Woah. It's hard to understate how awesome this product is. As a budget car enthusiast, I often pick up other peoples projects. This generally results in a car with wheels with caked on brake dust. Sorry, not caked, but BAKED. You know that brake dust that's practically EMBEDDED in the wheel material and/or paint? The stuff that you basically realize you're going to live with forever because there's no way in heck you'll ever get rid of it?

THIS WILL. And fast!

Spray it on, let it sit for a few minutes, and powerwash off. I recently acquired a mini cooper that sat outdoors for a few years, and the wheels were in BAD shape. Two applications of this and you can't tell there was ever a problem. This isn't for your weekly wheel cleaning, this is for that set of wheels you have tucked in the attic because you love them but cant get yourself to put them on the car because they look so gross. I'll forever have a bottle of this in my detail arsenal. What a lifesaver! I'd give 9 stars if I could.

This stinks really badly, that is the only complaint I have. It's a horrible, strong chemical smell. It cleans rims really well, like, incredibly well. The only complaint I have is that the smell is horrible. Other than that, its a great cleaner, I love how it changes from green to red.

Not nearly as effective as other reviewers are claiming, but it works acceptably well. Definitely NOT scrub-free; a decent amount of elbow grease is necessary to remove the caked-on grime. For the light dust and dirt, I suppose it might work without scrubbing. If you are the type that washes your car and wheels every week or two, then this would work fine. But if you're trying to remove a year of caked-on grime, this won't do the job. I expected a miracle product, but instead got just another average wheel cleaner, only this one is more expensive than most.

I've never used any wheel cleaners on my car until this past month when I tried 2 different products. I've been using a drive through car wash and occasionally get the wheel clean option but that only does an ok job at cleaning the wheels. Whatever dirt/grime that remains has been there and over time the wheels have slowly been looking more and more dirty due to the brake dust and dirt the automatic car wash doesn't get off. I didn't feel like spending a lot of time with a brush, etc so first I tried a Meguiars product from the local auto parts store. Despite the ok reviews for that, it did absolutely nothing to make my wheels look any different.

I then ordered Sonax from Amazon. At first I didn't notice anything happening. I sprayed the first wheel and the product appeared to be a fluorescent greenish color and that was it. I moved to the second wheel and saw the same thing. I then looked back at the first wheel I sprayed and noticed it turning reddish color and realized this stuff was working. It even started taking the years and years of crap off the inside of the wheel but I think that will need some additional attention due the amount of crap that's been on there for a very long time.

Overall this stuff works fantastic, it's worth every penny and just for ease of use without having to spend time scrubbing the wheels I highly recommend it and I'm very happy to have my wheels looking like new again.

I'll try to keep it short:
It does smell bad - really bad - but it works. It goes on lime green and once it's turned red (from interacting with the iron in the brake dust) it can be hosed off.
It's not scrub-free but it does penetrate the really stubborn brake dust including the yellow staining that accumulates on alloys .
If you're willing to put in 2 minutes with a hot, soapy sponge, then you'll get great results. Use the Sonax first, let it sit, hose it off (make sure it's all well hose off). Sponge the wheels with a hot, soapy sponge. You won't need to scrub. Hose off again. Done
Some reviewers claim the bottle is too small. I'm not sure what they were doing but I did 4 wheels and probably used less than a quarter of the bottle.You don't need to go crazy with this stuff. The spray IS a spray, not a jet like some have mentioned. If you're squeezing the trigger like you're holding on for dear life then sure, it's a jet. But be smart and you get a foamy spray.
DO NOT use this on a windy day. D'uh.