2002 525i, wheel is very hard to take off...why?

wrote

Sounds as if you may have bent the wheel and it's caught on the brake rotor. Try to see if you find the bent portion, and pull on the opposite side.

If it's stuck on the hub center - this happens if you get rust/corrosion and it almost welds itself to the hub - you just need to give it some kicks to loosen it. Or, remove the center propeller (blue/white cap) and squirt some wd40 or other penetrating oil. But don't get it into the bearing assembly!

FloydR

The hub center is a tight fit to begin with. Then after the wheel corodes a little it's even harder. Undoubtedly, that is where the wheel is stuck. Use a mallet and positiona a block of wood over the inside surface of the tire. Use small whacks and rotate the wheel 180 degrees after each whack. It will work its way off eventually.

Before you replace the wheel, wire brush the corrosion off and coat with some anti-seize grease so you won't have so much trouble the next time.

The wheel is corroded to the rotor.

Put the lugs back on, run them down almost all the way but leave them a bit loose, lower and remove the jack, then start the car and roll forward & backward a few meters to get the wheel loose. If it's still being belligerent, roll a bit faster and stomp the brakes. Eventually you'll get it loose without damaging anything...

/daytripper '00 s4 6spd

I must reiterate all the previous but add that I had a client with exactly the same problem - he actually drove the car 7 miles to our workshops with the wheel nuts/bolts 1/2 out in the hope it would free itself - it didn't.

Nor would it work loose with a 10 ton portapower ram pushing it from the other wheel (blocks of wood to protect both). Eventually we removed the centre badge - kept the hydraulic pressure up but not quite 10 ton and heated the wheel with an oxy-acetylene torch for 20 mins and eventually with extra persuasion from a dammed great 4lb club hammer it gradually came off.

The corrosion was unbelievable and over the 27 year in the trade and the 20 since I have never seen such corrosion on an alloy wheel.

Steve

Not likely. The rotor is a flat surface as the part of the wheel that contacts the rotor is. The hub goes through the rotor and into the hubcenter bore of the wheel. That is the usual location for the hang-up.

No, there are 5 lug bolts to remove, and the tire should fall off easily.

If you live in the Snow Belt, you may be having issues from salt corrosion causing the wheel to sitck.

I've loosened many corroded hub-centric wheels using the above procedure...

/daytripper '00 s4 6spd

Thank you all! You were correct in that the problem was corrosion. I didn't have wd40, but I sprayed water and mild soap (i had a bottle from when I was using body clay to clean the car). I let that sit a little while and then the wheel came off! Sure enough, there were some foam peanuts from a box and a piece of card-board stuck by the rotor. This was the source of the noise!!! I took that out and put the wheel back. I have to get some grease to put on all the wheels but I finally got rid of the noise. I'm glad it's gone and I didn't have to go to the dealer!! That makes me happy :)

Oskar

No! Don't use grease! Anti-seize compound is the order of the day...

JRE

Commonly called "Copperslip" or Copper grease" however remove all the rust and corrosion you can see and remember that the the angle between the hub and the disc/drum surface is a sharp 90 degree althought it will seem to be a radius that is pure crud so remove it with a file or something similar

Seve

As have I...

High temp grease - such as Wurth 3000 - a thin coating - works just fine... BTDT for about 20 years of BMWs now.