On Sunday we drove into town for lunch. Hev had to work a late shift, so the plan was that she would drive to work after lunch and I would get the bus home.
No problem.
Unfortunately, we encountered a small problem with a burst tyre. We cracked out the spare, jacked the car up, we even managed to get the wheel nuts off (with the aid of extra leverage provided by a traffic cone), but the wheel wouldn't come off, wouldn't budge an inch. Our new car has alloy wheels, which neither of us had ever changed before, so we weren't sure if we'd missed something. There was a big bolt in the centre of the wheel, but no tool for it, surely that was part of the disc brake?
We had some assistance from some of the guys who work in the Hotel next door (I'd parked in the work car park), but they couldn't budge it either. We figured that it was fused on with rust- but how to shift it?
Hev got a taxi to work, and I was out of ideas, so I phoned my friend Nik, who immediately did what you always do when faced with a head-scratcher : ask Google.
'Right', he says, 'yep, looks like it is fused on, is it the front wheel or back?'
'Front'
'ah,good...'
Apparently the trick is to put the wheel nuts back on loosely, let the car back down off the jack, then turn the steering wheel back and forth until the wheel wiggles off.
I tried this once, and it didn't work, but assured by Nik that this was a tried and tested method, I tried again and eventually...
CLUNK!
off it came.
Jack it back up, change the wheel and hey presto! I'm mobile again!
It's amazing what the internet will tell you.
So cheers Nik, and thank you Google...
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