Changing a car Wheel (Rav4) (Silly, I know...)

Hi all,

Not the most technically competent person in the world when it comes to cars. Also, apologies if this is in the wrong section.


Was messing around with the Rav4 the other day and decided to take off a wheel and put the spare on (just for the sake of it, as i'd never done it before and figure, as i'd nothing better to do at the time, I may aswell get some practice before the day comes when I need to do it in a 'side of the road puncture' situation).


Anyway, my wheel of choice was the front right wheel (driver's side). I figured out where to put the jack, loosened the nuts (wahey) and lifted the car until the wheel could spin freely and wasn't in any contact with the ground.

I then removed all the nuts completely... and that's where I ran into trouble.

For some reason, the wheel, whilst still freely rotating, absolutely refused to budge from it's position on the car. I tried lifting, pulling, pushing, turning etc. and I got nowhere. I jerked it back and forth a bit (wahey, again) hoping it'd loosen up, but nothing. It was getting to a stage where I was shaking it a bit much, to the extent I decided to stop incase the car fell off the jack.

I also tried using a steel bar (piece off the jack that you turn to raise the car) and tried to use a crowbar type of move to take the wheel off, but it would not budge at all, and I didnt want to get too carried away incase i damaged the brake disc or such.


I'm sure I'm missing something simple here, but it's bugging me. Is there something with the Rav I'm overlooking? Is there an extra catch or hidden bolt somewhere or something? I had a Focus before this and don't recall ever having any issue getting the wheels off that.

I googled it but not really finding much. It's as though someone superglued the wheel to the car for a bit of a laugh.

Cheers.

dmc17

If it hasn't been changed for a while they tend to stick and need a bit of encouragement. Try hitting it from behind with something but be very careful.

Bandana boy

I know with my alloys they fuse with the disc
I use a bit of 2 by 4 across the back of the wheel and hit it with a hammer

Obviously make sure the car is securely on the jack before doing this

dmc17

Few threads here too

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055224205

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056842250

How not to do it

salmocab

Yeah sometimes they need a lot of encouragement to come off but be careful of what your banging it with and that the jack isn't moving about, maybe best to bring it to a tyre place and get them to pop off and back on all four could save a lot of trouble at the roadside in the future.

RayM

I had that problem last year. I tried hammering it from behind, kicking it, swearing at it... everything. Was worried that I'd break something (like my back) or pull the car off the jack, so I ended up just bringing it to a garage instead.

dmc17

salmocab wrote: »

Yeah sometimes they need a lot of encouragement to come off but be careful of what your banging it with and that the jack isn't moving about, maybe best to bring it to a tyre place and get them to pop off and back on all four could save a lot of trouble at the roadside in the future.

And give them a spray of copper grease while they're off to stop them sticking again

Bigus

One way to loosen a wheel that's corroded to the disc is to leave one nut on slightly loose (other four removed ) and let the jack down and then turn the steering or if it's a rear wheel jerk the car back and forward til it comes loose with the jack out of the way, safer then hammering or kicking at the wheel when its on the jack.

mfceiling

The uncle has a tyre dealership and i've watched him, the brother and the lads do this countless times.

Size 10 steel toecap boot - sole of foot at bottom of wheel - bang.

As the man himself says "there's no point in being ignorant if you don't show it"!!

Cheers for that folks. I thought I was just going a bit insane when I couldn't get it off. Almost felt a bit embarrassed writing the post, to be honest.

I'll try the method of lowering it back to the ground slowly with bolts missing and one or two only loosely screwed in. Seems to be the easiest way forward.

Can I ask, I presume this happens with all four wheels (the sticking thing)? Or is it just the front two? (my front two get dirtier a lot more than the rear two, due to brake dust, etc. so not sure?).

Either way I'll give them a looking at tomorrow and see if I can get them off and on again. I appreciate the replies (and links to other threads). Cheers

colm_mcm

It'll be the heat from the hubs fusing the hub and wheel together. A light smear of copper grease will ensure it won't happen again.

I usually find the 'give it a kicking' method works for getting them off.

Actually, I suppose I may aswell ask this while I'm here:

My Rav4 has 4 tyres with two different sizes. The two rear tyres are smaller than the front two tyres (not by much, but smaller nonetheless).

The smaller rear tyres are an incorrect size, and the larger front ones are the correct size. I had to change two tyres recently (normal sized ones) and the guy i bought them off reckoned that, as my Rav isn't 4x4, the rear wheels are just dead weight and having different sizes won't make any difference to the car (if it were 4x4 apparently the two wheels turning at different speeds would cause issue).

I reckon, as my car is front wheel drive, i'll wear down the front tyres faster, so I was going to swap them around (putting the smaller tyres on the front, and bigger ones on the back). My question is, is there any issue or downside to doing this (having smaller tyres on the front of the car?). This would (theoretically) mean that i'll wear the small tyres down first and when replacing them, can get bigger tyres and the car will be back to having the correct sized tyres all around?


(just to note: the different sized tyre thing happened (for whatever reason) before I owned the car).

colm_mcm

I'd have the smaller ones on the front, looks better.
Your headlight alignment is probably a little out due to the body now sitting at an angle.

What size are the smaller ones? They're supposed to be 215/70R16 IIRC

colm_mcm

colm_mcm wrote: »

It'll be the heat from the hubs fusing the hub and wheel together. A light smear of copper grease will ensure it won't happen again.

I usually find the 'give it a kicking' method works for getting them off.

I'll try that. I'd just be afraid of either damaging the alloy or knocking the car off the jack.. Knowing my luck I'd do both

colm_mcm

colm_mcm wrote: »

I'd have the smaller ones on the front, looks better.
Your headlight alignment is probably a little out due to the body now sitting at an angle.

My headlight alignment is a bit off anyway (left one is slightly higher up.. not by much but enough that I notice it and it annoys me) so I'm usually tinkering with the headlights making sure I'm not blinding anyone (I know it's irritating when other cars blind me!).


Can I ask, will there be any issue whatsoever with my Speedometer? I have it in my head for some reason that my speedometers accuracy relies upon me having correct tyres driving the car (i say driving the car, as i assume the front wheels are the only ones that matter?).


You've been a fountain of knowledge on my Rav, by the way, Colm! (I appreciate everyone on here's help, of course, but Colm has consistently been advising me and steering me in the right direction since when I first wanted to get my hands on a Rav months ago!). It's greatly appreciated!

Avns1s

Deleted User wrote: »

I'll try that. I'd just be afraid of either damaging the alloy or knocking the car off the jack.. Knowing my luck I'd do both

I usually use the kicking method too and in the event that it doesn't work, I use the spare wheel. Hit at 3 or 9 o clock with the tyre edge of the spare (in case it's not obvious). You have a fair bit of weight in the wheel and as your hitting with the tyre, you would be unlikely to mark your alloy.

dgt

Big block of wood
Place against edge of wheel
Strike using a sledge with considerable force

Violá

I'll have to make a vid at this rate.....

colm_mcm

Deleted User wrote: »

Can I ask, will there be any issue whatsoever with my Speedometer? I have it in my head for some reason that my speedometers accuracy relies upon me having correct tyres driving the car (i say driving the car, as i assume the front wheels are the only ones that matter?

)

Speedo is based on front wheels, wil be correct at the moment (well, it'll slightly overstate your speed) putting on the smaller wheels on the front will mew the overestimation of speed will be bigger (you'll be going slower than you think)

Odyssey 2005

Give the wheel a good stiff belt with the tyre on the spare wheel. Tyre on tyre will ensure no damage to either wheel,but ensure the jack is secure and on level ground.

... So I tried to change the wheels around yesterday.

Plan was to change them one at a time (using the spare wheel to avoid the car falling over in a heap).

However, another issue raises it's head: The jack, which seems to be the correct one for the car, doesn't raise the rear of the Rav4 high enough off the ground to actually remove the wheel!? I'm gonna try again, tomorrow (if the rain goes away for a few minutes) with something solid under the jack to try and get some extra height to lift the tyre off the ground.

Is this normal? I know that when the Rav4 was first lifted by my mechanic, i noticed that the rear wheels/suspension(?) hung a lot lower than the front ones, but assumed a jack that comes with the car would be tall enough to get them off anyway?!

colm_mcm

Are you jacking it up as per the manual?

To quote myself from 2009

colm_mcm wrote: »

The factory jack, which is stored under the passenger's seat, will lift a RAV4 tire off the ground if the correct lift point under the vehicle is used.
You should not need to use a board or other extension to use the jack.
The exact lift points are vaguely pictured in the owner's manual.
The lift points are the shape of a small tab that fits into a corresponding slot on the lifting surface of the factory jack.
These points are not on the frame of the vehicle, as on most cars, but on the suspension.

In the front, the lift points are behind the wheels, slightly to the rear of the wheel center.

In the rear, the lift point is several inches in from the edge of the body just forward of the rear wheel.

Esel

Deleted User wrote: »

Actually, I suppose I may aswell ask this while I'm here:

My Rav4 has 4 tyres with two different sizes. The two rear tyres are smaller than the front two tyres...

By smaller, do you just mean lower profile? If so, I would leave them on the rear.

I had this scenario on my last car, and googling told me to leave the lower profile tyres on the rear (FWD drive car, btw).

Esel

Cheers for that, Colm. I have the sidebars on mine, which don't really aid visibility when trying to see underneath the car. I'll be giving that a shot so (I really must take out the manual and have a look).

The jack has a picture of a Rav on it with little outlines as to where you should jack it up, but i had it on the body of the car. My own stupidity.


Will try again.

Esel wrote: »

By smaller, do you just mean lower profile? If so, I would leave them on the rear.

I had this scenario on my last car, and googling told me to leave the lower profile tyres on the rear (FWD drive car, btw).

Can I ask what the advantage is? I assume the front tyres will wear down first and therefore, when i wear them down, I can replace them with the proper sized tyres (and have 4 proper sized ones all-round)?

Seen as the rear wheels are essentially dead weight that just gets dragged along, I'd have thought it didn't make any difference what size the tyres are on the back (so long as they werent overly small/large to the extent of being dangerous).

Colm, as always, you were spot on with me being a bit of a moron and not copping that I was lifting in the wrong place.

Managed to swap them around in the end. It doesn't really make any difference, and you'd need to look hard to notice it (practically invisible, to be honest), but I'm happy I got it done now.

That said, the front right wheel came off after I rolled the spare tyre into it a few times (tyre to tyre, as a fellow poster suggested earlier in the thread - thanks for that tip!), but the left one was something else!

Not to say, I've never beat the crap out of anything as much in my life! :mad: Kicked, pushed, pulled, rolled spare tyre into and even let the jack down with no nuts on the wheel and it wouldn't budge.

Drove the car back and forth with the nuts on loose and no luck. Steered left and right and no luck. Eventually had to drive around for about 15-20 seconds, at decent speed, swerving like a mad man (empty private car park, don't worry!) with the nuts on loose ("tightened" by hand) before I eventually heard a thud and stopped. Couldn't believe the amount of effort involved. Amazing that it took so much to get it off!


So thank ye guys very much for your help. I tightened all the nuts and stuff but hearing a slight 'groaning' noise when i turn right coming from what sounds like the front left wheel, so I'll re-tighten them all back up again tomorrow and do a number on them from there, hopefully all will be well.

Thanks again everyone

delly

Just make sure to not over tighten it, there is a point that you don't want to go past.

delly

delly wrote: »

Just make sure to not over tighten it, there is a point that you don't want to go past.

Oh, okay. I'll just leave it as it is, so.

Although in saying that, i didn't really notice any strange noises this morning (though I had the radio on, so i probably wouldn't have noticed them anyway).

Still happy to have it done.