Wheel Care necessary -- Anti-seize & Wire Brush?

If you are in an area that uses road salt for winter then, yes. If not, you're chose. My '06 only has anti-seize on the lug bolt threads only, haven't had any issues with removing wheel from disc/drum.

 

You just had new tires put on not new wheels, correct? If so, there should still be anti-seize left on both mating surfaces so I wouldn't worry about it till next rotation. You're well ahead of what most people do; even me. If they're stubborn, I just pop them real hard with a rubber mallet. I do spritz the threads with lubricant though.

 

Mine haven't ever 'welded' so badly I couldn't goose them loose with a wooden shovel handle (from behind or in front of the car, just get the handle between the tire and some fixed suspension part, and pull, pops right off). On a prior vehicle with an especially stubborn front wheel, I think I wedged my shovel handle in place and then climbed in and turned the steering wheel.

Usually where I put antiseize to avoid that is just right around the center of the hub where it comes through the wheel center hole.

But on my Gen 1 that has moved on, my wheels themselves were getting very corroded, so much so that I was losing air, and the tire people were telling me "hey, nothing we can do, we can try wire-wheeling the daylights out of them, but these wheels are really gnarly."

So I found out there was a wheel-refinish service nearby, and I said "can you even do anything with wheels this far gone?" and they said "tosh, that's nothin'" (or words to that effect), and when the wheels came back they were not only more gorgeous than I had ever seen them as long as I'd owned the car, they also held air, and were much less prone to stick on the hubs.

I'm sure the finish wears off there eventually, but it makes everything nicer while it lasts.

-Chap

 

Sounds very familiar....

Gnarlesville:



Off to see the wizard:



Holy smokes, are those even my wheels?!





-Chap

 

Someone up the page mentioned anti seize on the wheel studs. I'd be cautious with that, and if you do, research reducing torque a bit.

Do make sure the points of contact between wheel and hub are clean, and a very thin patina of anti seize is fine. Wheels can still glue on though. What I do;

With the tire about 1/2" clear of slab, install one lug nut only, at top of wheel, very loosely. Place a 4x4 (or a pair of 2x4's) on slab at inside tire wall.

Get the biggest sledge hammer in the arsenal, lay it on the flat well back of the 4x4, then slide it in an arc, into the 4x4. If at first you don't succeed, try again, a little harder. It will break loose, and the one nut prevents it taking off.

 

I'll echo Mendel above.

Antiseize, oil, etc on the lug studs or lug nuts is not a good idea.

Wire brushing them is OK.
I guess one can even chase the threads of the studs and nut if they are really in truly bad shape with a tap and die set, yet in all my years I have never had to do this.

In my experience when the rim sticks to the hub is at the rim's center hole where it sits on the hub.
Here a good wire brushing w/ WD to remove any rust or debris buildup is a standard practice for this area. Some manufacturers even had a special shop tool to remove/ regrind this area.

The area of the rim between lug stud hole to lug stud hole can also be wire brush and same for the hub between the studs.

Above it is mentioned some patina antiseize in this area of stud to stud on the hub may be prudent, yet again I have never used antiseize in the lug or hub area.

Do note I do not live in an area that use road salts or has freezing temperatures.

Lastly, best practice I can offer is to not install lug nuts with an air wrench. Build up torque with hand tools in a star pattern starting with 45 lbs, then 65 then final torque for example.

Have fun.

 

Good tip about anti-seize on the mating surfaces. I see the temp rating is plenty high. My rears seem to get stuck more than the fronts.

Worst case scenario is having to change a flat on the road. I once rendered aid to another motorist pondering why the wheel was stuck on, and was able to deliver the old line, "They all do that." I gave it a good 'mule kick', with lugs loosened, and was a hero for the day.

 

That's got me thinking, I may need to stow a 4x4 and a sledge hammer in the trunk. The back end's already sagging with all the just-in-case stuff already though.

 

If you're rotating them regularly, or even just slipping them off regularly to check your caliper slides, do you tend to find them noticeably stuck at all? BC must be one hostile environment....

-Chap

 

Aluminum rims on steel hubs seem worse than steel on steel. We're on the BC coast btw, very mild winters, and global warming's a factor, snow's getting to be a rarity.

 

I think up until shortly before I discovered the service here that refinishes alloy rims, I only dimly understood that alloy rims even had a finish. I mean, I guess it was obvious when looking at fancy high-contrast boy-racer style rims, but looking at something with as comparatively subtle as the Gen 1 wheel design, I had somehow fooled myself that I was looking directly at metal, not multiple baked on plastic layers of color and clear.

Now it makes more sense to me that, for as long as the finish stays intact, I'm not dealing with aluminum against a steel hub, but rather plastic against a steel hub, which is much better behaved. (Maybe better still if the steel hub, too, after a good wire-wheeling if necessary, gets a nice coat or three of rustoleum.)

Not only does everything look nicer, it just somehow feels so much more civilized just removing the lug nuts and lifting the wheel off.

Of course then for as long as the finish holds up, I don't really want to go after it with the ol' wire wheel ... not until it has lost integrity and corrosion is showing up again. And at that point I might consider repainting too (heck, in my backyard with a rattlecan, won't need to use the refinishing wizards again if the areas that show still look good).

Now, my Gen 1 hubs did have that patina of antiseize around the center pilots, because I had applied it my first time getting the wheels off after buying the car used. (And I did need the shovel handle that time.) I don't remember regularly reapplying it.

One place I found where a bit of antiseize really helped was the lug nuts themselves: not on the threads at all (no lectures about the threads, thanks!), but between the nut body and the integrated flat washer. Those Toyota nuts are built so the flat washer presses down against the wheel without turning, so as not to damage the wheel paint, and the nut body turns against the washer, and when the nuts get so they only tighten and loosen in stiff clicky jerks, I found a little dab of antiseize on the tip of a tiny screwdriver to get it between the nut and washer, spinning the washer around a few times, would make that all civilized again too.

-Chap