fryeje

I agree that should work most of the time. For most that replace with winter tires every year you remove the wheels every few months. I bought my car last fall and it still had the original rear tires (4+ years and 43,000 miles) and the wheels had probably never been removed or it had been a long time. It was a real pain to get them off last October. I think I would still be kicking if that was my only recourse. A light cleanup if the centering ring and wheel, with some anti-seize on reassembly works wonders.

paul2468

The best way to remove seized aluminum rims on any car is to do the following:

1 Loosen all lug nuts one at a time.
2 hand tighten each lug nut and then back off 1/2 turn.
3 Repeat for all 4 wheels.
4 Take the car for a very short drive at about 5 to 10 MPH max and perform hard brake actions.
5 This will break the rust free and make the wheel easy to remove without having to hit it with anything.
6. Remember slow speed, quick abrupt braking and a very short drive approx. 100 yards.
7. Will work on the worst stuck on wheel.

During assembly to the following:

1 Clean all rust and corrosion from the hub and mating surfaces of the wheel back and rotor face.
2 Apply a thin layer of high temp antiseize grease to the hub where the wheel centers itself.
3 Do not apply grease to the mating surfaces of the wheel back face or rotor face.
4 Apply a small amount of the same grease to each threaded stud.
5 Install wheel.
6 Install all wheel nuts.
7 Torque all wheel nuts to specifications in a criss cross pattern.
8 If desired, re-torque after a short drive - normally this isn't needed; however, if a wheel did not seat properly this will ensure to take care of this low risk problem.

Perform the above steps and you will never have a problem.

xyzbird

I agree with paul2648. I loosened all bolts by 1/2 turn then drove slowly with some hard acceleration and braking. Far better than belting it with wood or hammer. Used copper rich grease on hub spigot and wheel centres - it's the lack of this that causes the problem in the first place. I noticed my tyre supplier puts grease on other peoples hubs and wheels. The trouble is that the two different metals don't like each other.

juris335

Agreed, Doc but here is a little war story. Don't mean to beat this to death but a few years ago my 94 325i wheels were so bad I stood and watched the dealership use an 8 foot 4x4 fence post. They inserted it from the left side of the car and placed the far end on the inside of the right side wheel/tire and whacked the hell out of it with a 5 lbs mallet. It was rough! Every wheeol had to be knocked loose that way.

From that day on I have cleaned and coated each time I switch wheels. PS This is in Colorado where we hardly know what the word "rust" means.