Alloy wheel doesn't come off when trying to replace Is there any known problem when removing an alloy wheel from the hub? The wheel not willing to come off the hub. Read the story ahead...
Last week when I was driving my Palio D to work, i hit a big pothole and the air was instantly lost on the front left wheel.
I immediately pulled the car to halt and checked the wheel. The tyre was cracked. I started replacing the wheel. BTW, I have OEM alloys from Fiat. As mentioned in the manual, I rocked the car few times before putting the car on jack. After removing the bolts, the wheel did not come out. I tried very hard. When i called a near by road side mechanic, he started hitting the inside of the wheel with hammer. As that was chipping the alloy wheel, I immeidately asked hime to stop. I call Fiat break down service. That guy came down after 2 hours. After trying for a while, he took the towing pipe he has in his car and started hitting hard from inside on the tyre. It took him 10 minutes and then the wheel came out. Though he suggested I can use the damaged tyre as fifth wheel, I felt it unsafe and bought a new tyre the same day. Later when i was talking to the Service manager on the phone, he asked me to pay for the breakdown service. I argued with him that my car is still under warranty and the company/service center is responsible for the problem. Anyway he did not come down and i have to pay the money.
As the replaced tyre is unused and brand new, I though i will put the newly bought tyre on the front right to balance it. Actually, I feel the car is slightly pulling to the right. Again i tried to do it myself and again the wheel does not come out. I refixed the bolts and am going to address that in the next service which is due in 1 week. I am going to ask the manager to get the wheel removed before him.
Is this issue always there with alloy wheels? My car has run 13000 KMS and everytime during the service, the service center people say that they did the wheel rotation. But then the fifth wheel should also be used during rotation, and my wheel is unused till my car got punctured last week. |