[der32]

I wanted to remove my wheels the other day, to enable me to paint the collar between the wheel and discs, bit sad, but looks better than the thin layer of surface rust that was appearing ! Anyway I had to read the manual as what I thought were the wheel nuts were in fact plastic covers that are removed by a small hook you will find in the boot tray, then below that are the wheel nuts, complete with locking wheel nut, which you are supposed to take a note of its adapter number in case you ever loose it for replacement. The jack did the job perfectly and all four chicago wheels look like new again and rust free.

 

[pacemaker1000]

no not sad al all i was thinking of doing the same thing cos the rust is annoying
what paint did you use?

 

[der32]

I used hammerite smooth, in silver finish they look a lot better now and alos whilst wheels were off I used copper grease on wheel studs as they were dry. One thing I,ve still to do is find out the correct torque setting for the wheel nuts as Alluminium studs should be retorqued back on when they have been removed. One more thing I can highly recomment Wonder wheels for alloys I believe it has come out top in tests on alloy wheel cleaner, you dont need to do it every time you wash the car but say once every 6 months brings them back to new esp[ecially the hard to reach parts.

 

[IanJ]

Whatever you do you SHOULD NOT put grease/Copper slip on the threads of the studs - it is the fast way to snapping the studs.

The torque loading for the studs is for clean studs, if they are lubricated then that torque setting will put more tension into the studs and could stretch them (believe me I have seen it done on M24 High tensiile bolts! - and that takes some doing by hand)

Put copper slip on the mating sufaces (the central locating ring and the back of the wheel where it touches the hub) to stop the intermetallic corrosion but NEVER lubricate the threads!