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Changing Car Wheel Sets Summer & Winter
http://berklix.com/~jhs/txt/wheel_change.html
I've done this, 4 wheels, twice a year, summer & winter,
since 1985, in Munich Germany (80 Km from mountains). A few
tips for those new to it.
-
Some people occasionally toy with the idea of 2 sets of
rubber tyres, & 1 set of metal wheel rims, to save
capital cost. Bad idea:
- Raises annual cost, changing rubber tyres on wheels
costs a more than just changing wheels. Needs a garage
with hydraulic press, can't be done at home.
- Probably keep stretching the rubber will damage it,
make it less safe at speed.
- Summer & winter wheels are often different width
(narrow for winter to dig through slush to road, broader
in summer) Winter rims are usually steel, Summer often
aluminium.
- If you talk to people while you do this job, you'll lose
concentration, & do something wrong, more pain, risk, or
just less efficiently, more moving of wheels, wasting
time.
- Check the other set of tyres are inflated to correct
pressure before you start.
- Take a torch & mirror: ideal time to sport check disk
brake wear on discs & pads. Take water, thirsty work.
Take a smallish flat screwdriver for flipping out stones
before they dig in too deep. Optionally take a stick of chalk
to mark tyres.
- Working on road is a right pain, dangerous, might be
illegal some places.
- Concrete is good, tarmac not so good. Brush the gravel
away.
- On a slope is dangerous, my park space is on a slope, so
I either use the car wash bay of the underground garage, or
one of the shop's parking slots, (no customers on a sunday),
or use a neighbours, & if neighbour arrives, ask him her
to park on your space. (they can argue if they like, but mine
never have, a car on a jack is obviously Not going to get out
of their way quickly, which rather discourages argument
starting, so far they've just happily taken my slot ;-) A
wider bay is needed than just for parking, a narrow bay slows
you down, & increase the strain on your back heaving the
tyres around.
- Always put a spare wheel under edge of car in case jack
collapses. Even though not under car, just changing wheels,
one can have head elbow fingers in wrong place, eg while
examining brakes.. think how things will move, lever &
compress if it slips. If the jack collapses, it will just
drop on the wheel, causing minor damage to the edge of car
body seal, & wheel, easily lifted by a new jack, much
less damage to car & human than if car suspension &
brake crushes into concrete.
- Use 2 more wheels fore & aft on side you'r not
jacking up, to chock car from rolling (also of course be in
gear & handbrake hard on) If you have one of those dinky
little plastic car wedges like I have, (with pointed metal
studs) put a wheel behind it, else it'll slip on flat
concrete, even if it might hold on a tarmac hill once under
pressure).
- exactly under middle of jack
point, but maybe 0.5 cm further in, (there's usually a bit of
slack/ play) because when car is jacked up it will tilt to
other side, & one wants least stress on jack, by keeping
the jack in the middle of its slack range.
- Keep the screw of the jack well greased, never allow any
sand or grit to blow on it.
- Put a rag under where hand winds to avoid scrapping
knuckles of hand on concrete - your going to be doing a lot
of winding, quite fast.
- Take a steel lengthening pipe (ie old steel 1/2" electric
pipe) to lengthen the tool to undo nuts. I now have a a tool
that has an integrated lengthening piece.
- If the jack is a diamond profile, symmetric, do not
place
- Some tyres (often winter, some summer too) have a forward
driving direction, (they expect the V shape in contact with
road to be pointing backward. That means the old idea of
rotating wheels to even the wear becomes impractical, with V
profile tyres only can only swap front to back, not side to
side.
- Slackening the nuts a fraction before you jack up the
wheel can help, Not Much, you do Not want the car moving on
the studs, putting weight on the threads. Just a slight
loosening. I normally slacken them after the jack is up,
tight enough to not slip, but while wheel is still taking
most/ or some of weight, so I don't stress the jack with more
leverage.
- Keep each wheel nut in a pattern so they go back on same
screw thread (some may think that excessive)
- In Munich they usually mark tyres as they take them off,
with chalk: VL, VR, HL, HR {Vorne=front,
Hinter=back}{Links=Left, Rechts=Right}
- Avoid grit on road. Always blow wheel nut to blow out
grit.
- Do Not oil wheel studs ! The place that sold me last
winter tyres Did put grease on the studs (many people
wouldn't approve of that, not sure I do)
- The place that sold me summer tyres also used an electric
rotary wire brush to clean the studs.
- Putting the other set of wheels on, usually the car needs
to go up or down a bit, or one has to lift the wheels on to
the studs, watch out for back strain.
- Tightening order: If a 5 stud wheel go round several
times doing every 2nd nut, gradually more torque. Do not do
every nut. Finish off with a torque wrench ideally.
- Only make wheel half tight while wheel is in air, ie
avoid applying excessive force while on a jack.
- Do Not use an extension bar to tighten. Do not stand on
lever to tighten. One can be surprised how they don't need to
be tightened so much as some think.
- Leave plastic covers off, till you've done maybe dunno
10/ 30/ 50 km, then check nuts are tight, then put plastic
on.
- Check pressures on new wheels.Also check pressure on the
spare.
- Some places in Munich one can pay to store wheels all
year, & pay them some more to change wheels.
- Some places in Munich one can rent car bays with
hydraulic vehicle lifts, by the hour, that might be more
comfortable than jacking up each wheel.
- Some shops in Munich sell car battery driven electric
tools to take off wheel nuts, a cheaper version of what
professional garages have, that run off compressed air.
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