Ever had your wheels stuck to the hubs??

I was at my good buddy jolberry's house last night, we were going to flush the brake fluid in my 94. After realizing that it probably hadnt been changed since God knows when, & since he had just had his 99 flushed by a few guys here, we figured we'd throw back a few & take a stab at it.

Anyway, on to the wierd part...we put the car on jack stands & started taking the lugnuts off, but to our dismay, the wheels wouldnt budge! They were literally stuck on the hubs. We kicked & yanked on them for 30 minutes or so & nothing. We scratched our foreheads in disbelief for awhile, then we broke out a rubber mallet & started wacking away. Finally one started to give way & after about another 20 minutes, we had all 4 off the car.

What the hell would make all 4 wheels stick like that, im guessing they were just rusted, but why?? Ive had the wheels off a few times not much more than a month ago, & the car was being driven while I was in Hawaii this week, so I wasnt sitting up at all.

Has anyone ever heard of this?? I really dont want to have to beat the wheels off with a mallet everytime I prep for an autocross, so any advice as to keeping this from happening again would be much appreciated.

Were these your stock wheels, or the ones that you brought over from the Honda? I believe that I heard somewhere that the hub centers were not the same, and some rims would work on one but not both. Is it possible that this is the case, and you torqued it down until they "fit" and were then stuck?

Same thing happen to my VW bus...

What I ended up doing was taking my Dremel with a sanding wheel and took the the rust off of the hubs and the inside of the wheel. After that, I hit the surfaces with some WD-40 to help keep moisture from settling. I never had that problem again...

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Originally Posted by Titus

Were these your stock wheels, or the ones that you brought over from the Honda? I believe that I heard somewhere that the hub centers were not the same, and some rims would work on one but not both. Is it possible that this is the case, and you torqued it down until they "fit" and were then stuck?

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They were the stock wheels. The miata hub centers are actually smaller, so I didnt have a problem (actually I bought the 'civic' race wheels from a miata guy a while back) , untill I tried to put the miata wheels on the civic to satisfy a curiosity from some of my civic buddys, thats when I had a problem.


We were going to squirt some WD40 on there last night, but we didnt have any on hand. Were going to flush our radiators this weekend, so ill sand & wd40 them then.

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Originally Posted by Jiggerachi

They were the stock wheels. The miata hub centers are actually smaller, so I didnt have a problem (actually I bought the 'civic' race wheels from a miata guy a while back) , untill I tried to put the miata wheels on the civic to satisfy a curiosity from some of my civic buddys, thats when I had a problem.

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I knew that they didn't go one way... just couldn't remember which. :wink:

Thats just odd.

Put some anti seize on the lugs on the face of the rotor that would be more effective than WD40. :wink:

BTW. I have never had that problem on my Miatas

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Originally Posted by POS Racing

Put some anti seize on the lugs on the face of the rotor that would be more effective than WD40. :wink:

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Werd

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Originally Posted by forrest

Werd

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Exactly! Very well put! :thumleft:

I had this happen on my 99, but they weren't stuck that bad, I just kicked the tire and the wheel popped loose. I never had this happen on my 95. This must be happening to other folks though, I got a new Moss catalog last week and they have a new item called Wheel Mates. The description is as follows: "Wheel Mates are non-metallic, non-deteriorating discs designed to be placed on the well mounting surface of a brake rotor in order to instantly provide a new clean, smooth and true mounting surface, they prevent rust and corrosion on contact surfaces. They also claim it provides problem-free removal of the wheels.

rust on the hubs.......especially if they haven't been off in a LONG time. Your idea on the WD40 will work. Spray them and let 'em soak over night.......OR.....get a huge rubber mallot :)

I do think rust was the culprit & since then I have put some motor oil (all I had at the time) on the hubs they still stick from time to time, though not as bad as before. Recently I had the wheels off, & just for the hell of it & put one on & pulled it off again...It was stuck!! I was able to kick it off with minimal effort, but it was still stuck on there. I am thinking that rust on the lug plate is not a problem anymore (solved with oil), but maybee rust on the grease caps (or oxidization hub center of the wheel) is making the diameter slightly bigger & a rough surface, thus the instant sticking. Next time I pull the wheels off im going get a wire brush & give it a good scrubbing, then hose it down with some WD40 or something like that, well see what happens.

yep, that's not all that uncommon of a problem for cars that don't have their wheels swapped every Sunday ;)


I've had it happen on a couple cars.. Mallet or swick kick usually work. :D

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get a huge rubber mallot :)

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a BF'RM' you say...

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Originally Posted by rx7gslse

yep, that's not all that uncommon of a problem for cars that don't have their wheels swapped every Sunday ;)


I've had it happen on a couple cars.. Mallet or swick kick usually work. :D

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Yea, I was still racing the civic back then, now I try to swap the wheels as much as I can, which hasnt been very much lately, but still... :)