Wheels Stuck on Hub? Prevent that with this One-Minute Trick
Getting a flat almost always comes at the worst of times. Don’t get stranded just because a wheel has become stuck.
At-home DIY’ers, mechanics, and even people stuck on the side of the road have all had to deal with a wheel that simply won’t budge from a car. This is annoying as well as potentially dangerous. But thanks to this video from Mercedes Source, it’s easily preventable.
The problem happens at the hub. Being made out of metal, the steel hub corrodes and expands under heat differently than an aluminum or alloy rim. This is especially true for the folks that live in the “rust belt,” where road salt is used during the winter. With corrosion building up over the course of months or even years, the hub and rim essentially become fused together, requiring a soft but assertive bludgeoning to get the rim unseated.
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Thankfully, all it takes is just a moment of prep work and this nuisance becomes a non-issue. Remove the corrosion with an abrasive pad. Make sure it’s not too strong or you could damage the softer metal of the rim. After that, an anti-seize compound can be spread on the mating surface of the hub and rim to prevent the corrosion from returning. Really that’s all it takes, but sometimes these extra steps are either forgotten or ignored.
