I wrote a review on the Sonax Wheel Cleaner Plus when it first came out years ago and mainly compared it to it’s predecessor, the Sonax Wheel Cleaner Full Effect.  As you can see in that review, I think Full Effect is a great product but the Sonax Wheel Cleaner Plus is definitely a better cleaner overall, as expected.  A lot of what I wrote in that review still stands, so here I wanted to just add a few things I noticed with the new formula for 2019.

I decided to use the cleaner on my fairly clean BMW winter wheels…

These wheels stay pretty clean as I barely drive that car, but you can definitely see there’s a lot of brake dust just sitting on the wheel.  A couple wheels I just rinsed after a few minutes of letting the wheel cleaner sit and they came out great.  I actually didn’t even touch them, just sprayed, rinsed and dried with a blower as they were very clean.  On this wheel I actually used a sponge to wash the wheel face and that’s where I noticed the difference between the new and old formula…

The 2019 formula Sonax Wheel Cleaner Plus is soapy!  Yes the old one was a bit soapy too when you spray a lot and mix with water, but here I just went to wipe the wheel face and noticed it acting like a more soapy wheel cleaner.  This was one thing I hated about Full Effect as it was just very runny and while it did great removing iron deposits, I never liked using it as a soap since it would just sling everywhere.  This was especially bad when cleaning the barrels with the EZ Detail Brush… you can expect to ruin your clothes immediately with all the splashing.

After being pleasantly surprised by this, I finished washing the wheel then rinsed it off and did a quick blow drying…

As I said initially I only wanted to share a few thoughts on this new formula and they’re all positive.  I have tested this on a few cars and can’t say that it noticeably removes more contamination than the old formula, but it works really well and the soapy feel to it was a really great surprise.  I would definitely highly recommend Sonax Wheel Cleaner Plus especially now that it can be easily used both as an iron remover and wheel cleaner/soap in one.