I recently bought an 03 Copper S with the S lite wheels. I have a slow leak in my front tire and thought I would take the wheel with me when I get tires for my truck this week. I removed the lug nuts and I cannot get the wheel off.
Whats the trick? I don't want to pry on them but it feels like the lug nuts are still on.
Is there a tool to pull the wheel?

Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

(I know I could take the car to the tire place, but now I want to know how to get the it off)

 

Have you tried the obvious, like sitting in front of the wheel and applying a little boot shock to the tire in various places?

Zip

 

Kick the tire from the side. Hard. That should break it loose. Common problem with alloy wheels and steel flanges - it siezes up a bit. But the kick is the common, low tech, non-destructive solution. Don't worry. You're not going to break it...

If you don't want to risk the wheel shifting and marring the inside of the rim, you can put a couple of the lug bolts back in VERY loosely (just a few turns) then do the kick...

Make sure the car is securely on the jack or stands and that is won't fall on anything or anyone if you knock it off the jack (unlikely, but better safe than sorry...)

 

Ya I kicked it but not hard (don't want the car mad at me) I'll try again, I just didn't want to kick it to hard if there was some sort of trick.
Thanks

 

One swift kick worked!!

Thanks again!

 

This just happened to my wife's Protege on Friday. She had gotten a flat and I went to take off the wheel it is would not budge. The wheel was up on the jack and could freely spin. I tried kicking it like mentioned above but the sucker would not come off. I ended up slowly lowering the car with the jack until there was some weight on the tire and it broke the seal of the wheel to the hub.

*edit*

I guess I was a bit late

 

Rubber mallet.

 

Make sure you apply a little lithium grease around the hub before you replace the wheel and you shouldn’t have that problem again.

 

WHAT????

I ask because I myself thought of this, and did this initially on my cabrio. Then I read some very commentary from folks who understand wheel and hub engineering MUCH better than me, explaining that you WANT a lot of friction between those surfaces because it's that friction (and not the bolts) that actually holds the wheels in place under load - and that lubrication could compromise this... so my wheels and flanges are clean now...

 

Blimey's right - do NOT use lubricant on the mating surfaces of the hub and wheel!

The lug bolts do not actually carry the shear forces generated in the wheel - the hub/wheel interface does that. Here's how it works: You tighten the lug bolts, which stretches them slightly. This stretching applies a clamping force to hold the wheel and hub together. The clamping force, combined with the friction between the hub and wheel, keep the hub and wheel from sliding against one another. Since the wheel and hub don't slide relative to one another, there's no shear loading on the bolts.

If you were to lubricate the hub/wheel surfaces very well, that would reduce the friction between them, potentially allowing them to slide against one another. As soon as the hub and wheel start to slide, the lug bolts now have a shear force on them, which is not what they were designed for. This is what leads to lug bolts and studs snapping.

You're more likely to end up with a broken bolt/stud as a result of undertightening it than by overtightening it..

 

NOW SAY YOUR SORRY FOR KICKING

 

Sticking wheels reminds me of the old British cars with splined knock-off wire wheels. The trick with those when the wheels seized on the splined shaft was to loosen the knock-off ear a few turns, and then drive the car slowly in a tight circle to put enough lateral force on the wheel to dislodge it from the splines.

I could never remember if you were supposed to use left-hand turns to unstick a right-hand wheel or vice-versa, so I usually ended up doing a few figure-eights in the parking lot...

 

I did, then gave her a bath and wax to make it up.

BTW: Thanks for the help!