I am new to the forum. I am trying to rotate the wheels on my 2003 Cooper S. It appears that there is rust between the wheel and center hub which is making it difficult to pull the wheel off.
Is there a tool that helps with this, or is it okay to thump the wheel from the inside with my foot to break it loose.
I do not want to damage anything, such as wheel bearings.
Thanks!

 

We posted this before, but what you can try is to loosen the lugs and just gently hand tight them back on, drive the car in a circle or do a 3point
turn. It should break the rust free. (don't drive down the block like that!)

hope that helps. :smile:

 

Hello Kenchan,
I have a great appreciate for simple ideas that work. I am anxious to try that this evening!

 

Instead of driving your car around with loose lug nuts, just take a hammer (preferably rubber) and knock the inside of the wheels loose when you have the car jacked up. It's normal for the wheels to be siezed onto the hubs.
Good luck...
Mark

 

Once you have the wheels loose try coating the surface with some anti sieze compound ,the stuff for spark plugs works.There are some plastic discs out that also take care of this problem, but I can`t remember where I saw them.

 

Please do this instead of driving around with loose lugs. However, if you do exactly as it was posted above, its not like your loose lugs would create any accidents anyway

 

nooo~ you don't do that to your car. a light tapping with a mallet
might be acceptable but i think his wheels are seized... you don't bang
on your wheels/tires specially not with a hammer.

 

I just rotated my wheels yesterday and had the same problem. I loosened my lugs 1-2 turns on one side, rolled my MINI a little and stomped on the brakes. Read that on one of the threads here. I still had to rock the wheels back and forth to get them off but it worked. Then did the same thing on the other side. Hope it works for you if you use that method.

 

I had the same problem with the wheels being stuck to rusted axle. I just used a rubber hammer though and after a few tries I got them off. Is it fine to use any grease or lubricant to place in between the wheel and axle for it won't happen again or further corrode? Wouldn't that fix the problem?