Sticky wheels

[dickymint]

Whilst out in Mrs Mints Polo we had a puncture. No problem, jack up, wheel off, replace with spare, continue. Except....wheel, minus bolts refused to release away from hub. After application of borrowed brick and piece of wood, spare attached and journey completed. New tyre fitted and at home checked all wheels for easy release. Each wheel required force to remove wheel from hub. Now refitted with barrier of copper grease between alloy wheel and steel hub to avoid similar problem. I guess it's the first time the wheels have been removed away from the hubs...... have you checked yourts recently?

[smokey0123]

Take it your car doesnt get serviced very often.

[paul b]

Your wheels had moulded on. You've copper greased it so you should be fine next time.

It is possible, (provided you had the car secure on the jack) you could have given the wheels a booting (yes with you're feet) and they would come off.

Used to see this weekly in the old Toyota days.

It's the aluminium reacting with the metal, keep it greased and you'll be fine.

Paul

[m4xmw]

Yes this tends to happen on most cars that dont have copper grease applied like you`ve said.

Its the sign of a good garage when they service the car that this is done!

Mark

[dickymint]

Thanks for the input. Mrs Mint has only had the car for a few weeks so had no opportunity to remove wheels to avoid roadside hassle. Will now check the Touareg alloys and treat likewise.

[onzarob]

local tyre fitter was telling me that they had a 3 year old Merc in and they couldn't get the wheel off. Full dealership history, wheels have never been taken off, which is more worrying as they supposed to be checking the break pad wear etc.

[m4xmw]

I`ve had a Subaru Impreza Turbo previously and used the(4 pot brembo) brakes hard.

It made the wheels incredibly difficult to remove to change pads etc.

Must have been the heat build up?

I had to really kick the rims to loosen the allys from the hubs!

Glad this has brought to light a fairly common issue anyway!

Mark

[dickymint]

Checked the Touareg today. Wheels removed OK, they had coppergrease on the mating surfaces. Whilst the wheels were off, I replaced the front brake pads as they were down to about 6mm, the originals after 51000+ miles. Rear pads still have plenty of life in them.

[Crasher]

No service that I know of from VAG stipulates to remove the wheels and there is no time allowed for this, most brakes can be checked without, this quote being for a 2003 S3 Inspection service

Front and rear

Determine thickness of outer pads by checking visually (with electric torch through cut-out in wheel).

Determine thickness of inner pads by checking visually (with help of electric torch and mirror).

If you think it takes around half an hour to remove, clean, grease, re-fit, lower down and re-torque 20 wheel nuts, you can see why.

[Ben]

all my wheels have an abundance of copper grease. When i was getting my tyres fitted, i took it upon myself to apply the copper grease. The garage had a tin of the stuff so I plastered it on.