scrubbing lp with discdoctor brush and vpi 16.5

I don't scrub on the VPI. I take it off. But that is only for stubbon gunk or truly dirty LP's. The rest I soak on the VPI and hold the scrub brush in place as the LP turns.

Radiohead, the motor on your VPI cleaning machine is a high torque motor that is meant to withstand the scrub-while-spinning routine. And keep in mind that you don't want to apply much force when scrubbing. In the instructions that accompany the AI solutions, they advise the following: "Do not apply hard pressure as this can compact debris into the record grooves, making the cleaning process more difficult and can cause permanent damage to the record!"

As for the question of whether to scrub before or after the soak, the only thing I would add to the above posts is that you need to thoroughly distribute the fluid around the record and ensure that the fluid has penetrated into all the grooves across the entire surface of the LP before you begin the soak. I distribute the fluid by holding the brush stationary while the platter rotates in order to spread the fluid and break the surface tension until the entire surface of the record is thoroughly coated in fluid - usually about four full revolutions of the platter. At that point, I typically leave the record soak for five minutes and proceed to the scrubbing phase.

To thoroughly scrub the LP, some of us leave the VPI record cleaning machine's platter stationary while manually scrubbing back and forth - following the grooves both clockwise and counterclockwise - over a slice of the record. Once that slice of the record has been scrubbed, I use the motor to rotate the platter a partial revolution, stop again, and repeat the back and forth scubbing process over the next 1/3 slice of the record. I repeat this process until the entire circumference of the record has been scrubbed. Scrubbing the record both clockwise and counterclockwise is thought to offer some benefit over simply using the VPI's motor to scrub in the counterclockwise direction only.

Two things:
1. You might want to get a second wand for the 16.5 and use it to suck up the first (non-water) fluids. This keeps the wand clean for the final rinse. Alternatively you can use some other method (a clean cotten pad or scott toilet tissue) to mop up the fluid prior to using the distilled water and final vacuum. I only have on wand and use toilet tissue. If you do that, use enough tissue so it doesn't get completely soaked and disintegrate.

2. I always do two distilled water rinses. One often isn't sufficient.

I use disc doctor fluid so YMMV. I got the tips about scott toilet tissue and the second rinse from the disc doctor himself.

BTW I always do the brushing on the platter with the motor off. Leaving the motor off keeps the motor from overheating (it's off more than on during cleaning) and it's better to do back and forth motion than just brushing one direction. You just leave the platter stationary and move around the record, keeping the brush perpendicular to the groove at all times. It's pretty easy. I use a back and forth motion and work around the record 5 or 6 times. It's supposed to be similar to the agitation in a washing machine--you aren't so much scrubbing out the groove as agitating the fluid which does the work. It just takes a bit of time.

I get great results this way but I did have mixed results initially until I fine tuned the method.

I buy only new records. I use the Audio Intelligent 3 step solutions, and I have tried steam cleaning too. But some records, no matter how prestine they look, no matter how long and how many times I cleaned them, they're just plain noisy, and I'm specifically talking about surface noise that's very apparent between two tracks. I know these noise that I heard is not due to my TT setup because I do have some LPs that are absolutely quiet.

So the thing you need to determine is, are you sure the "mixed results" you're getting is not due to the inherent flaw in the pressing itself?