Hi All,

Went to remove the rear wheels of my vRS for the first time today. After removing all the wheels bolts I have been unable to remove both alloy wheels. Both of the rear wheels seem seized to the hubs. Has anyone else experienced this? The fronts were removed fine with no effort at all. Am I doing something wrong? Maybe they are seized to the hub and need a little persuasion in the form of a mallet and a hefty block of wood? Any advice? I don't want to damage them.

Thanks in advance.

Exactly have just said, usually a firm belt with your fist/hand is enough

I use a soft piece of wood and a mallet.

Some use thier fist or foot, but if the car is on a jack I'd rather not have part of my body under there while I'm applying sideways pressure.

just give them a kick and when there off put some copper grease on the hubs then they will come off next time

I'd avoid copper grease as its conductive and could set up galvanic corrosion.

Although this is probably less of a worry than the corrosion of the hub that occurse anyway.

But its a common VAG issue of corrision between the hub and wheel.

Some people say you shouldn't use copper grease as the mating surface also takes some of the load, it's not just the wheel bolts when the power is transfered.

Not sure if that's true, but it's stopped me from using it. Any ideas anyone?

I can't realy see how a round "smooth" hub in a round "smooth" hole in alloy wheel is supposed to trasfer torque.

Up and down loading I can't see how the minimal amount of grease is going to make a significant diffrence.

Put the bolts back in, leaving them 2 turns loose. Put the car back on the wheels, drive very slowly a few feet. That should loosen them. Wire brush the centrebore clean, and copperease the mating surfaces.

As to copperease being conductive- what do you think the metal hub and wheel are? I've just taken the wheels off the lupo: last time I did it 2 years ago, they were stuck one: with copperease they pulled off easily onec the bolts were out.

A heafy bit of wood and a mallet usually does the trick. Work your way around the inner part of the rim, rotating the wheel as you go. That way there is no need to give the wheel too much grief. I have never had an issue with copper grease BTW.

Yup, had this issue.

Puncture in pi$$ing summer time rain last year, tried for 15 mins to get it off - no mallet or wood to hand, car was precariously jacked (nasty road), and I didn't have a coat

Used a smidge of copper grease on each hub since, not an issue anymore

coppergrease wont cause any probs.

Coppergrease should be perfectly fine. Where you don't want to get it is the ABS sensor, but if you only apply it lightly on the hub face at the mating surface with the wheel, there's no chance of that happening anyway.