I encountered a woman whose car (a Jeep) had a flat tire. She had already jacked the car up (properly) but could not loosen the lug nuts. I removed the lug nuts for her, but the wheel remained firmly attached and I could not loosen it no matter what I did. We looked at the car manual and all it said was “remove the wheel”. Now it has been a while since I changed a tire, but I never recall having a problem like this. For the record, it was the rear right tire with disk brakes. Any ideas?
Wheel rusted to hub?
Parking brake engaged?
I suppose that is possible, but it was a car of relatively recent vintage (last 5 years?) and the wheel showed no other signs of rust. Also, if that was the case, how would I have removed the wheel? How would a technician have removed the wheel?
Aren’t most wheels some sort of alloy these days? Sort of doubt rust.
Would this have caused the problem? The parking brake was in fact engaged and every instruction I have seen tells you to do that. I can’t see releasing the brake while the car is jacked up.
Keep whacking on it.
This has happened to me and now I’ll often coat these 2 mating surfaces with a wafer-thin coating of eel snot (or grease) before reassembly.
I’m guessing some sort of aftermarket wheel locking system (to prevent theft), though usually those seem to be lugnut based.
Tap the wheel around the circumference of the rim with rubber mallet. Should come loose.
My Hyundai is infamous for this problem. I have to whack the wheel several times with a 20 lb axe maul (the back side). I’m not kidding.
My Subaru is prone to this too.
One time, I had to give up and call a tow truck. The driver had a special tool ready for such a problem – a 4 foot length of 4x4 to whack the wheel with. Heavy enough to do the job, but with a big soft cross section that won’t dent the rim.
FWIW, the last time I encountered this situation was a 1975 Impala, and that was the problem; I got THE LOOK from the old man for leaving the parking brake set. I can’t vouch for newer cars, but if you’re changing a front tire, engage parking brake and chock opposite wheel (a brick will do) in the rear–PB stops back wheels. If changing rear tire, put car in park (PARK engages front brakes [or locks wheels?], and chock opposite wheel in front.
Again, not familiar with Jeeps.
Sometimes you have to give a swift heel kick to thew outer portion of the wheel to break it loose. When it is stuck pulling just will not budge it.
the lug nuts should be cracked loose before you even put the jack in place before jacking up. if you don’t you might not get them loose or break the jack, jack points or knock the car off the jack.
if you can’t loosen them then call for a tow.
once on the jack and nuts almost totally loosened but not removed then a forceful (but less than would knock the car off the jack) knock on the wheel opposing edges might free it. if it don’t allow the wheel to freely wiggle then retighten and call for a tow.
If the car has disc brakes, the parking brake shouldn’t be a problem.
I prefer a rubber mallet, but the more important thing is to get a really good swing into it.
I’d be surprised if a rubber mallet would do it. On our big Econoline work trucks a couple of smacks with a sledge hammer usually does the trick and no I’ve never popped the tire off the rim.
On my car, when that happens I can usually grab the top and bottom and start rock it back and forth or sit down on the ground and give it a couple of good hard kicks with the bottom of my foot to knock it loose.
Call it corrosion, then. I change between snow and summer tires on my wife’s 2011 CR-V, and pretty much every time, it needs a good swift kick with a steel-toed boot to crack the rim loose from the hub after the nuts are removed. And that’s after only ~6 months. Rims that have been bolts on for far longer are likely to be even more tenuously glued to the hub by corrosion.
If she drives it off road, or if it’s been a rainy summer, and your city dumps a lot of sand, instead of salt, on ice in the winter, you can get a lot of dirt and grit that seals the wheel on. Worked in a tire shop; saw it a lot. We sprayed lube around the inside of the wheel while it was on the lift, and then hit it with a rubber mallet. It’d eventually come off.
I do NOT recommend doing this while the car is just on a jack. Get a jack stand (about $15-25 for a pair), and put the car on the jack stand, then use the spray-on lube, and the mallet. It’s awkward when the car is on the ground, and it’s so much easier for a tech who can put the car on a lift, so if the tire is going to have to be replaced, meaning it has to go into the shop anyway, and changing the tire just means saving the tow fee, you might think about just having it towed in. It’s really only worth the trouble if you are stranded some place (in which case, I hope you have the jack stand, lube and mallet in your emergency kit) far from a shop, so the tow will be really expensive, or the tire is fixable without a dismount.
I have a rubber mallet (5 lbs maybe?), and it’s no where near enough, and neither is kicking the outer tire.
I bought some rims and winter tires from a friend a couple of weeks back and we decided to check the fit at his house. We attempted to take off the front passenger wheel, and he had nothing in his garage that would free the wheel. We tried 2X4s, kicking, hammering with the tire iron, and we gave up after about 10 minutes.
The next day I got out the axe maul at my place and freed it, only to find that the rims were 3mm smaller on the centre bore and won’t fit my car. So, I have to get the tires swapped over to my rims now. Thankfully no snow. yet.