First off, I failed to wash the wheels after my last DE. My bad I know, it was a crazy weekend followed by being out of town for 4 days.

But, I was under the impression that these pads didn't/wouldn't do this.

Anyone else had this happen? The wheels are contour II's and I will be buying track wheels but I was hoping to keep these in good shape for street or if I decided to sell them.

Can they be fixed for a reasonable amount of $$?

I'll cross post this in the Tire & wheel forum.

EDIT: I edited out the 'is it worth it to have them fixed' part since that is completely subjective.

The day after I picked up my M3, I went to a track day that happened to be during a very heavy rainstorm.

With the stock pads, and 1 day of driving hard, I etched stains into my front Contours. Even with an inane amount of scrubbing, they always looked dirty. I tried Simple Green to no avail, but I just had some 3 year old Meguair's Cleaner and Wax and went over all the wheels meticulously. They cleaned up pretty well and I haven't had a reoccurance since, although I haven't been to the track in the rain again.

My suggestion would be to get a VERY light polish compound (clearcoat safe) and just go over the wheels. Then thrown on a coat of wax and they should be as good as new.

Drive Safely,
Raza

Get a can of Goof Off--

Test the inside of the wheel first to see if you can live with the cosmetic result. The worse I have had is a need to put some wax down afterward to get the same high polish back. It works when other cleaners (i.e. Simple Green) fail. It will get almost anything off your wheels. It is my favorite to get all that stubborn smutz off the inside of your wheels after you get tires changed and rebalanced, leaving all the caked-on brake dust and residual wheel weight adhesive on the wheels.

BTW, I haven't had any problems with Ultimates with my wheels, but nor have I ever run them on the track. They would always get swapped out for the weekend back when I used to run my street car on the track.

Hope that helps

axxis are not caustic in anyway. Take a pic of the damage.

axxis are not caustic in anyway. Take a pic of the damage.

I didn't think they were. I haven't had time to go over them very well, but it doesn't look like it's going to be easy. I'll get some pics up this afternoon.

Wheel Wax is your best protection. Use the GOOF.

Ok, I just went to town on the rims with everything I had. They look a lot better than they did, which tells me they may not be scored or pitted since the bigger stuff came off but I can't get the rest clean.

Here an after pic:
http://home.austin.rr.com/desten/IMG_0384_2%2050%20(1).JPG

Your not the only one my friend's stock wheels got stained too.. He said stay away!

a toothbrush, non-diluted simple green, and effort will get those spots off. goo gone or goof should also work.

they will come off.... mine where BAD and they are chrome when i first got em...
like the owner never cleaned the rim after a year or so.
but with some mothers mag polish and a plastic bristled brush... it all came off, and shined like new.
i put wax on my rims after that, it helps repel... but i read a ad for something by mr clean that repels brake dust i think ill give that a try.

Put a little more elbow grease into them tonight and they are getting better. And honestly, I'm not too concerned about these rims. But, my real concern is that these ultimates aren't supposed to do this. Until I go to true track pads I didn't think I had to worry about this.

I thought that these were not caustic at all but they are wreaking havoc on the finish after 5 days ( I knew I should have cleaned them before leaving the track :mad) But I guess I had a false sense of security.

Lesson learned.

Man, you guys are working way too hard. A clay bar will have them like new in 10 minutes. Follow with wax.