CNY_Dave Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 Poked at one of my wheels last night- the corrosion where the wheel mounts to the hub is worse than I recall, going to clean them up and see if a) they mount straight (afraid when I'm done the surface won't be flat, or true) they stay tight If they are sufficiently true and stay tight I'll run 'em for the life of the current tires that I just bought, if not I'll have to pick between new cast rims, steelies (yech) or used ones from a boneyard or someone who has upgraded. If I didn't have tires on 'em I'd put the rims on my mill and hit 'em with the face milling cutter, of course I'd have to get the mill put back together first... Anyone else ever deal with this? I think it's because this car saw salt, winter, and little use for its first 4 years, I'll bet the wheels were off only to rotate the tires a few times, and all kinds of galvanic goodness occurred. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davebugs Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 Recent thread here about this. This week or last. DIscussing anti-seize, etc. Common problem. Relatively easy to prevent but a pain when that prevention wasn't taken. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CNY_Dave Posted April 10, 2009 Author Share Posted April 10, 2009 Recent thread here about this. This week or last. DIscussing anti-seize, etc. Common problem. Relatively easy to prevent but a pain when that prevention wasn't taken. Yeah, that was my thread, back when I thought just a little clean-up would do it. Maybe it's not bad as I fear (yeah right) Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
backwoodsboy Posted April 10, 2009 Share Posted April 10, 2009 Maybe it's not bad as I fear (yeah right) Dave Even with lack of service... (or even flat-out NEGLECT) I have YET to see a customer have to replace a hub or wheel due to corrosion between the aluminum and steel. Theres a first time for everything, but Im willing to bet youre fine. Clean em up with some light wire-wheel action, anti seize em ... and torque the lugs to 100 ft-lbs in the typical cross-pattern. Keep us posted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CNY_Dave Posted April 10, 2009 Author Share Posted April 10, 2009 Even with lack of service... (or even flat-out NEGLECT) I have YET to see a customer have to replace a hub or wheel due to corrosion between the aluminum and steel. Theres a first time for everything, but Im willing to bet youre fine. Clean em up with some light wire-wheel action, anti seize em ... and torque the lugs to 100 ft-lbs in the typical cross-pattern. Keep us posted I scraped a little and there was a little uphill from near the edge towards the center. The portion that engages the centering rim on the hub is degraded enough you have to tighten the lug nuts gingerly to get it properly centered- I don't regard that as a severe problem, though. The centering ring doesn't hold the wheel centered, it just holds it centered while you tighten the lugs. I discovered that after the car shook whenever a shop put the wheels oin, but never when I did, and it didn't seem to be a torquing issue. Yeah, I'm hoping I'm just over-worrying it. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EVOthis Posted April 11, 2009 Share Posted April 11, 2009 Just thought I would throw this in here...just hope they dont start loosing pressure due to corrosion around the bead...than you have to dismount the tire, take a die grinder to the corrosion and throw some bead sealer on there....extremely common problem on some of the older outbacks and such... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CNY_Dave Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 Just thought I would throw this in here...just hope they dont start loosing pressure due to corrosion around the bead...than you have to dismount the tire, take a die grinder to the corrosion and throw some bead sealer on there....extremely common problem on some of the older outbacks and such... That problem I don't seem to have, yet anyway. Things cleaned up OK, the areas I thought were the 'good' areas turned out to be a super-hard, almost ceramic amalgam of aluminum corrosion, rust, and who knows what. I placed an old screwdriver (no handle) perpendicular to the surface and hit it with a hammer, and the crud broke like it was glass. The areas that were 'low' and I thought were areas of severe corrosion were the 'normal' areas. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olnick Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Things cleaned up OK So, were you experiencing any shake prior to your work? Is it gone now? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CNY_Dave Posted April 13, 2009 Author Share Posted April 13, 2009 (edited) So, were you experiencing any shake prior to your work? Is it gone now? Previously, yes, I would get some shake, would be better or worse after pulling and re-installing a wheel depending on how things happened to line up. Much better now, no shake as far as I can tell. One telltale is if you have the wheel loose and all the lugnuts loose, and you tighten one lugnut snug and the wheel pulls to the hub, then you tighten the next and it pulls a little tighter, and the next it pulls a little closer, that's a sign you have crud. After cleaning things up once the 1st nut was snugged, the wheel was tight to the hub. Now, since the part of the rim the centering ring bears on is a bit deteriorated, I have to be careful to tighten the lug nuts very slightly in sequence, using about 3 stages to make sure it's centered. Dave Edited April 13, 2009 by CNY_Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olnick Posted April 13, 2009 Share Posted April 13, 2009 Thanks, Dave--very helpful. No problems with my Subaru (knock on wood) but you've given me a wakeup call to get proactive with the preventive maint. However we have a shimmy/shake in my wife's Maxima, which got much worse when a shop rotated the tires recently. Yes, a big shop with impact wrenches everywhere! Hopefully a mounting surface cleanup, anti-seize and careful tightening will help. Thanks again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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