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Apologies to those who are well acquainted with maintaining their cars but I thought this advise could be of benefit..
Anyway...
To those who have recently purchased their car second hand and those who've had them a while, when was the last time you had your wheels off ?
Reason I ask is that they have a tendancy to corrode onto the hubs and require substantial [and I mean substantial] force to remove them. This is ok if your at home, it's not an emergency and you have the time to deal with it. Invariably when you do actually come to have to change a wheel, it will be 10.30 at night on a country lane and 'hoying' down with rain plus you'll no doubt be wearing nice clothes.
This is all fine if your going to ring the AA and wait an hour or two for them to turn up but doing that is not very 'manly' is it ? Just think if you could do it yourself you could get home earlier and do 'manly' things such as watch the footy highlights whilst drinking a few beers (as you've not had any as you've been driving and changing your wheel...)
The reason I've posted this all to sarcastic 'how to' is due to the problems I had getting my wheels off just after I bought my car when I wanted to have a good look at the brake pads. I have had lots and lots of cars in the past and have NEVER had a problem getting a wheel off. I've had problems with over tight wheel nuts and locking nuts but NEVER actually getting the wheel itself off.
So to those who've never done it here is how...
1, Park car on flat hard surface.
2, Remove wheel nut covers.
3, Loosen wheel nuts.(you may need to buy an extent ion bar + socket)
then and ONLY then
4, Jack the car up so the wheel just clears the ground.
5, Put the spare wheel under the car at the corner where you've jacked it up or use an axle stand or blocks of timber etc. This is VERY important and could save your life !
6, Undo and remove the previously loosened wheel nuts.
at this stage your either going to be lucky or otherwise...
6, "Simply" remove the wheel, or NOT chances are it will not budge.
7, Options here are to kick the Tyre at 12,3,6 & 9 o'clock to see if it will move (mine didn't despite getting a good hoofing with my size 11 steel toe capped boots.)
8, If kicking doesn't work, I just happened to have an 8 foot length of 6"x2" timber and what I did was slide it very fast and very hard into another bit of wood I had layed across the tyre to avoid damaging the wheel & tyre. I did this from the opposite side under the car. Each wheel using this method still needed several good whacks before it came off.
9, Make sure you've got something soft for the wheel to fall over onto to avoid scratching it, like the boot carpet or similar.
Wheel now off I'd recommend doing the following...
10, You'll see the areas that have stuck and these will need cleaning up lightly with a wire brush and sandpaper. Be very careful not to scratch anything that shouldn't be scratched. Particular attention should be given to the edges of the 'round' hole in the middle of the wheel as this seems to be the area where the wheel sticks the most.
11, Once cleaned up, apply a smear of copper grease to the contact surfaces of the wheel and hub. Be VERY careful not to get any on the disks and be careful not to put it on to thick as centrifugal force of the rotation of the wheel could 'flick' any excess on the disc.
Ok job done wheel back on if you want to but whilst your at it I'd also recommend doing the following...
12, Remove any stones stuck in your tyres
13, Clean the inside of your wheels (you'll more than likely need some wonder wheels or similar. Any mud / tar / stones stuck with tar residing on the inside of your wheel could effect the wheel balance so this is worth doing for that alone.
14, Clean any salty mud etc off the inside of the wheel arch.
15, Check you brake pads for wear, especially the inner ones that are not visible with the wheels on.
Ok if you've done that lot it's wheel on time, basically a reverse of removal but you obviously you don't need to kick and belt them on with a bit of wood, just put them on. And don't forget you fully tighten them up when the wheel is back on the ground otherwise it's highly likely you'll pull the car off the jack.
One important thing though is that it's vital that you tighten the bolts up properly and check them again after 50 miles or so... How many people do this, not many. For initial tightening and checking use a torque wrench if you've got one, if not do them tight and hope for the best !
I personally use copper grease on the wheel bolts / nuts as well to ensure they do not corrode and that they will come off with ease. One warning though if you do grease the threads, the torque setting given in the handbook no longer applies as the thread is 'wet'. You will need to tighten them a little further (does anyone know the torque setting for 'wet' wheel bolts by the way ?) As a rule of thumb I generally tighten them when 'wet' on an angle basis. From the initial pinch I tighten them through 90 degrees.
So that's the end of this rather lengthy how to for what is quite a basic task. I'm sure those in the 'know' will be smiling at this but I think it's important to know that you WILL be able to get your wheel off when the the time comes !
One word of warning ... Motorways and wheel changing are very dangerous, in that instance it probably is worth calling out the AA. It isn't worth being 'ironed' out on the hard shoulder even if you do miss the footy and a few beers.
Anyway...
To those who have recently purchased their car second hand and those who've had them a while, when was the last time you had your wheels off ?
Reason I ask is that they have a tendancy to corrode onto the hubs and require substantial [and I mean substantial] force to remove them. This is ok if your at home, it's not an emergency and you have the time to deal with it. Invariably when you do actually come to have to change a wheel, it will be 10.30 at night on a country lane and 'hoying' down with rain plus you'll no doubt be wearing nice clothes.
This is all fine if your going to ring the AA and wait an hour or two for them to turn up but doing that is not very 'manly' is it ? Just think if you could do it yourself you could get home earlier and do 'manly' things such as watch the footy highlights whilst drinking a few beers (as you've not had any as you've been driving and changing your wheel...)
The reason I've posted this all to sarcastic 'how to' is due to the problems I had getting my wheels off just after I bought my car when I wanted to have a good look at the brake pads. I have had lots and lots of cars in the past and have NEVER had a problem getting a wheel off. I've had problems with over tight wheel nuts and locking nuts but NEVER actually getting the wheel itself off.
So to those who've never done it here is how...
1, Park car on flat hard surface.
2, Remove wheel nut covers.
3, Loosen wheel nuts.(you may need to buy an extent ion bar + socket)
then and ONLY then
4, Jack the car up so the wheel just clears the ground.
5, Put the spare wheel under the car at the corner where you've jacked it up or use an axle stand or blocks of timber etc. This is VERY important and could save your life !
6, Undo and remove the previously loosened wheel nuts.
at this stage your either going to be lucky or otherwise...
6, "Simply" remove the wheel, or NOT chances are it will not budge.
7, Options here are to kick the Tyre at 12,3,6 & 9 o'clock to see if it will move (mine didn't despite getting a good hoofing with my size 11 steel toe capped boots.)
8, If kicking doesn't work, I just happened to have an 8 foot length of 6"x2" timber and what I did was slide it very fast and very hard into another bit of wood I had layed across the tyre to avoid damaging the wheel & tyre. I did this from the opposite side under the car. Each wheel using this method still needed several good whacks before it came off.
9, Make sure you've got something soft for the wheel to fall over onto to avoid scratching it, like the boot carpet or similar.
Wheel now off I'd recommend doing the following...
10, You'll see the areas that have stuck and these will need cleaning up lightly with a wire brush and sandpaper. Be very careful not to scratch anything that shouldn't be scratched. Particular attention should be given to the edges of the 'round' hole in the middle of the wheel as this seems to be the area where the wheel sticks the most.
11, Once cleaned up, apply a smear of copper grease to the contact surfaces of the wheel and hub. Be VERY careful not to get any on the disks and be careful not to put it on to thick as centrifugal force of the rotation of the wheel could 'flick' any excess on the disc.
Ok job done wheel back on if you want to but whilst your at it I'd also recommend doing the following...
12, Remove any stones stuck in your tyres
13, Clean the inside of your wheels (you'll more than likely need some wonder wheels or similar. Any mud / tar / stones stuck with tar residing on the inside of your wheel could effect the wheel balance so this is worth doing for that alone.
14, Clean any salty mud etc off the inside of the wheel arch.
15, Check you brake pads for wear, especially the inner ones that are not visible with the wheels on.
Ok if you've done that lot it's wheel on time, basically a reverse of removal but you obviously you don't need to kick and belt them on with a bit of wood, just put them on. And don't forget you fully tighten them up when the wheel is back on the ground otherwise it's highly likely you'll pull the car off the jack.
One important thing though is that it's vital that you tighten the bolts up properly and check them again after 50 miles or so... How many people do this, not many. For initial tightening and checking use a torque wrench if you've got one, if not do them tight and hope for the best !
I personally use copper grease on the wheel bolts / nuts as well to ensure they do not corrode and that they will come off with ease. One warning though if you do grease the threads, the torque setting given in the handbook no longer applies as the thread is 'wet'. You will need to tighten them a little further (does anyone know the torque setting for 'wet' wheel bolts by the way ?) As a rule of thumb I generally tighten them when 'wet' on an angle basis. From the initial pinch I tighten them through 90 degrees.
So that's the end of this rather lengthy how to for what is quite a basic task. I'm sure those in the 'know' will be smiling at this but I think it's important to know that you WILL be able to get your wheel off when the the time comes !
One word of warning ... Motorways and wheel changing are very dangerous, in that instance it probably is worth calling out the AA. It isn't worth being 'ironed' out on the hard shoulder even if you do miss the footy and a few beers.
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