Safe Speed Forums

On the farm upon which I work we have a livery yard . Horses are the spawn of satan, no they really are. They are owned by snooty women that expect the world to stop rotating so they can pursue their pass time.

This week, us chaps on the farm were disturbed, not for the first time, by a lady, strong of thigh, to assist her in changing a wheel.

Obviously I hid. While hiding I was muttering in about feminism and girl power being thrown straight out of the window once again at times of their chosing, such as heavey lifting, spider removal or in this case, tyre changing. Yesterday I asked the fitter if he assisted this lady. Yes he said. The jack was up, the nuts were off, the spare out and ready, if bald. What was the problem I enquired? She couldn't get the wheel off. Huh? The alloy of the wheel had fused to the steel of the hub and wouldn't come off even with the assistance of a lump hammer. He had to drive a wedge between the wheel and the hub.

Hmm so an apology and a word about checking to see if you can get your alloy wheels off.

Sorry again.

Blimey mate, you must be filled with guilt if you can come in here and spill the beans about an incident nobody present could possibly have known about

I came within an ace of starting WWIII with my local BMW dealership over just this issue!

My car was in for an "Inspection II" service about six months ago, which is basically the most comprehensive service the car ever gets. A month or so later I fitted a towbar, and was amazed to find that the rear wheels were absolutely seized solid onto the hubs, due as the OP says to corrosion between steel hub and alloy wheel.

(BTW, belting F:censored:K out of them with a lump hammer can be a bit dodgy. Not only is there the ever present risk that you'll miss the tyre and take a lump out of your shiny alloy rim, but also it has been known to damage the suspension bushes leading to problems shortly afterwards. Better approach is to lower the car back down off the jack, undo each wheel bolt one full turn, then bounce the car up and down on the suspension until it comes free, or if they're really go for a gentle spin around your drive).

Anyway, I was spitting feathers that the mechanics had apparently ticked all the boxes for checking brakes, cleaning crud out of hub registers, and was just about to go and bend a spanner over the Service Manager's head, when I double-checked the paperwork one last time.

And yes, when you look at the small print the service doesn't actually insist the wheels are removed, unless the brake pads actually need changing (they measure the pad and disc thickness using a special gauge that fits between the spokes of the wheel). In the end I quietly cleaned and greased them up before reassembling.

I'm dreading doing the fronts. As a moderately high-powered RWD it shreds rear tyres in about 15,000 miles, but the fronts haven't been touched as long as I've had it and still have a few thousand left in them. When they finally do have to come off that'll be something of an epic task. I keep meaning to take them off and grease them, just so's I know they will come off should the need arise, but just haven't got round to it yet.

It is a bit worrying to think that if you are a driver who is light on tyres and brakes you could go a fair old mileage before the dealers ever try to get the wheels off though.

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

I knew about it........

Silly question, but what about smacking some copperslip on them ??

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Gordon Brown saying I got the country into it's current economic mess so I'll get us out of it is the same as Bomber Harris nipping over to Dresden and offering to repair a few windows.

Chaos, panic and disorder - my work here is done.

http://www.wildcrafts.co.uk

Yep, works a treat. Did that with the rears after the above incident and they came off no problems when I had some new tyres fitted last week.

Problem is that you just have to get the buggers off first, before you can slap the aforementioned copaslip on in the first place...

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

Yeah, I have had this before - had to use a block of wood and a lump hammer. I made damn sure it was well copper greased when I put it back together!!

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"Are you sh**ing me?"
"John Spartan, you are fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute."

You're not suggesting that a dealershit would do something sensible are you?! I've never known a mainstream garage use copperslip on anything, whether it be cars, motorbikes or bicycles.



We're not all like that I was carrying two 18.5 litre water bottles about yesterday and I don't have a problem with spiders ...if any of it involved breaking a nail though...

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Science won over religion when they started installing lightning rods on churches.

Specially not a main stealer

_________________
"Are you sh**ing me?"
"John Spartan, you are fined one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute."