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Hi all,

Went to fit some rear springs tonight but couldn't get my wheel off. After talking to my mate from dealership it turns out VW dont paint their hubs so water gets in and oxidises the hub to the alloy. The remedy of course is alot of swearing and kicking/hitting/hammering the life out of it. If you ever encounter this, make sure when you do get the wheel off, to use anti seize to prevent it from happening again as I can imagine this would be a huge nuisance if you got a flat!

(There is also a method of loosening the wheel bolts and driving around the block a few times but it sounds sketchy!)

But don't put any of this stuff on the wheel nuts. They are designed to be metal to metal and metal to metal only!

I've always taken the view that as soon as I've driven a new, or new to me, car home, it is time to get the wheels up in the air, get the wheels off, clean any corrosion off and then apply only a very small amount of anti-seize (Copaslip etc) to the mating face and centre bore area - and maybe all over the hub/drive shaft retaining bolt/nut as they grow rust very quickly - then refit the wheels, roughly tighten the wheel bolts, drop back down on to the ground and torque the bolts up to 120NM. Now you are sure that the wheel bolt torques are correct and the wheels should not seize on to the hubs!

My trusted method of getting seized wheels off any used cars I buy is to slightly slacken off all the wheel bolts, get the wheels up in the air and support the car on stands, then on one wheel at a time, remove three of the bolts, leaving the remaining two on by about three threads, then from underneath, "dunt" the inside edge of the tyre with a long heavy bit of wood, like a fence post, maybe need to rotate the wheel by half a revolution and repeat, by now the seized wheel should have given in and be loose on the hub! I change the wheels from summer to winter, but even on a car that I don't do that, I clean the brakes out once a year, so the wheels are always easy to remove - well maybe not the refurbished (powder coated) winter wheels on my S4, they still seize/get tight on the bore so need a "dunt"!! (powder coating is thicker than normal paint so the wheel centre hole has become an interference fit!)

Well said, Niolette.

I encountered this problem on my 60-plate TSI when I came to remove the wheels for routine maintenance. Judicious hammering with a piece of timber on the inside of the tyre did not break the "joint". Eventually I managed it by removing the wheel bolts and rocking the car against the handbake VERY carefully.

OK in my drive, in daylight and on a warm day - just imagine the hassle of attempting it on a dark, cold and rainy night.

My solution was to dress the spigot and corresponding part of the rim with emery cloth before lightly smearing these parts with grease.

A friend had to call out the AA when he encountered the same problem on his 12 plate, so I would recommend all technically competent owners to take some action.

I work in a garage and remove wheels on a daily basis.
My answer to removing stubborn wheels?
The horse kick. [emoji106]
Stand with your back to the car, one hand under the wheel arch with all bolts removed and boot it!
99% of the time it works!


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Mypoloisaposlow wrote:I work in a garage and remove wheels on a daily basis.
My answer to removing stubborn wheels?
The horse kick. [emoji106]
Stand with your back to the car, one hand under the wheel arch with all bolts removed and boot it!
99% of the time it works!

Similar technique here, never let me down as yet. I loosen the wheel studs slightly with the car still on the ground. Then rock the car side to side, you can sometimes hear a little thud as they release. Jack the car up job done.

wolfie wrote: Similar technique here, never let me down as yet. I loosen the wheel studs slightly with the car still on the ground. Then rock the car side to side, you can sometimes hear a little thud as they release. Jack the car up job done.

I rather your definition of what to do than someone else's!

I use the 'loosen the wheel nuts and drive around the yard' technique but it's usually reserved only for stubborn twin axle transits.