Stupid question about wheel nuts

_HighVoltage_

_HighVoltage_

Captain Volvo
Joined
Aug 5, 2006
Messages
9,964
Car(s)
1998 Volvo S70 T5M
I tried removing my rear wheels today and failed completely. I have changed the tires on many cars before and never had a problem, but the wheel nuts on my Volvo have been tightened to a zomg level.

The car is sitting still and I'm using a regular 4-way lug wrench. I'm sure that if I take it to a tire shop they can remove the nuts with those air guns, but that's not the point. What if I get a puncture and need to put the spare?

Are there any tricks to removing the nuts, if human force is not enough?
 
Cheater bar. Anything you can use to increase your leverage will help, assuming you're not using a modern crappy 4-way that bends in half at more than 70lbs of force.
 
^ Yes this would work nicely, leverage is the key :)

I couldn't get one of my wheels off my old car once and all I had was the factory tyre iron, but I managed to find a metal tube about 2 feet long, slid it over the handle and off those nuts came
 
ediesbra said:
I couldn't get one of my wheels off my old car once and all I had was the factory tyre iron, but I managed to find a metal tube about 2 feet long, slid it over the handle and off those nuts came
Click to expand...

That's exactly what everyone does in racing when a torque gun isn't available. Big metal tube, lean some body weight on it, job done.
 
<anorak>
It's called a breaker bar.
</anorak>
 
WD40 and an impact wrench.
 
leverage FTW

I couldn't undo the tyres of my wifes old Corsa either, unless I had the long bar and stood on it with my whole weight...
 
I will give it a try. As soon as I find a long pipe.
 
I endorse standing on the tyre wrench - unless a particularly cheap and nasty one - then it will bend like a piece of dampened spaghetti.

And add a breaker bar if that does not work. Plenty of penetrating oil helps a bit, put on day before.
 
"Jumping on the lug wrench" method works for me every time.
 
Wear heavy work boots and gloves just in case of tool slippage & things flying about. :|
 
Also if you need unholy amounts of leverage to get those bolts out, better check that the threading isn't stripped. Happened to me once.
 
Out of curiousity, why were you trying to take off the rear wheels?

Have you had the tires replaced in the not to distant past or have they been on there forever?
 
Stop being a woman? :p

Try breaking a crank pulley bolt loose on a 145k mile B18b. I used, not joking here, a basketball pole to get enough leverage.
 
I had to take the front wheels of a Toyota Coaster bus once and becasue noone had an impact gun strong enough to remove them, I had to use a breaker bar with a 1.5m metal tube and get another person to help me jump on the pipe to get them undone.

Crank pulley bolts are fun as well. Had to get my breaker bar and rest it against the chassis on my hilux and flick the key to get it loose.
 
I agree on the breaker bar idea. Funnily enough last time i went to get my tire patched up (fucking POS nails in the road) they couldn't take my wheel using the impact wrench. They actually had to use a breaker bar :p
 
I can't find a breaker bar, none of my friends have a long one. Jumping on the wrench didn't help much. I managed to loosen 2-3 bolts but the rest are stuck. Maybe the fact that I weigh 140lbs doesn't help much :lol:
But it doesn't matter - I'm going to the garage on Tuesday and I'll ask them to loosen them for me and then I'll tighten them up by hand.

The reason I wanted to take my back wheels off, is because I want to adjust my handbrake shoes. Currently I have no handbrake at all.
 
Most of the time the handbrake cable is the culprite for a poor hand brake. there is often a tightening mechanism under the center of the car where the hand brake would be on the inside.
 
You are half right.

The adjusting mechanism is in the armrest. But before that, I need to adjust the brake shoes (drum brakes for the handbrake) and that is done through a small hole in both wheels with a screwdriver.
 
_HighVoltage_ said:
You are half right.

The adjusting mechanism is in the armrest. But before that, I need to adjust the brake shoes (drum brakes for the handbrake) and that is done through a small hole in both wheels with a screwdriver.
Click to expand...

Your car has drums?
 
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