Removing a stuck wheel--tips???

So I'm doing my winter tire changeover--a task that should take no more than 45 minutes.

I've been fighting a rear wheel that is seized to the motherberkeleying drum for the past 20 minutes.

Aside from hitting it with a mallet and swearing some more, does anyone have an outside of the box trick to get it unstuck??? I've also doused any surface I could with Liquid Wrench.

I can barely type because my right hand is so messed up from swinging the mallet in anger.

A wheel seizing over summer. WTF?!

I lean against the car and kick the E36 M3 out of it.

You could put the lug nuts on loosely and put the car on the ground and move it a little.

In reply to familytruckster:

I'll try the loose lugs thing. Both rears are stuck. Awesome. This has never happened to me before.

Remember to cover the drum in anti seize before you put the other wheels on.

Take a 50 lb sledge to the inside of the rim. Spin the wheel and hit it in different spots. Should pop of after a few tries. Did this several times.

mrhappy wrote: Remember to cover the drum in anti seize before you put the other wheels on.

Oh, I already thought of that.

As for 50 lb sledge--I don't have one handy.

BiggerFH? Hitting it from back side and front side...

I like the loose lugs theory, have done similiar in the past. If rolling back and forth doesn't do it, rocking the car side to side might help.

Full, angry lumberjack swings with my 2 lb mallet got the passenger side off. I just broke the valve stem on the drivers side but that one hasn't budged yet. More anger to follow in a moment...

Beside a BFH, you could loosen the nuts one turn then drive the car back and forth a few times. I often found that a swift kick will work. Don't try it with flip-flops though.

iceracer wrote: Beside a BFH, you could loosen the nuts one turn then drive the car back and forth a few times. I often found that a swift kick will work. Don't try it with flip-flops though. And then there is always the shotgun.

iceracer wrote:

iceracer wrote: And then there is always the shotgun.

If anyone does decide to do an Elvis impression on his car, please take a video.

Snow steelies got stuck on the Forester a couple of years ago. BFH did squat. Only loosening the lugs a bit and driving it up the driveway whilst spinning the steering wheel back and forth got them off.

They're off. If you heard what just occured in my garage from outside the door, you'd be positive a violent crime was taking place.

In reply to gamby:

So what worked?

My usual standby is a 4' 2x4 swung under the car to knock the tire outwards...

Don’t laugh but if the car is on jack stands I will normally lay on my side and facing the center of the vehicle and kick the inside of the tire with my heel (think axe kick). This normally works with one or two kicks and boots help. If not I loosen the lugs nuts and back down my driveway. Normally as go to turn onto my street it breaks free and I just go back up my driveway.

I just went through this with the e30 project...the wheels were practically rusted onto the drum (also, the lug bolts took over 500lb-ft of torque to break loose), after several years having never been off the car.

BFH from the backside. Kick the front side with my steel-toe boots. Even tried a prybar through the spokes leveraging agiainst the lip of the hub (these are beater BMW bottlecaps, don't care about dinging them up).

Finally got them loose. It's not fun.

ransom wrote: In reply to gamby: So what worked? My usual standby is a 4' 2x4 swung under the car to knock the tire outwards...

Whacking the rim in various spots at full force til it let go.

Everything is now on, torqued and aired up. What a time suck that was.

BTW--the hubs are now doused in anti-seize.

gamby wrote: Full, angry lumberjack swings with my 2 lb mallet got the passenger side off. I just broke the valve stem on the drivers side but that one hasn't budged yet. More anger to follow in a moment...

2lb? You need a bigger hammer in your arsenal.

A real steel hammer, not a wimpy mallet.

Last set that I had that was really stuck I ended up getting off by using the cars scissor jack wedged between thet strut and the wheel with wood as a cushion, came off with little hassle. This was great but unfortunately the rotors where so frozen to the hub that when I tried to pop them off with bolts thru the threaded hole in the rotor that where there to facilitate rotor removal (Hyundai Elantra) the center of the rotor cracked and came off leaving the remainder of the rotor still on the hub. A chisel made short work of the rest of the rotor center and got the rotor off but I had not planned to replace the rotors. I use lots of antisieze on that hub and rotor face now, thats for sure.

BTDT with my Mazdaspeed3. To avoid doing any damage to the wheels, I loosened the lug nuts but left them on so the wheel wouldn't hit the ground. I then put a piece of scrap wood between the inside tire sidewall and my hand sledge and moderately whacked at the wheel a little at a time, turned it, tapped again, repeat until wheel loosens. Took about one minute per wheel for both rears. I then sprayed the rotor hats with white lithium grease (didn't have any anti-seize on hand).

My old Subaru always had this problem. I took to loosening the lug nuts then driving down the driveway a bit and slamming on the brakes. Worked every time.

Shotgun.

Or:

Sawzall it off

In reply to gamby:

If you're so lucky to have a shop lift, like I do at work, you could put a couple lugs on 2 or 3 turns, then grab the undercarriage and mule-kick that wheel off.

i mule kick the tire like nobody's business.

I used a 2x4 on my hyundai.....Ended up with bent the wheel and valve stem ripped off. Man, I hated that car.