A word of warning Tyres.. or more specifically Alloys

[MKRW]

OK so I went to change from my summer tyre / alloy combination and onto Winter tyre / steel wheel combination on Sunday....

Having wrestled with the rear wheel for 30 minutes I gave up and phoned a friend. We both spent another 10 minutes wrestling with the front until we gave up.

I took the California into Merit tyres today and they wrestled with all 4 for over an hour.... lots of WD40 and 2 very large rubber mallets to encourage the wheels off.

Anyway I think they cracked the alloys but finally got them off and replaced them with the Winter Tyres and Steel Wheels.

I would recommend everyone to just check they can actually remove their own wheels as if I had had a flat tyre at any stage there is no way I could have changed the wheel myself and the AA /RAC would probably not have been able to either. They suggested this is something they have seen on a number of BMW and VW's before, but not usually quite as bad,

Anyone else experienced any similar problems with wheels rusting on....?
Thanks
Mark

 

[Andresz]

I had the same once in my T4. I had broken myself 2 wrenches (never thought that I am that strong), finally a friend of mine removed it with professional wrench with an arm as long as 1 meter.
The reason was not a rust, but the fact that it was tight with pneumatic wrench, apparently with wrong set-up.

 

[Californiaman]

That is very good advice. I have heard of this before - some recommend putting copperslip on the back of the mating surface but VW do not recommend this!

 

[sbmcd]

Now there is a coincidence.

I changed my wheels last week and had a similar issue. We got our van in March this year so alloys have not been on that long say 8.5 months before the swap to winters. First wheel proved the most stubborn, block of wood with cloth and mash hammer tapping around rim loosened it.

I found taps at 90 deg then loosen by hand worked for me, lots of little pulls side to side seems to work best. The other three wheels loosened by hand by the side to side pulling in small increments only.

The problem of course is the alloy / steel interface around the centring part of the wheel / hub causing corrosion. When I fitted my new wheels I used a very thin wipe of grease to try and prevent reoccurrence. Be very sparing as you do not want this to find its way to the discs.

I had considered copper slip but decided adding yet another element "copper" into the mix may not be helpful.

 

[KernowLad]

I had to replace a (female) friends wheel on her knackered old Ford Galaxy.
The spare was held on with a wire and clip; which had seized. So we had to hacksaw the wire.
Then it was flat; I had to grab our pump.
Then the offending wheel was seized on; took a huge amount of GT85 then leverage to get the darn thing off.

I felt I earned my knight in shining armour wings; I was exhausted!

 

[Alan]

Good tip to make shure wheels are free to come off before incurring a puncture
There was a post on here some where,about 18 months ago where a member got a puncture in the wilds of Scotland and had a dreadful experience not being able to free the offending wheel

 

[beardie]

All because a service no longer requires wheels to be removed. I always ask that they remove the wheels and put them back on to avoid this. Also another good reason to fit new tyres to the back, it means all the wheels come off more regilarly

 

[Californiaman]

A quick and dirty old trick is to loosen the bolts a bit and then drive forward and back a few times. Saves some of the thumping and kicking and uses the weight of the vehicle to do the work.

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[briwy]

A quick and dirty old trick is to loosen the bolts a bit and then drive forward and back a few times. Saves some of the thumping and kicking and uses the weight of the vehicle to do the work.

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Or, to leave a couple of bolts in loosely and let the jack down gently and wobble the vehicle.
The main thing is, as already mentioned, to get some copper grease round the inside of the contact areas of the wheel hubs and make sure it's done at least once a year. This also gives an opportunity to inspect the inside walls of the tyres.
And dont' be tempted to grease the bolts.

 

[sbmcd]

A quick and dirty old trick is to loosen the bolts a bit and then drive forward and back a few times. Saves some of the thumping and kicking and uses the weight of the vehicle to do the work.

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I will try that dirty trick next time, very useful forum!

 

[MKRW]

A quick and dirty old trick is to loosen the bolts a bit and then drive forward and back a few times. Saves some of the thumping and kicking and uses the weight of the vehicle to do the work.

Sent from my HTC One using Tapatalk

Interesting suggestion. Although in my case may not have worked it took some serious thumping from 3 large blokes and big hammers to loosen and remove the wheels. I'm really surprised to read that they do not remove the wheels at the service but \i guess that would explain why they were in such a bad state......

 

[Californiaman]

You would be surprised how much effort a 2.5 ton van can put through a small surface area like the mounting face of a wheel!

 

[muttley]

Hmmm. Went to fit on my new winter wheels & tyres today, and had the same problem with all 4 wheels corroded on. I loosened the bolts as suggested, and drove forwards and backwards but to no avail. I am a little scared of loosening the bolts too much and damaging the wheel or the van when it snaps loose. How far do you have to drive the van to loosen the wheels in this way? I think it may be a garage job, which is embarrassing.

Simon

 

[briwy]

Did you try my suggestion described above. I think it may work better than driving backwards and forwards as it will put a sideways loading (which is what you need) on the wheel/hub.
By wobbling the van I mean pushing it from side to side.

 

[sbmcd]

It would seem one of the benefits of winter tyres, apart from the obvious ones are that you have to remove your wheels at least twice a year and that hopefully gives some confidence that if we have a puncture we will be able to fit the spare at the roadside.

I have just changed from steel to alloys rims for my winters, van just did not look right with the steel wheels, despite my head telling me they were better for all that road salt.

Hopefully that smear of grease will prevent them from corroding together, I'll let you know in March when I change back to my summer tyres.

 

[muttley]

Did you try my suggestion described above. I think it may work better than driving backwards and forwards as it will put a sideways loading (which is what you need) on the wheel/hub.
By wobbling the van I mean pushing it from side to side.

I will give it a go ...

 

[gatvol]

A very worthwhile warning this. VWs have been particularly prone to this issue for at least 20 years

Copper grease is a simple answer that has served me well since my first exposure to this problem with a Mk3 golf

I always keep a can of tyre foam in all my cars for emergencies like this. It is an ugly and imperfect option. But so is trying to hammer off a wheel when such a heavy vehicle is precariously balanced on the supplied jack.

Also, if you put your foot down from time to time, you may want to rotate your front and rear tyres anyway as front wear is relatively high due to vehicle weight

 

[John Lloyd]

Besides the methods mentioned above here are two other foolproof methods:
1) Use the spare tyre/wheel as a substitute sledgehammer and hit the stuck wheel at the top, bottom and left and right hand side. The wheel will release.
2) After jacking up the van place a 1 - 2 inch wooden block or wedge on the ground under the inner part of the wheel and then gently lower the wheel onto it. The lateral force created will release the wheel.
In each method the stuck wheel should have two studs loosely fitted to prevent the wheel falling.

 

[Loz]

Holy thread resurrection batman, that’s a record.

 

[Guy/Caz]

Had this problem numerous times. Whilst jacked up put a brick or big flat stone under the inside edge of tyre, loosen bolts a little, gently lower till van weight breaks the joint.
very easy no effort reqd.
clean corrosion with Emery paper, smear on copper grease.
job done.

 

[rod_vw]

Loose the wheel bolts a bit and drive around the block rocking the steering as you go. Not my idea, picked it up from a motor trade workshop but I've had to resort to the method myself and it's the simplest method I've found.
As above grease the surfaces before replacing the wheel.

 

[sidepod]

Jack it up. Big bit of wood on the floor next to the bottom of the tyre. Sledge hammer swung gently against the wood. Never fails.

 

[John Lloyd]

This thread popped up in my inbox a couple of days ago as "Last week's most popular topic" (I failed to notice the date of the most recent post) so I thought I would share some advise.