Wheels wont come off!

[Routty]

So I go to rotate my tires this morning, and I can't get any of the wheels off of the car. I have a 2004 with powder coated FJ cruiser wheels. I beleive the problem is the powder coating. I am thinking that it heated up from braking and has bonded the wheel to the mounting surface. Has anyone had this issue? Any suggestions on how to get the wheels off? I have pulled as hard as possible, and have even kicked them from the inside...no luck. Fortunately I have access to a sturdy lift, so i am not concerned about the car falling or anything. I think my last resort might be some sort of torch to heat up the wheel and then try getting them off. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[MikesToy]

Take it to Discount Tire, they'll rotate your tires for $20 ($5 for each tire). Better off paying $20 than ruining your ride.

 

[Stick Figure]

mitsu's have a bad problem w/ wheel to hub corrosion, and the only trick that sometimes would work on those is to loosen the lugs, as in almost tight, but not tight and do some LOW speed figure 8's in a parking lot to put a side load on them. While this sounds scary as %$#@ to do, it was either that or beat them w/ a sledge hammer from the inside.

If you don't understand what i mean about the lugs, please just pay a shop to rotate the tires, i would feel bad if your wheels fell off and you tried to blame me!

 

[CJ3Flyr]

beat them w/ a sledge hammer from the inside.

Stick figures idea will work... I always beat em. Use a block of 2x4 between the hammer and the rim.

Everyone is terrified of grease around wheels. I always lightly grease the rims and ven the lugnuts. Been doing that way since 1978, never had an issue, in fact I think a it's the only way to get even, accurate torque on the nuts IMHO. Use it sparingly as you don't want a mess or lots of grease on the brake rotors.

Let the bashing begin
:cheers:

 

[<<<<]

There is a lot easier way to go about "frosen wheels" issue in 4th gen 4 Runner. Toyota thought of this and enginered little notches on the inner part of the wheel where it mates with the rotor hub. All you have to do is to put stuby (short) flat screwdriver in it and give slight pry or tap. There are 6 slots, so work your way around.

 

[Routty]

Thanks for the replies. So you are saying to take the center cap off and there will be notches where I can get a screwdriver in to try and pry the wheels off? I will give that a go, otherwise I might try the sledgehammer method. I guess I could always take the car in to get the tires rotated, but for some reason I feel like they might screw the thing up with how difficult it is to get the wheels off. I guess shops might run into this all the time though...

 

[<<<<]

Those are beetween wheel and brake hub. In between spokes on the back side of the rim where it mates with hub.

 

[Routty]

Maxim..thanks for the reply. I am going to give your method a try. It is going to be tricky to get in-between the spokes and get enough leverage to do any good. I'll let you know how it goes.