Something you may want to check sometime is if you can get your wheels off. Alloy rims will corrode to the wheel hubs. If you ever get a flat on the highway you may not be able to get your wheel off! A little antiseize can help this out.

Are you speaking from recent experience? This sounds like one of the pleasures of driving on salted roads.

It could be worse . . . you could have wire wheels with rusted hub splines.

The mags on my '77 T/A were corroded in place when I first bought it. Guy at a tire shop showed me a trick...

Jack up the car from the side so the tire's about 2" off the ground. Use a big floor broom like a mallet - grab it at the end, 'sweep' under the car while standing at the back in a sideways motion, whaming the tire as close to the tread edge as you can get for maximum leverage. Popped right off!

Try this. With the car on the ground, not on a jack, unscrew the lug nuts about 1/4" away from their seating point, and rock the car left and right. This usually breaks free the bond betwen the alloy wheel and the hub. Sometimes you have to rock the car very aggresively.

I had to do that on one Fiero I bought to fix-up and resell. It had seen some salty conditions.

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Ron Dittmer
88 Fiero-GT Automatic
86 Fiero-GT 4-speed "For Sale"
Chicago Northwest Suburban Area

I have lived in a heavily salted area my entire life, and have never seen this happen.

????????

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Timothy E. Smith
1986 SE V6 BACK ON THE ROAD AGAIN!!!!
1984 Coupe
1996 Ford Probe GT
1999 Chevrolet Silverado Z71
1975 Chevrolet ElCamino SS

Ive had several customer cars come in like that. I just jack it up, take all the lugs loose but leave a couple on a thread or 2 and with a 2x4 on the edge of rim and tire, rap it with a small sledge hammer around the whole thing till it pops loose. When I put it back on run, some sandpaper around the opening and coat it with some grease

Good timing guys, I just started work on a car w/ the very same problem. Thanks for the info, and THANK THE CREATOR FOR CLIFF PENNOCK & THIS WEBSITE.
Scott

[This message has been edited by AnimalGT (edited 02-27-2002).]