Wheel removal!

[Californication69]

And don’t forget.

DONT apply any copper grease / grease / polish / oil / coffee / any liquid
To the wheel bolt threads.

They need to be dry.
The 180Nm of torque stretches them slightly to apply the correct level of torque to hold your wheel to hub.
And go around the bolts twice.
Tighten up on slight opposites of the facing bolts.
So 1, 9, 5, 11 & 7 on a clock face.
Then go around again.

That’s my five pennies worth.

But all sound advice so as you can deal with a puncture at the side of the road.
I heard the locking nuts can be 150Nm

 

[Resfeber]

And don’t forget.

DONT apply any copper grease / grease / polish / oil / coffee / any liquid
To the wheel bolt threads.

They need to be dry.
The 180Nm of torque stretches them slightly to apply the correct level of torque to hold your wheel to hub.
And go around the bolts twice.
Tighten up on slight opposites of the facing bolts.
So 1, 9, 5, 11 & 7 on a clock face.
Then go around again.

That’s my five pennies worth.

But all sound advice so as you can deal with a puncture at the side of the road.
I heard the locking nuts can be 150Nm

Agree. My issues are that correctly torqued up by hand to 180 Nm the bolts can be undone with an 18” or longer bar and socket. As soon as you try to use an angled head wrench or the VW supplied one (which I have to stand on and use my body weight as I no longer have the upper body strength to loosen them) the force is being applied at an obtuse angle to the centre line of the bolt rather than 90 degs. and often comes off the bolt head particularly if you are using the locking wheel nut adapter or you have to use leg power/body weight to slacken the bolt
If a garage has been at your wheels with an air powered impact gun I don’t know what they think they have set them to but I always find they are much tighter even shortly after fitting when I remove them to re torque and clean off the glue reside/backing from any discarded balance weights.

 

[sidepod]

When I posted the original chat I was hoping this wouldn’t descend into yet another “wheel bolt torque “ nightmare! Inevitable!

 

[Californication69]

When I posted the original chat I was hoping this wouldn’t descend into yet another “wheel bolt torque “ nightmare! Inevitable!

You knew it would happen

 

[fluff34567]

Very easily solved with a minute film application of anti seize paste on the hub ring and on the wheel rear face 5 contact points.

 

[Corgimajor]

After reading this thread I booked my T6.1 Ocean in to local tyre shop to remove an refit wheels in line with the VW Transporter owner manual recommendation (fronts to back every 2 years if you aren't doing much mileage). I'm glad I did. The lad who did the wheel swap said they were a complete pig to remove. However he said he cleaned up the contact surfaces and applied anti-seize compound to avoid a similar battle in future, but warned this is still only likely to keep things easy for next 6-12 months. He also commented on the poor connection of the anti-theft wheel nut adaptor and said it needed a lot of lateral force to keep the adaptor in contact with the nut when loosening and tightening. He recommended replacing these with standard wheel nuts as he reckoned you are more likely nowadays to have your catalytic converter nicked than your alloys!! So I will be doing this. Big shout out to ETB Autocentres in Bude great service.

 

[sbmcd]

I have recently picked up a new California Ocean from Breeze, today I fitted my set of winter wheels and tyres.

I was expecting the usual struggle to get the wheels off and I was not disappointed. Despite the van having less than 1k miles on the clock and only bought just new over two weeks ago I was surprised just how much corrosion there was on the hub spigots see pic, and how difficult they were to get off already.

Anyway finally got them all changed, all hub spigots wire brushed and wheel sockets cleaned up then given a light coat of copper slip, they'll be much easier to get off next time for sure.

Can't imagine what it would be like trying to do this with the van jack at the side of the road after a puncture.

 

[B J G]

I have recently picked up a new California Ocean from Breeze, today I fitted my set of winter wheels and tyres.

I was expecting the usual struggle to get the wheels off and I was not disappointed. Despite the van having less than 1k miles on the clock and only bought just new over two weeks ago I was surprised just how much corrosion there was on the hub spigots see pic, and how difficult they were to get off already.

Anyway finally got them all changed, all hub spigots wire brushed and wheel sockets cleaned up then given a light coat of copper slip, they'll be much easier to get off next time for sure.

Can't imagine what it would be like trying to do this with the van jack at the side of the road after a puncture.

View attachment 131183

Same on mine when removed soon after delivery, I put it down to quayside parking.

I did find a good wax polish of both the hub and wheel contact areas worked better in the long term. No spin off copper lube either to clean.

 

[CaliforniaCylus]

I have recently picked up a new California Ocean from Breeze, today I fitted my set of winter wheels and tyres.

I was expecting the usual struggle to get the wheels off and I was not disappointed. Despite the van having less than 1k miles on the clock and only bought just new over two weeks ago I was surprised just how much corrosion there was on the hub spigots see pic, and how difficult they were to get off already.

Anyway finally got them all changed, all hub spigots wire brushed and wheel sockets cleaned up then given a light coat of copper slip, they'll be much easier to get off next time for sure.

Can't imagine what it would be like trying to do this with the van jack at the side of the road after a puncture.

View attachment 131183

Impossible on the little scissor jack they provide.

Needs to be raised on a decent trolley jack when you start hammering the wheels!

 

[pjm-84]

I have recently picked up a new California Ocean from Breeze, today I fitted my set of winter wheels and tyres.

I was expecting the usual struggle to get the wheels off and I was not disappointed. Despite the van having less than 1k miles on the clock and only bought just new over two weeks ago I was surprised just how much corrosion there was on the hub spigots see pic, and how difficult they were to get off already.

Anyway finally got them all changed, all hub spigots wire brushed and wheel sockets cleaned up then given a light coat of copper slip, they'll be much easier to get off next time for sure.

Can't imagine what it would be like trying to do this with the van jack at the side of the road after a puncture.

View attachment 131183

Crumbs was this parked in the water at the docks....

 

[Resfeber]

I have recently picked up a new California Ocean from Breeze, today I fitted my set of winter wheels and tyres.

I was expecting the usual struggle to get the wheels off and I was not disappointed. Despite the van having less than 1k miles on the clock and only bought just new over two weeks ago I was surprised just how much corrosion there was on the hub spigots see pic, and how difficult they were to get off already.

Anyway finally got them all changed, all hub spigots wire brushed and wheel sockets cleaned up then given a light coat of copper slip, they'll be much easier to get off next time for sure.

Can't imagine what it would be like trying to do this with the van jack at the side of the road after a puncture.

View attachment 131183

Just about to do this on my 2 week old van.
Will post when completed.
Not looking forward to this

 

[sbmcd]

Crumbs was this parked in the water at the docks....

I've written to Breeze on the matter.

 

[sbmcd]

Just about to do this on my 2 week old van.
Will post when completed.
Not looking forward to this

I picked mine up on the 22nd

 

[Resfeber]

I picked mine up on the 22nd

Mine was from Liverpool van centre collected 21/11 and dates in the van suggest it has been assembled since August 2024.

Let’s see what is revealed !

 

[sbmcd]

Mine was from Liverpool van centre collected 21/11 and dates in the van suggest it has been assembled since August 2024.

Let’s see what is revealed !

This is my second California, from experience I've found the best technique to get the wheel off is lots of small pulls on each side to incrementally move the wheel off the spigot, 3 of mine were not too bad, the last one was being very difficult.

Once you get them clean and copper grease applied I've found no issues with annual winter / summer tyre changes.

 

[CaliforniaCylus]

This is my second California, from experience I've found the best technique to get the wheel off is lots of small pulls on each side to incrementally move the wheel off the spigot, 3 of mine were not too bad, the last one was being very difficult.

Once you get them clean and copper grease applied I've found no issues with annual winter / summer tyre changes.

That worked for me although I was kicking the wheel hard on alternative sides until they loosened. Took around half an hour per wheel...

 

[sbmcd]

That worked for me although I was kicking the wheel hard on alternative sides until they loosened. Took around half an hour per wheel...

I said small pulls, probably very hard short pulls would have been a better description

 

[lohr500]

I found a piece of 3" x 3" fencing post placed against the bottom edge of the tyre and then struck with a large fencing mallet worked best.

Care is needed to make sure the mallet doesn't bounce off the timber and strike the alloy rim.

As @CaliforniaCylus mentions above, use a good trolley jack rather than the flimsy toy jack supplied by VW.

Slacken off the wheel studs slightly before jacking the wheel just clear of the ground. Then slacken the studs some more, but don't remove them completely before placing the timber and hitting with the mallet.

By leaving the studs in place but loose, in the unlikely event of the vehicle falling off the jack whilst you are hitting the tyre, then you and the vehicle will come to less harm as the wheel should stay attached.

 

[pjm-84]

That worked for me although I was kicking the wheel hard on alternative sides until they loosened. Took around half an hour per wheel...

This..... I've had it a few times and helped someone at a garage that was struggling once. No issue removing my wheels but rear bolts can be tough if they haven't been removed in a while. Quick wire brush before you reuse helps. Have power bar options, but its always the locking wheel nut that makes me nervous.

 

[Hawthorn37]

I’ve just had a new set of tyres fitted. As the mechanic was about to start I requested that he applied copperslip to the hubs (well corroded as usual). He said that the policy of the tyre chain was not to apply any grease to hubs due to the risk of wheels coming off! I said that in about 50 years of owning cars, not one wheel has come off and they all had copperslip applied. The answer - I’m not saying you can’t do it , but we can’t !

 

[sbmcd]

I found a piece of 3" x 3" fencing post placed against the bottom edge of the tyre and then struck with a large fencing mallet worked best.

Care is needed to make sure the mallet doesn't bounce off the timber and strike the alloy rim.

As @CaliforniaCylus mentions above, use a good trolley jack rather than the flimsy toy jack supplied by VW.

Slacken off the wheel studs slightly before jacking the wheel just clear of the ground. Then slacken the studs some more, but don't remove them completely before placing the timber and hitting with the mallet.

By leaving the studs in place but loose, in the unlikely event of the vehicle falling off the jack whilst you are hitting the tyre, then you and the vehicle will come to less harm as the wheel should stay attached.

That's a great idea if you don't have the security of a big trolley jack.

 

[Ghostbuster]

I use poorboys wheel sealant on the wheels. I find this helps subsequent cleaning a bit easier for a few months.
It was horrendous getting the wheels off.
Fastening the bolts I did in stages concerned that 180nm seemed a bit excessive for my alloys but in the end all is good.

 

[RockinNRollin]

I use poorboys wheel sealant on the wheels. I find this helps subsequent cleaning a bit easier for a few months.
It was horrendous getting the wheels off.
Fastening the bolts I did in stages concerned that 180nm seemed a bit excessive for my alloys but in the end all is good.

View attachment 131228

I wimped out at circa 150Nm from memory and slightly less for the locking bolt. That felt pretty brutal as it was!