Tannin
Senior Member
- Joined
- Dec 17, 2008
- Messages
- 209
- Location
- Huon Valley Tasmania
- Car Year
- 2007
- Car Model
- Forester
- Transmission
- Manual
One to watch out for.
On my 2004 (MY05) Forester, the stock steel wheels weld themselves to the hubs! You go to change a tyre, and you can't get the old wheel off! This has been happening for years now. I think I've finally fixed it.
What happens is that the inner part of wheel - the 30cm hole in the middle where the the end of the axle protrudes (covered, normally, by the little silver plastic cap with "Subaru" written on it) corrodes a little bit, and the end of the axle corrodes a little bit, and because it's a tight fit, they weld themselves together. You undo the wheel nuts, jack the car up, and can't budge the damn thing!
Now, imagine that you are somewhere outback with a completely trashed tyre. That could get really serious! Like life and death serious, given the wrong circumstances.
If the tyre is fully inflated, you can stand with your back to the wheel, and kick backwards like a horse, aiming at the outside of the rubber to get maximum leverage. That works in mild to moderate cases. But sometimes even that does not budge it. I have once or twice kicked the damn thing 'till I was exhausted, and I'm an adult male of reasonable build. Someone elderly, or even a slightly built woman would have basically no chance.
^ And this is with a fully-inflated tyre. With a flat tyre - and if it isn't flat, why are you changing it anyway? - it's much, much harder.
Hitting it with a rubber mallet does nothing. Not even close. And you can't use something like a mash hammer even if you have one handy 'cause it would bash up the metal of the wheel. Maybe a jemmy would do it, I haven't tried that, though I did once break the blade of a small mattock trying to uses it to lever a wheel off the Forester. I should think a crowbar would work brilliantly - but who has one of those handy in the outback just in case?
Last week I spat the dummy and went down to get my mechanic to help - not just to budge the one wheel I wanted to change on the day, but to find a permanent fix that would let me change a flat tyre on my own with just the tools I have in the car as routine. I learned several things:
1: the part that sticks is the part I described at the top of this post. Probably because that part is normally hidden by the plastic caps, I hadn't thought of that and had (wrongly) assumed it was the flat part of the steel wheel binding to the flat mounting plate (near the five studs). This is why putting a smear of grease on that flat plate did not work!
2: by lying under the car after you jack it up (put the spare tyre underneath next to you so that you stay safe if the jack should collapse!) and belting the inner rim with a dead blow hammer - and I mean belting, not little love taps - you can usually budge it.
3: another trick to try is to loosen off the wheel nuts a fair way and then drive a short distance (with care!). This mostly works, but not always.
4: Once you have the wheel off, use a scrap of sandpaper to buff off the corrosion on the axle end, and inside the hole in the wheel where they meet. Get them both nice and smooth. Then, before you replace the wheel, coat the surfaces with an anti-sticking compound.
5: Carry a dead blow hammer in the car at all times. I didn't know what this was: it turns out to be a sort of hollow mallet filled with lead shot. It lets you deliver a powerful blow without damaging the thing you hit. They are not cheap! I paid about $100 for a Stanley one. Maybe there are cheaper brands. But it's already come in handy for some other jobs, and now it lives under the floor next to the jack, ready if needed.
On my 2004 (MY05) Forester, the stock steel wheels weld themselves to the hubs! You go to change a tyre, and you can't get the old wheel off! This has been happening for years now. I think I've finally fixed it.
What happens is that the inner part of wheel - the 30cm hole in the middle where the the end of the axle protrudes (covered, normally, by the little silver plastic cap with "Subaru" written on it) corrodes a little bit, and the end of the axle corrodes a little bit, and because it's a tight fit, they weld themselves together. You undo the wheel nuts, jack the car up, and can't budge the damn thing!
Now, imagine that you are somewhere outback with a completely trashed tyre. That could get really serious! Like life and death serious, given the wrong circumstances.
If the tyre is fully inflated, you can stand with your back to the wheel, and kick backwards like a horse, aiming at the outside of the rubber to get maximum leverage. That works in mild to moderate cases. But sometimes even that does not budge it. I have once or twice kicked the damn thing 'till I was exhausted, and I'm an adult male of reasonable build. Someone elderly, or even a slightly built woman would have basically no chance.
^ And this is with a fully-inflated tyre. With a flat tyre - and if it isn't flat, why are you changing it anyway? - it's much, much harder.
Hitting it with a rubber mallet does nothing. Not even close. And you can't use something like a mash hammer even if you have one handy 'cause it would bash up the metal of the wheel. Maybe a jemmy would do it, I haven't tried that, though I did once break the blade of a small mattock trying to uses it to lever a wheel off the Forester. I should think a crowbar would work brilliantly - but who has one of those handy in the outback just in case?
Last week I spat the dummy and went down to get my mechanic to help - not just to budge the one wheel I wanted to change on the day, but to find a permanent fix that would let me change a flat tyre on my own with just the tools I have in the car as routine. I learned several things:
1: the part that sticks is the part I described at the top of this post. Probably because that part is normally hidden by the plastic caps, I hadn't thought of that and had (wrongly) assumed it was the flat part of the steel wheel binding to the flat mounting plate (near the five studs). This is why putting a smear of grease on that flat plate did not work!
2: by lying under the car after you jack it up (put the spare tyre underneath next to you so that you stay safe if the jack should collapse!) and belting the inner rim with a dead blow hammer - and I mean belting, not little love taps - you can usually budge it.
3: another trick to try is to loosen off the wheel nuts a fair way and then drive a short distance (with care!). This mostly works, but not always.
4: Once you have the wheel off, use a scrap of sandpaper to buff off the corrosion on the axle end, and inside the hole in the wheel where they meet. Get them both nice and smooth. Then, before you replace the wheel, coat the surfaces with an anti-sticking compound.
5: Carry a dead blow hammer in the car at all times. I didn't know what this was: it turns out to be a sort of hollow mallet filled with lead shot. It lets you deliver a powerful blow without damaging the thing you hit. They are not cheap! I paid about $100 for a Stanley one. Maybe there are cheaper brands. But it's already come in handy for some other jobs, and now it lives under the floor next to the jack, ready if needed.
