing product to purple once applied.
Instructions:
- Optional – Fit a suitable spray mist nozzle, not a jet stream style trigger if not supplied
- Spray on to wheel
- Leave for 1 – 2 minutes
- Agitate with a brush if needed
- Rinse well with water
Testing Environment:
Warm day with overcast and sunny spells. This was used on Smart painted wheels that were very grubby. The light scratch marks on the wheels have been there since I had the car and not caused by me, I just haven’t gotten round to doing anything about it, yet.
Application:
Spray evenly over the wheel and allow to work. There was no pungent smell of rotten eggs as you sometimes get with the more aggressive non touch wheel cleaners.
Although this is a very watery product it did stick to the wheel and not just drip or run of the wheel. I also applied to the tyre to see what it would do. Take care to apply in all the tight spaces, after a minute of so the product was still visible.
Not much product was needed to get a good coverage on all the wheels and will prove to be an economical purchase.
Removing:
I took a damp microfibre cloth and gently wiped half off between a couple of spoke to see the difference before finally rinsing off. The difference is clear to see below.
I found no need to agitate with a wheel brush to remove the brake dust, except for a minor kerb rash scrape which left a little brake dust behind in the deeper grooves.
The jet wash was on a low setting which easily removed the product fully from the wheels. The tyres and wheels came up clean and didn’t need a second application or additional scrubbing to remove embedded dust. Except for the little bit of kerb rash which needed little bit more attention.
Results:
The results were good, although not the shiniest of finishes I have seen on wheels. The tyres did clean up nicely, an application of a tyre dressing would have bought the tyres to a much darker look. After allowing the wheels to dry out, these photos were taken the day after the clean.
To clean the inside of the wheel barrel, it would have required a little working in or agitation with a ‘wheel woolie’ to get them clean. Where some of the spray had gone through the spokes of the wheels and hit the barrels behind the spokes of the wheels, some of that dust was definitely broken down, but not dissolved completely.
With these fairly good condition set of wheels the product worked well.
Rating: 8 out 10
Good results overall. The finished shine after rinsing could have been a little more glossy, but these wheels aren’t in the best tip top condition to start with. A once over with some wheel wax or a spray wax brings these wheels up to nice shine, but that’s a little more work to achieve and not everybody want’s to do that, so the finish here would be good enough.
During use there was no rancid smell, or no colour changing technology involved for this spray on and rinse off process with little to no effort to clean the wheels on the visible painted parts. Keeping on top of the wheels with a regular cleaning will make sure this is genuinely spray and rinse off quick win for a car clean. The sales pitch mentions that this product “Provides a protective layer to resist future build-up and keep wheels cleaner longer”. The longevity is to be evaluated and I will put an update once I have some dirty wheels again and how quickly they become dirty.
Ease of use – 9 out 10
Finish – 8 out 10
Conclusion:
Touchless wheel washing is a bit of a holy grail and hotly contested market with major manufacturers and their products often not delivering what they claim. Some of those products either smell bad but do the job, or they do need a little agitation or help along with stubborn dust. This Shelby Alloy Wheel Cleaner is a trade off and not as harsh as some brands. Keeping on top of the wheel cleaning regime with this product will save you time and effort.
This product held up well and did the job I expected it to do, it cleaned the wheels with a spray, dwell and rinse off. Perfect for the weekend warrior who want’s good results with little effort.
With this price point it’s nearer the top end of the market so I would want just that little bit more for the money like a better gloss finish. But, if the brake dust isn’t sticking and it’s easier to clean each time, then this product would be worth the money and should last a good few wheel cleans, then it becomes a bit more economical.
For delicate finishes like chrome or some painted wheels this is a good choice. The non liberal application vs vs ease of use vs results makes this recommendable within a playing field of serious competition which are a little cheaper.
Would I recommend it? Yes.
Would I buy it again? Yes, if a little cheaper.