Tips PLEASE to get my damn alloy wheels off !!

Steve ( snipped-for-privacy@spambot.thanks.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Sorry, let me get this straight...

You haven't had the wheels off - not one of them - for TWO YEARS?

You've not *serviced* the car properly in TWO YEARS? You've not even checked the brake pads in all that time?

See other thread on this. I loosen the wheel nuts and drive (carefully) one trip around the block.

Yeah I read that thread, but had tried that pretty much.

Hadn't tried 'really' driving them loosened though.

How loose is loose in terms of wheel nuts?

I read one poster loosened a full turn. That equates to about 1mm+ of potential play depending on the wheelnut thread pitch, which seems a tad too much?

Is one trip round the block always successful?

If all other options have failed, then this is the only way. Loosen the nuts off a turn, go for a drive. As soon as you feel the wheel starting to shake, stop and retighten the nuts. Best only to do one wheel at a time.

When I had this problem I went and bought myself a bigger hammer. This worked.

(I don't think I bothered with the block of wood either - but then wheels for my car were pretty much free!)

cheers, clive

loosen the wheel nuts and drive in a tight circle with a few jabs on the brakes. Remember to take a wheel brace with you !!!!

Can check mine easy without removing wheels.

Tim S Kemp ( snipped-for-privacy@timkemp.karoo.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Even if the front pads *can* be checked (which I doubt, not properly, not inside AND outside), you're forgetting one thing, Tim - and perhaps it's my fault for saying "pads"...

It's a 318i, so almost certainly has drum rears.

B'sides - two years. Brake fluid change is due now, even if it was changed when the wheels were put on.

Corner & brake. Then check , then repeat. Or you can use a really big hammer or a Kango.

Nope.

In news:d240j2$2gr$ snipped-for-privacy@titan.btinternet.com, Steve decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

With our Excursion limo the same thing often happens - due to the insane torque on the wheelnuts.

Easiest way to remove is to park car near to a steel support girder in a garage, tie a piece of rope through the wheel spokes, then to the girder, then do the old "bar through rope" trick. It'll pull 'em off, eventually.

Hmmm. The spokes or the wheel ?????

I get the mechanics, but not sure if the corrosion's grip is stronger than my spokes ! :-)

No extra tips on removal, but a smear of Copperease grease on the mating surfaces prior to refitting might be a good idea...

Ah. Commonly called a 'Spanish windlass'. The only problem with that idea, is that rope stretches. If the wheel was very tight I wouldn't like to be the one twisting the rope, when the wheel comes off. You should have added. 'Only loosen the wheel nuts. Don't remove them completely' Getting hit by a wheel travelling at a rate of knots could seriously affect ones health. :-) Mike.

You could try a full kettle of boiling water on the wheel hub centres the alloy expands faster than the steel and the dia becomes bigger then if need be another clout with the rubber mallet. Kettles are great for car probs i've just been to a car that 2 guys have struggled to get going (petrol) a kettle of boiling water over the manifold to vaporise the fuel a crank on the starter and bobs your mothers brother. Great init they were well chuffed.

The girdir :(

In news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net, Mike G decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Yeah, but people need to pay the price for badly serviced cars, don't you think?

;-)

Ah yes the remarkable elastic properties of rope. I once came close to destroying something or at least having expensive damage and am still not sure how I got away without damage anywhere.

I bought a maisonette in Byfleet in 1996. The side passage border belonged to me on the deeds. Someone had planted Leylandii in it and then left it some years prior so they were a bit big, knocking down the fence and in need of removal.

Once I'd got things down to a 4 of 5 foot stump, dug a trench and cut as many roots as I could find I was at a loss as to how to get them out. I thought things through carefully, decided that leverage wasn't a problem, but power was. I tied an old climbing rope that had enough damage on ti that I wouldn't use it for climbing any more around the trunk, took out a couple of fence panels so I could back up to the side path and only have a 25 foot distance from car to tree and tied the other end to the towing eye of the car.

The thinking was that a tonne of car with 170HP should be able to remove

Tenacious things those trees.

More and more power went into the tugs until I finally applied a more prolonged burst.

There was a loud *crack* as the last root gave up and the car surged forwards. After 6 feet of movement there was a brief tug as the stump reached the end of the bed, hit pavement, stretched the rope some more, flipped and became airborne. I was in the key of a cul-de-sac on full power with 5' of tree travelling faster than me aimed at the back of my car. I spun the wheel, lifted the throttle and then braked. The stump missed the back of the car, hit the ground and rolled to a halt an inch away from another car.

For the next stump I rented a tirfor winch with a steel cable.

Warwick