My first experience of alloy wheels and with a view to cleaning the inside rims, my attempts to remove the rear wheels have been unsuccessful. Both wheels appear to be "frozen" to the hubs.....no problem removing front wheels. I wonder if this is the result of galvanic action between the dissimilar metals, or rusting of the hub. When the car was bought I also had a spare wheel supplied. Not much use if I have a puncture and can't remove the wheel!

Car is going in for its second service in a couple of weeks and I shall then have the wheels freed. However would like to know in advance of this, whether this is a known problem and what the solution might be.

Thank you

Give them a good kick most cars do it as the wheels don't tend to get removed very often

Screw the studs back in finger tight then back them out about a turn. Lower the car slowly on the jack and it will break the rust seal as it takes a bit of weight. If it doesn't by the time it is almost wound down rock the car sideways gently. When you refit the wheel use a thin smear of copper grease on the mating face.

When you put them back on apply some copper grease to the hub or back of the wheel.

Evil Miyagi/Fatbloke/Ad Lav,

Many thanks for your response : TEKelso

Further to my previous message, today I used the aforementioned "mallet" treatment with complete success

Worst case.......use a bit bit of wood across the back of the wheel to spread the load across the rim/tyre and hit with a sledgehammer!!! This was with the car on axle stands and with the wheel bolts loose ish!!!! I have not seen a manufacturer that puts copper grease or similar on the hubs to prevent this....yet it keeps happening!!....and has been a well known problem for decades!!!! So when you get a car the first mod you have to do is this!!!

Having experienced this with my 1st Fabia and following a tip given by another member here, I removed my wheels on this latest Fabia by loosening all the bolts a turn or so, then lower the car to ground, rock the car a bit and voila! the wheels seperate from the hub! Easy peasy. Dont forget to jack it back up before removing though!

Worth remembering if you're stuck in the emergency lane with a flat tyre.

This problem has been posted on before

I had a similar problem many years ago with steel wheels on a 3 month old Ford Sierra

Ford had over tightened the wheel bolts and when I had a puncture it was impossible to loosen the bolts.

Even the garage I called out had problems and were at the point of loading the car on a low loader and taking it back to the workshop

Fortunately the mechanic found a long scaffold bar and managed to get the bolts to move

Since then I have always made a point of checking all the bolts on any car I purchased and then applying copper slip to the bolts and hubs