How should I have got the wheel off!
Discussion
So just had a call from my other half her VW T5.1 has shredded a rear tire. Only 5 mins up the road from the office so off I went to the rescue.
First time I've had to change a wheel on the van as it's relatively new to us I pull out the jack, which is crap! The wrench is pretty short with no extension so getting the nuts loosened was an absolute b
h & involved jumping on the wrench, getting the spare wheel from under the back of the van was another total bh due to the nuts being seized.
Once everything was finally undone, would the wheel come off the hub? Would it hell! I kicked the crap out of it, put a couple of nuts on and dropped it back off the jack, drove it forward a bit, rocked it back an forward, kicked it some more but it would not budge so had to abandon it & call the AA who used a block of wood & lump hammer!
What else could I have done at the side of the road? The van has a full VW service history & 40k on the clock, I assume in this day and age they probably don't even take the wheels off for a service so they've never moved since they left the factory.
And... I have a sore foot now!
First time I've had to change a wheel on the van as it's relatively new to us I pull out the jack, which is crap! The wrench is pretty short with no extension so getting the nuts loosened was an absolute b
h & involved jumping on the wrench, getting the spare wheel from under the back of the van was another total bh due to the nuts being seized.Once everything was finally undone, would the wheel come off the hub? Would it hell! I kicked the crap out of it, put a couple of nuts on and dropped it back off the jack, drove it forward a bit, rocked it back an forward, kicked it some more but it would not budge so had to abandon it & call the AA who used a block of wood & lump hammer!
What else could I have done at the side of the road? The van has a full VW service history & 40k on the clock, I assume in this day and age they probably don't even take the wheels off for a service so they've never moved since they left the factory.
And... I have a sore foot now!
Has this on my Golf and it's quite common.
Discovered that the dealer never takes the wheel off during the service unless he changes the brakes or wheels. As such the rear wheel had never come off in the 3 years I owned the car.
Lesson - each year I jack the car up and remove the tyre.
some have said that you should apply grease but there's differing opinions as to if it's a good / bad idea
Discovered that the dealer never takes the wheel off during the service unless he changes the brakes or wheels. As such the rear wheel had never come off in the 3 years I owned the car.
Lesson - each year I jack the car up and remove the tyre.
some have said that you should apply grease but there's differing opinions as to if it's a good / bad idea
Its good practice to carry a decent extending wheelbrace to help remove wheelnuts if they have been tightened to 3 dugga dugga's by Gaz at the tyre place, I generally go round mine after having tyres fitted and check they are torqued correctly, its also a good idea to remove the spare and cover all the moveable bits of the cradle in grease so you can undo them when you need to.
Talking of the wheel nuts being done up by the ugga dugga - was trying to change my tyres from winters to summers (on rims) - I failed to get enough leverage, so drove to a nearby garage. I was promptly laughed at by a rather grey haired old man. He went to his wall, found a massive breaker bar, put it on the wheel nut, and pulled.
The laughing stopped, the swearing started, he eventually got the nut loose with the help of another person lifting the bar with himself, and me standing hard on the brakes.
I now double check I can get the wheel nuts off after the car has been to any garage!
The laughing stopped, the swearing started, he eventually got the nut loose with the help of another person lifting the bar with himself, and me standing hard on the brakes.
I now double check I can get the wheel nuts off after the car has been to any garage!
Top tips for this;
Extending breaker bar for the wheel bolts / nuts.
For stuck wheels, undo all the wheel bolts / nuts two or three turns on the ground, then rock the car / van side to side, you will quickly, effortlessly and safely unstick a stuck wheel. Then jack it up and do what you were going to do.
Extending breaker bar for the wheel bolts / nuts.
For stuck wheels, undo all the wheel bolts / nuts two or three turns on the ground, then rock the car / van side to side, you will quickly, effortlessly and safely unstick a stuck wheel. Then jack it up and do what you were going to do.
colin_p said:
Top tips for this;
Extending breaker bar for the wheel bolts / nuts.
For stuck wheels, undo all the wheel bolts / nuts two or three turns on the ground, then rock the car / van side to side, you will quickly, effortlessly and safely unstick a stuck wheel. Then jack it up and do what you were going to do.
Definitely a tip to rememberExtending breaker bar for the wheel bolts / nuts.
For stuck wheels, undo all the wheel bolts / nuts two or three turns on the ground, then rock the car / van side to side, you will quickly, effortlessly and safely unstick a stuck wheel. Then jack it up and do what you were going to do.
Jammez said:
Just ordered another 90cm breaker bar to keep in the van too!
Just be careful when you tighten the nuts back up not to use too force with your 90cm breaker bar. You will easily damage, stretch or break the bolt/threads with little effort.One of the reasons manufacturers wheel braces are so short is to stop Joe Public from doing exactly this.
colin_p said:
Top tips for this;
For stuck wheels, undo all the wheel bolts / nuts two or three turns on the ground, then rock the car / van side to side, you will quickly, effortlessly and safely unstick a stuck wheel. Then jack it up and do what you were going to do.
I tried that one, didn't budge! Rocked it side to side, back & forth used the hand brake, the only one I couldn't do was drive in a circle slowly as I was on the hard shoulder!For stuck wheels, undo all the wheel bolts / nuts two or three turns on the ground, then rock the car / van side to side, you will quickly, effortlessly and safely unstick a stuck wheel. Then jack it up and do what you were going to do.
Happened to me, fixed the tyre with an inflator aerosol, took it to the dealer.
On return, "All fixed now, Sir!" thought I'd check - and of 20 wheel bolts 14 were done up to twice the recommended torque, the other six THREE times that!
No wonder the wheel seizes to the hub if some tyre monkey gets happy with his airgun!
Dealer apologises, admits that they farmed it out to a tyre shop down the road, "Our technicians would never have done that, Sir!" Oh. yeah?
But at least they offered me a free service in recompence.
John
On return, "All fixed now, Sir!" thought I'd check - and of 20 wheel bolts 14 were done up to twice the recommended torque, the other six THREE times that!
No wonder the wheel seizes to the hub if some tyre monkey gets happy with his airgun!
Dealer apologises, admits that they farmed it out to a tyre shop down the road, "Our technicians would never have done that, Sir!" Oh. yeah?
But at least they offered me a free service in recompence.
John
227bhp said:
Lesson learned, do more maintenance like torquing up the wheel nuts correctly and carry the tools needed to get a wheel off.
Like a lump hammer and piece of wood.
Did you really need to be told that?
End thread.
A 4 year old vehicle with full main dealer history "should" mean I don't have to do "more" maintenance other than the basic fluid/visual checks. Like a lump hammer and piece of wood.
Did you really need to be told that?
End thread.
As for carrying around a lump hammer & a block of wood - it's a 4 year old VW not a 50 year old Land Rover! Put it in context man, I'm not the 4x4 Emergency Response Brigade carrying half of Halfords in the back!
Nearly 30 years of driving all kinds of crap & I've never needed a lump hammer & wood to remove a wheel!
I had to help someone remove a wheel not so long back where it was so seized on I needed to use my hi-lift jack and a block of wood to push it off the hub from the other side. It was very on there!
Some copper grease or similar smeared on the centre bore is generally all that's needed to stop it. You don't need to wop on great handfuls of it, don't need it on the hub face itself, don't put it on the bolt threads, just a light smear where the centre bore of the wheel mates with the spigot of the hub.
Some copper grease or similar smeared on the centre bore is generally all that's needed to stop it. You don't need to wop on great handfuls of it, don't need it on the hub face itself, don't put it on the bolt threads, just a light smear where the centre bore of the wheel mates with the spigot of the hub.
Jammez said:
227bhp said:
Lesson learned, do more maintenance like torquing up the wheel nuts correctly and carry the tools needed to get a wheel off.
Like a lump hammer and piece of wood.
Did you really need to be told that?
End thread.
A 4 year old vehicle with full main dealer history "should" mean I don't have to do "more" maintenance other than the basic fluid/visual checks. Like a lump hammer and piece of wood.
Did you really need to be told that?
End thread.
As for carrying around a lump hammer & a block of wood - it's a 4 year old VW not a 50 year old Land Rover! Put it in context man, I'm not the 4x4 Emergency Response Brigade carrying half of Halfords in the back!
Nearly 30 years of driving all kinds of crap & I've never needed a lump hammer & wood to remove a wheel!
Not removing road wheels is typical main dealer servicing,so they end up seized to the hub. When I was in business we removed all four wheels during a major service. Spent time cleaning the hubs and the inside of the road wheel,then refitted the wheels with a good smear of copper slip,then torque the wheel bolts correctly,NOT a windy gun. Just a little bit of extra time and care saves a customer a whole heap of grief.
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