Getting stuck wheels off a car. « Singletrack Forum

Chat Forum

Getting stuck wheels off a car.

40 posts & 32 voices | Started 5 months ago by convert | Latest reply from Cougar

Tags:

No tags yet.

Pages: 12 Next »

convert - Member

Switching the alloy wheels on our car this afternoon. Fronts came off no bother but the rears don't want to budge. The bolts came out no bother but the wheels just can't be shifted. I've tried all the tricks I know - hit it with a rubber hammer, hit it with a lump hammer and a block of wood. replaced the bolts just finger tight and dropped it off the trolley jack; drove it around gently with the bolts just lightly done up. Nothing doing.

I've left them with penetrating fluid carefully sprayed onto them to try and separate them (avoiding the brakes). If that fails I'll position the car somewhere I can get a strop of a hand winch to and pull them off! 3hrs of that out in the cold and I think I'm as cold as I've ever been Bath and a hot tea awaits.

Got any useful suggestions I haven't tried?

Posted 5 months ago #
Marko - Member

Heat!

Posted 5 months ago #
Murray - Member

Light application of hot air gun to get some differential expansion? Long piece of wood strapped across the wheel to lever one side off?

Posted 5 months ago #
craigxxl - Member

Crack them with an hammer using a thick wood to prevent damaging the wheel. Try something like 2x4 long enough to reach the outer diameter of the tyre and a couple of hard cracks with a lump hammer should free them. A smear of copper grease on the mating surfaces stops it happening again

Posted 5 months ago #
deadlydarcy - Member

Can you get a long enough piece of 2x4 from the other side of the car and whack it from there?

(this is possible stupid advice and I will happily accept any flaming that comes my way as a result of offering it)

Posted 5 months ago #
Murray - Member

http://www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=27372

Posted 5 months ago #
timber - Member

Most of what you tried should have done the job, the wheel is basically corroded to the hub and can be prevented by a layer of copper slip between the two as mentioned above.

It needs a big shock to break the join so would stick to the hammering methods.

Posted 5 months ago #
martinxyz - Member

Get another small jack and cut a 2x4 to a length (so that the height of the jack and the length of the stick add up to roughly the distance between both wheels) to enable you to wind the jack out to prise the unbolted wheel off. Obviously with one wheel still bolted on. probably need a hand to do this i would guess.

On an old car i had i just slapped the tyre from the inside with a sledge hammer! It was old steel wheels so not a problem.

Posted 5 months ago #
project - Member

Jack car up slightly so wheel is just touching the road, and then with a piece of wood long enough to span the wheelbase, place wood on floor and hit with sledge hammer repeatedly, until wheel is loose. be careful yoiu dont puncture the tyre.

Posted 5 months ago #
Marge - Member

Hitting it with another wheel / tyre assembly generally woks quite well (though is hard work)....

Posted 5 months ago #
convert - Member

Thanks all. Much warmer now so at first light I'll have another go and hope the WD40 and some extra resolve does the trick.

Reading the pistonheads thread you get the idea that this is a common problem. You would have though copper slipping whenever a garage takes a wheel off would be standard practise just to save themselves faff the next time they see the car.

Posted 5 months ago #
sobriety - Member

The method I've seen used is:

1. Pour a kettle of boiling water over the seized area
2. Hit it hard with a big mallet/hammer&wood combination
3. Pour a bucket of cold water over the seized area
4. Hit it hard with a big mallet/hammer&wood combination
5. Repeat until it comes off or you give up.

Posted 5 months ago #
andrewh - Member

WD40 has it's limitations.
Fospro PX is the big boys version. (anyone know where I can get any? Seems to be rarer than rocking horse dung)

Posted 5 months ago #
convert - Member

What didn't help in the 3 hours of freezing my nadgers off was the image going around and around in my head of Jenson frigging Button coming into the pits and out again in less than 5 seconds with 4 new wheels. Git

Posted 5 months ago #
Surrounded By Zulus - Member

Jack it up, take wheel nuts off, stick a big dirty bit of wood under the outside half of the tyre and let the car back down, watch in wonder as such a simple technique works as if by magic.

Posted 5 months ago #
iDave - Member

remove all the bolts and go for a wee drive with swift changes of direction and sharp braking

Posted 5 months ago #
WTF - Member

Loosen bolts by a few turns and drive car around a few corners or turn in circles both directions and they will loosen off no bother.

HTH

Posted 5 months ago #
convert - Member

Jack it up, take wheel nuts off, stick a big dirty bit of wood under the outside half of the tyre and let the car back down, watch in wonder as such a simple technique works as if by magic.

Now that I like - thanks will be my first method tomorrow.

remove all the bolts and go for a wee drive with swift changes of direction and sharp braking
I also have a mental image of Jenson Button trying this one in a race. It didn't end well.

Posted 5 months ago #
sobriety - Member

When refitting, make sure that you tighten the bolts up, don't assume that your dad/son has already done it. Not doing this leads to the comedy of almost losing a pair of wheels on the motorway with you wife/mum in the car

Posted 5 months ago #
Stuuey - Member

Get the spare wheel out, stand with your back to the wheel arch legs apart. Swing the spare wheel at the stuck on wheel.
Get a lift to a shop to buy some copper slip to apply to wheels before you put them back on.

I've also used a length of 2 by 4 and a 10lbs sledge but the above is faster.

Posted 5 months ago #
coolhandluke - Member

crack them one with a hammer (+1)

shock will release.

Posted 5 months ago #
mc - Member

Big hammer + block of wood.
Or loosen wheel bolts about half a turn from just touching (you don't want the wheel to start flapping about when it does breka free) and go for a drive with some heavy cornering / sharp hand brake action (in a straight line is good enough!), stopping occasionally to check if you can still turn the bolts. When you can no longer move the bolts by hand, because the wheel is resting on them, jack up and remove wheel (or tighten and drive home!)

Then once off, clean all the corrosion of the hub, and the inside of the wheel bore. Then apply grease (moly grease is actually the best, but copper/normal grease is good enough) around the hub spigot, and the inside of the wheel bore.
Ideally you shouldn't have anything other than a coat of oil between the hub and wheel mounting surfaces, as any corrosion/dirt/grease between mounting surfaces can cause wheel loss (although this is less critical on vehicles that don't have flat wheel mounting surfaces)

Posted 5 months ago #
TheBrick - Member

Sounds like another case of galvanic corrosion. My least favorit super hero.

Posted 5 months ago #
CharlieMungus - Member

You could try going all the way 'til th wheels fall off make sure you stop before they burn and the sun peels the paint and the seat covers fade and the water moccasin dies.

Posted 5 months ago #
anto164 - Member

Buy a new car?

Posted 5 months ago #
garage-dweller - Member

Another one for the impact approach.

2x4, lump hammer etc. Don't tap - WHACK!

Try and make the impact as close to central on the wheel as you can or alternate right at the edges (top, bottiom, left & right).

Posted 5 months ago #
nealglover - Member

Jack it up, take wheel nuts off, stick a big dirty bit of wood under the outside half of the tyre and let the car back down, watch in wonder as such a simple technique works as if by magic.

That's a cracking idea. !

Another method (if that fails) park it with two wheels on the pavement and the suck wheel about 40cm onto the road.

Use one jack to lift the car. Undo the bolts. Place the other jack between the kerb and the inside of the tyre (bottom of the wheel) and wind it out.

This is what I had to do last month and it worked a treat.

Posted 5 months ago #
poly - Member

Is copperslip a good idea on alloy wheels? Normally copper and aluminium are a bad combo - which accelerates corrosion. I'd have been using moly grease for that.

Posted 5 months ago #
corroded - Member

When refitting, make sure that you tighten the bolts up, don't assume that your dad/son has already done it. Not doing this leads to the comedy of almost losing a pair of wheels on the motorway with you wife/mum in the car

Back when my Dad was courting my Mum, in the early days, he 'fixed' her car for her. Imagine her surprise when taking said car out onto the local lanes, one of her wheels came bouncing past.

Fast forward a few years and my Dad 'fixed' up a bike he found at the tip for my birthday (I was 7 or 8). Imagine my surprise when, a minutes after taking it out on my local pavement, I pulled a wheelie and the front wheel went bouncing away down the road and I went teeth first into a lampost.

Fast forward another 20 years and I'm driving my Dad's new purchase, a 30ft yacht plus trailer, down the M40 with him. Imagine my surprise when a wheel from the trailer goes bouncing past into the opposite carriageway.

FWIW my Dad is an engineer.

Posted 5 months ago #
jumpupanddown - Member

you need some C4, that will get them right off

Posted 5 months ago #
johnnystorm - Member

"You were only supposed to blow the bloody wheels off!"

The one time I've see seen this "sorted" it in involved jacking a car up, putting spare underneath and having a very large gent kick the wheel as close to the edge of the tyre as possible. Scary to watch the car rocking but it worked.

Posted 5 months ago #
sweepy - Member

Bloody alloy wheels, if they aren't stuck on, they're falling off.

Posted 5 months ago #
convert - Member

For the record....

The half on, half off a big block of wood and dropping the jack (method a la SBZ) didn't budge them.

However, get proper mad with them and hurling another wheel at the stuck on wheel got them off without too much bother - thanks stuuey.

I'm all greased up ready for the next swap in March. Thanks all for the helpful thoughts.

Posted 5 months ago #
alfabus - Member

I usually just undo the nuts a couple of turns, lower the car back down and rock the car from side to side until it pops loose; if that doesn't do it, rock the stuck wheel (push/pull on top of wheel), that should get it.

Dave

Posted 5 months ago #
singlecrack - Member

Jack up car undo nuts , use rubber mallet,thump the inside rim as hard as you like,, rotate wheel 180deg and do it again

Posted 5 months ago #