Lug bolts sticking to alloy wheels

[steve west]

i had nothing but headaches using factory alloys on my festiva they would stick to the bolts, its very strange physics thing going on there, at first I thought they were corroded on, nope, maybe they were on too tight, nope, garage couldnt get them off with their biggest strongest impact wrenches they had cut them off with torch, when they cut them the mechanic took them off with his finger, very strange ...I used only steel rims after that.... wouldnt trust those alloys on my car again, anyone have this experience?

[fastivaca]

Never had a porblem with the bolts but occasionally the wheel would "stick" to the hub. Not a physics thing but a chemistry thing... something to do with aluminum and steel being in close proximity to one another. Anti sieze works wonders!

Ian
92 GL Sport
Calgary

[25Horseplay]

I had that problem in the beginning,but like Ian said "anti-seize"! Never had a problem since.

[Tim]

I had that problem in the beginning,but like Ian said "anti-seize"! Never had a problem since.

Boy am I in for a pleasent surprise when it's time for new tires...

[FB71]

Never had a porblem with the bolts but occasionally the wheel would "stick" to the hub. Not a physics thing but a chemistry thing... something to do with aluminum and steel being in close proximity to one another. Anti sieze works wonders!

Ian
92 GL Sport
Calgary

its called galvanic corrosion. its a form of electrolysis. as electricity passed from the vehicle body (static electricity generated by the vehicle body grinding through the air) to the ground (through the tires, they contain carbon, which is a conductor), the electrons have to jump or bridge the microscopic air gap between the wheel and hub. add water and oxygen, and it turns into a miniature elecrtoplating tank. some of the aluminum and iron molecules are broken apart, some elements are consumed in the corrosion process, others are converted and deposited on the iron or aluminum components. that forms a crust that binds the wheel to the hub.

[gdawgs]

Here's a galvanic corrosion chart.

http://www.engineersedge.com/galvanic_capatability.htm

Generally, if you are building something that will have dissimilar metals contacting each other, you want the metals to be close together in the chart. The further apart they are in the chart, the more corrosion will occur.

Aluminum and steel are fine together, but many wheels are magnesium alloys. As you can see from the chart and the guidelines above it, steel and magnesium have a large anodic index difference, so it's not such a good idea to put the two together.

Back in the 70's and 80', some auto manufactures didn't pay much attention to this chart and they did some dumb things. Essentially the different metals in the cars created mini batteries that self destructed rather quickly. So even if you kept the car immaculately clean, waxed, ..., it was still going to rust out, it was just a matter of time. Ever see a Vega that didn't have huge rusted out holes??

[miami man]

alloy wheels

I had the same problem with a tire store that could not get the lug nuts off with an impact wrench. so i bought a big breaker bar and an impact socket and break them loose before putting it on the rack.

[Festiva_newbie]

holy crap, I had a wrench on there, and I was jumping up and down on it, full force. I weigh about 180lbs, so im not light. It took forever.

Let me tell you though, when the first one finally gave out, I took a decent header. Landed on ma bum.

[FB71]

don't look at ma bum! :shock: