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View Full Version : HEAD UP - Stuck Rims!!!



JMAK74
06-23-2005, 08:36 PM
Hello All,

I was wondering if anyone else ran into this situation - hopefully not - and maybe it\'s something to check if the tires haven\'t been taken off the car since it was manufactured.

The Thursday before the May long weekend, I make a left hand turn from Birchmount onto Ellsmere East. I hear a funny sound from the back, and next thing you know, I can hear that I have a flat tire (rear passanger side?!?) - side wall at that - what ever I picked up caught on like the last 1/4\" of tire surface on the road and was tall enough and sharp enough to slice up my sidewall (sorry didn\'t take an pics - should have). Pull into a school parking lot - not happy - I\'m trying to get to Scarborough Town Centre to pick up my girls b-day gift (were leaving Friday night out of town). Fine, I\'m cool, got enought time - 20 minutes to put the donut on, I\'ll get the tire fixed when I get back in town. I\'ve changed a flat tire before and I did the brakes on my Honda 88 Prelude regularly - I could do it with my eyes closed (so to speak). All goes fine upto the point were the tire is supposed to come off - it won\'t budge! I shake it, tug at it, feel around for a clip or something, I do the donkey kick to it - nothing! After 20 minutes of this, I call the dealership, asking them - is there a trick to this? No and they can\'t send a tech as they were all busy - this was around sevenish. I call roadside service - it\'s eight thirty now - I could have rotated all four tire with the suicide jack that comes with the car. The CAA guy says a donkey kick should take it off, told him I tried that and he does one - \"That\'s on tight! I\'ll use the persuader!\" He brings out a rubber mallet and wack the rim (no damage) - nothing. \"That\'s on REALLY tight.\" CAA dude says. He take a hammer with a rubber handle and with the rubber mallet uses it like a chisel (rubber end on rim) on the back of the rim to get it off - which after a couple of wacks it comes off. In the end, the donut got on, go the gift and replaced the Toyo A18 (it came with the car when I bought it - I mention that cause I\'ve read people saying the stock tires suck and most have said Michlgen (spelling)) the week after. The CAA guy said that alumnium rims can get \'frozen\' on - but he said he\'s never seen one on that tight before. What sucked also - 12,000km and I have to buy one tire....

Now imagine if that happened when I was on the 115 (heads to Peterborough) at 2 in the morning in January?

My car is do for its next service call in July - I\'m asking them to pull the tires off and lubricate the area where they join. For all I know, it\'s only was that one wheel and the rest will be fine.

Anyone else run into this?

Sorry for the long rant but I\'d hate to see that happen to someone out on the highway alone late at night.

JK

billyfo
06-23-2005, 09:05 PM
not for my Mazda, but my mom\'s car, I started to change to winter tires then both wheel on the right side didn\'t come off no matter how much force applied, finally giving up and drove to dealer w/ winter on left and summer on right, :sarc I didn\'t know how the mechanic pull out the wheels. May be over tighten lugs cause wheels and discs glued together.

SwooshICE
06-24-2005, 01:32 AM
That happened to me too, I think that\'s pretty normal
just whack with hammer :)

FLIPDADY
06-24-2005, 08:31 AM
With one wheel nut loose on the rim give it a kick at the bottom always works for me.

whodilly
06-24-2005, 10:06 AM
Yeah the rims tend to do that cause the center hub corrodes and the rim gets stuck. Dunno why but it\'s a really tight fit. One thing you can do is get the tire shop to put anti-seize on it and it should help.

The same thing happened when I was getting my suspension changed. The rims were a biatch to come off even after I just put on the summer tires. I guess the guys who put them on didn\'t use anti-seize. NOTE TO ALL: Make sure that the guys who change/work on your tires put the anti-seize stuff on your rims!

Another thing that helps is to remove some of the rust on the center hub with a file or something abrasive or even on the rim itself cause it shouldn\'t corrode to get some more space in there. Think we should put a rubber mallet in the trunk!

car_demon
06-25-2005, 07:06 AM
Since I change from winter tires to summer tires and vice versa for the past 10yrs. The long time practise of loosening my nuts and rolling the car a foot in length often does the trick. The Shaolin Donkey kick can be dangerous and inflict injury. And yes, put some sort of antisieze compound on.

Ahhhh! Good old \'wheel weld\' as they call it.

bubba1983
06-25-2005, 08:22 AM
same prob happened to me too, just took the good o\'l 4 foot ratchet we have and WHAMO!!!

gizmo
06-25-2005, 05:38 PM
Same scenario happened with all four of my rims (excessive hub rust). If you rotate and switch rims through summer and winter like I do, this is a pain! It seems that all the center hubs will rust over time causing the rims to stick on. For me, problem solved - I took a wire brush and thoroughly brushed off all the rust around each hub. I also lightly brushed the inside of each rim that sits on the hub. I had a lot of rust so a lot dust came off. Worked for me - the rims slide on/off easily.

david3
06-26-2005, 01:02 AM
First time I had to take off the lugs I had to kick the wrench to loosen them. And yeah, they get stuck on nicely too, have to kick the shit out of them again. :)

-RJ3-
07-12-2005, 02:19 PM
From my experience in removing the wheels of my car you actually have to kick from the top of the wheel. It was an autoshop trick I remember my friend told me.

Tell me if it works!

l8S

MajesticBlueNTO
07-12-2005, 05:17 PM
hit the bottom of the tire on the inner side with a Rubber Mallet. a few good whacks and it\'ll come off.

to prevent it, apply some anti-seize to the hub or rim.

tommy36
07-21-2005, 07:29 PM
Same problem. Had to use a big crowbar to get off, and then put antiseize all over the back of the wheels. Should keep it from sticking any more.

BangHatch
07-23-2005, 02:56 AM
or you can karate kick and judo chop the wheel off...:D

thats what i did at least :)

KenYork
07-28-2005, 12:07 PM
I had the same problem as well. Tried everything, donkey kick, mallet, rocking the car, even driving over speed bumps with loose nuts. Finally had to take it to a shop to get it removed.

CelestSpeed3
08-05-2005, 04:51 PM
There\'s not much you can do once the wheel is stuck on, but to prevent this from happening again put some anti-seize on the mounting surface before you put the wheels on. This is what I\'ve done with my 6 and I\'ve yet to have a problem, when I take my wheels off.

oyster
09-23-2005, 02:22 PM
guys/gals

It\'s a common thing for alloy wheels to bond to the hub.

Safest way to take it off for Winter/Summer tire change is to put car on jack stand, then use a rubber mallet to hit the inside tire while turning it (don\'t want to hit at 1 specific spot).

Before you mount it back, I use some ANTI-SEIZE coumpound (copper is the best) to apply to contact surface between hub and inside rims.