Alloy wheels on V70/D5 seized after 2 years and 17.5 K miles

My wife got a rather large nail in her V70 and ruined the front tyre. She managed to drive the car into a nearby car park and proceeded to slacken the wheel nuts then get the car up on the jack. At this point she was unable to remove the wheel (after removing the wheel nuts) and asked a passing friend (male and 17 stone) if he could remove the wheel. To no avail! She then contacted a nearby garage, and the owner who is a friend of ours came out saying that it was a common problem for alloy wheels to "weld" themselves onto the steel wheel hub etc. He brought with him a rather large Rubber mallet and with quite a few heavy but judicious blows to the rear of the wheel with the car rocking on the jack, got the wheel off.
He told us that this was a common fault and that when he had cars in for their annual service his mechanics always removed the wheels and siliconed them to prevent this seizing problem. As my wife had just 4 weeks previuosly had the car given its second major annual service she rang the Volvo dealer and told them of the problem. They stated quite categorically that they had never heard of alloy wheels seizing on their cars and that since it was not part of the annual service routine, they did not take the wheels off of the car for service (they can apparently check the state of tyhe brake pads and discs without taking the wheels off). If she wanted the wheels to be removed she would have to pay extra for this.
Not happy with this my wife phoned Volvo UK themselves to be given the same information but when she insisted that this was ridiculous on a brand new car that had been fully and correctly? serviced from new, Volvo UK phoned the dealer and arranged for them to remove and inspect all 4 whhels on the car. I think that at £300 pounds for an annual service one would expect the dealer to make sure that the wheels were removeable in an emergency situation?

[IC]

Hi, I recently read about somebody else who had a problem with wear on his new German car's discs which was not spotted in the annual service because it was not the company's policy to take the car's wheels off to check for disc wear. It seems ridiculous not to take the car's wheels off as disc wear cannot be properly checked with the wheels still on - never mind the problem off sticking alloys. It seems to me that some companies are only interested in minimising the work that should be done in an annual service, however there is no mention of minimising the hourly rate that they charge!

[gary1638]

They do stick! I've just got all mine off with not too much of a fight and given the hubs a good coat of copaslip. I suggest this is very much a preventative thing, I don't want to be fighting with a wheel in the pouring rain! This didn't seem to be so much of a problem with my previous 850GLT, but my current T5 certainly suffers from this.

I too have had this problem in the past, never on a Volvo though. What I've always done is undo the wheel nuts/bolts about three turns and drive the car very slowly over a very short distance, and apply the brakes, this normally frees them off.

Obviously this bit of advice is no use if you have a puncture, but it's better than beating the c%$p out of the wheels with a rubber mallet, when you just want to check your pads.

[sholtby]

Yeah, I've used that method too Nigel.
I'd put some copper grease on the hub to prevent it happening again. Retorque the wheel bolts a few miles after fitting the wheels as the grease will be squeezed out and cause them to be loose.
I think you could check the condition of the brakes with the wheels fitted but I like to remove mine.

Simon

[Simon Linton]

There is another reason, mentioned in passing, why alloy wheels should be removed in a Volvo service - the torque of the bolts.

As members have found, uneven torque settings can lead to disc warping, a dangerous and expensive problem that is totally preventable.

As car enthusiasts we will be aware of things like bolt torque settings, but the general public won't and they should be protected from the consequences by the highly expensive main dealer servicing.

Could the lack of removal be a way of generating more business?...perish the thought...

My V70 had a rear wheel puncture yesterday.
What a performance it was just getting the spare wheel out.
Unscrew and remove the hinged cargo area flooring.
Undo and carefully move to one side the subwoofer unit, without pulling the wiring out!
Then I found that the punctured alloy wheel wouldn't come off.
I kicked at the wheel to try and loosen it but no luck.
So, had to put everything back and take a 10mph drive home with flashers on (luckily only 1/2 mile).
Thankfully all this happened in good weather. Had it been raining I'd have been a tad ticked off (mild understatement there!!).

Once home I delved into techie section on this site, and found the help I needed.
I followed Nigel's advice - loosen wheel nuts, short slow drive, apply brakes - it worked a treat.
So, a huge thanks to you, Nigel - cheers.
I'll be greasing / copasealing all four wheels as soon as poss.

By the way, whilst stranded, I phoned the local Volvo dealer.
They had never heard of this problem.
Hmmmmm!!

1stGarry
2002 V70 T5

[sheerwater]

Yep they all seize and what a job it is getting the wheels off. Interestingly enough the ally wheels have steel inserts touching so the hub so why there should be any ally/steel interaction beats me. This problem was almost solved by one maker putting stainless rings at the junction point but still the wheels seised. The real problem is water ingress into the hub either through the logo insert or between the wheel and disc. The corrosion is not helped by ally wheel cleaner which is corrosive. Only answer Ive found is wheels off and copper ease compound as stated earlier.Why therefore isnt this done on manufacture or is this just another job creation problem. (dealer never heard of problem!!! they said our turbo had blown when it was an air mass meter!!! so what do they know)