UNABLE TO REMOVE WHEEL - ADVICE PLEASE

[breaker morant]

Back in October 2007 I had the osf wheel replaced under warranty at the vauxhall dealer that I purchased the car from (the tyre kept on deflating; they put a new one on it still went down. A mate at ATS found the hole in the wheel that was causing it).

I’ve always known the nut was tight on this one from when I unsuccessfully tried to remove it previously to do a front to back swap.

The Bridgestone RE040 has been on there for coming up to 10k miles and the outer and inner edges are worn so it needs to be changed.

Today my worst nightmare (I exaggerate) came to pass because the tyre place could not get the locking wheelnut off. They said they could probably get it off with a “gun” but that this could result in at the least a knackered locknut and at worse a knackered wheelnut melded to the mounting bolt. I popped round the corner to a garage but they didn’t want to have a go at removing it as they thought they might damage the wheel itself.

So where do I go from here (not far it seems)? I could take it to the Vauxhall dealer and tell them you put it on now you get it off, but I can imagine they’ll deny all responsibility (though I still have the correspondence from me to them about the tyre deflating). I can sort of prove it’s the tyre they fitted because it has the cdm mark 5006.

Your thoughts please. BTW I already have two new fronts for fitting otherwise I would order from the Vauxhall dealer and play dumb.

[MyM8V8]

Mate I don't think any of us would want to tell you what to do.

However if it was mine (which it isn't so this is not advice) I'd be leaning on an extended bar with a piece of pipe, like the one I use to tighten my crank pulley bolt.

[mobile01]

again as above im not advising or condoning this but i have successfully removed stubborn locking bolts and none locking bolts by loosening off the other 3/4 wheel nuts then driving round the very small block i live on, nuts loose enough for wheel to wobble a bit but not come off, take care though.

[Wolfracer]

On our VX zafira, we had exactly the same problem. I ordered a replacement locking wheel nut socket from VX, and then asked them to remove it with the existing one and if that broke they had a spare....
They got it off okay. Impact guns provide high shock, but small rotational force, if you get what I mean, so the chances of rounding off with an impact gun are considerably less than with wheel brace and extension bar.
Vx (dealer) admitted the flower shape locking sockets were notoriously weak - they are only cast and can split apart easily.
Never looked at the Ro's, but assume it would be similar?

[bigwheel]

I had a tight hex nut and dealt with it by having the car in my garage. Use a 6 sided socket and hammer onto nut after jamming bits of Coke can into the hex flats. Long socket bar and pipe. Fit a scissor jack horizontally between the garage wall and the back of the socket bar and extend until REALLY tight, forcing the socket against the nut. Start leaning on the socket bar until your feet are off the floor. Worked for me

I realise your tight nut is the locking type. If you want to try it and end up rounding off/snapping the coding, get the drill and drill through the stud with successively larger bits until the remnant of the nut falls off.

There's always a way...

[S800VXR]

Try the air gun, you would be amazed how easily they deal with such things and as already said they exert a different force on the nut which is alot better than using a long lever bar. Ive got a gun and compressor here but your probably a bit far away.... (Andover)

[Rum Runner]

Try heating the centre of the lock nut with a creme brulee torch try and protect the wheel with silver foil and rag.
You will be surprised how much the heat will help.
Then instantly put the windy gun on it to give it a good shake.

[ARAF]

A long bar probably won't shift it. Am impact wrench will have more chance of shifting it. If you've got similar locking nuts to our R8, then the adaptor is pretty resilient.

[Ciscas]

What about letting it soak in WD 40 over the night?

[behold81]

ARAF said:

A long bar probably won't shift it. Am impact wrench will have more chance of shifting it. If you've got similar locking nuts to our R8, then the adaptor is pretty resilient.

I find impact guns shift some stuff a bar will just round or not budge. there are 2 benifits with the impact gun.

1. it only exerts the force for a brief moment and all of a sudden. This causes vibrations and movement along with a part turn to move it.
2. you exert the energy more evenly then using a socket and bar that will slightly twist and cause damage to the bolt.

[V88Dicky]

Ciscas said:

What about letting it soak in WD 40 over the night?

Thats definitely got to be step one, shirley?

[r-kid]

Ciscas said:

What about letting it soak in WD 40 over the night?

Or get some freeze & release.

This stuff has helped me where WD40 failed.

[Trailermasher]

I'd be inclined to go back to the dealer that put it on, as you can prove they fitted the tyre, but you can't prove the wheel hasn't been off since.

Whether over torqued or just too lazy to apply a bit of copper slip, they should be the one's to get it off. If over torqued the wheel could already be damaged and releasing the pressure will show any cracks whcih the dealer should be responsible for.

If removed by anyone else, you'll lose any proof against the dealer!

If drilling the stud is necessary, best they screw it up and have to fix it! But I'm sure they will try to deny any responsibility!

V88Dicky said:

Thats definitely got to be step one, shirley?

... and stop calling me shirley!

Couldn't resist, sorry


love that film!

[iacs_hsv]

WD40 isn't really a penetrating fluid, it's a Water Displacer. Need to get some proper PlusGas Formula A mate!

[gsd2000]

i quite like this

www.bilthamber.com/ferrosol.html

[Pomona]

bigwheel said:

I had a tight hex nut and dealt with it by having the car in my garage. Use a 6 sided socket and hammer onto nut after jamming bits of Coke can into the hex flats. Long socket bar and pipe. Fit a scissor jack horizontally between the garage wall and the back of the socket bar and extend until REALLY tight, forcing the socket against the nut. Start leaning on the socket bar until your feet are off the floor. Worked for me

I realise your tight nut is the locking type. If you want to try it and end up rounding off/snapping the coding, get the drill and drill through the stud with successively larger bits until the remnant of the nut falls off.

There's always a way...

Agree,most successful way to remove .Done this method a few times using a solid brick gatepost and a hyd.jack.Long bar and undoes easily!!.

[breaker morant]

Thanks for all your suggestions/ideas/thoughts. I wrote to the dealer yesterday and this morning, remarkably, the aftersales manager rang me and said, "We'll look at it", so fingers crossed.

Cheers.

[heebeegeetee]

Don't know if this helps, and i've never used one, but you can get locking wheel nut removal sockets from Halfords.