How to Remove a Stuck Tire

How you doing? Mike, from 1A Auto. I'm going to show you how to get a stuck tire off.

This vehicle has got aluminum rims, and the tire is basically corroded to the brake disc. I'm just going to put one—first thing I'm going to do—just put one lug nut on. Okay? Then you can give it a good pull. Obviously, make sure your vehicle is well supported. Pull it. The lug nut will just keep the tire from flying off. This one is stuck on there really well, so what you can do is lower your car back onto the ground. I'm just going to put a couple more lug nuts on. With the lug nuts just loose—obviously, the lug nuts are holding the wheel on, but they're loose. A lot of times, once you put the weight back on the wheel, it will pop it. Okay. It didn't happen on this one.

So, the next thing you can do is try to shake the car side to side. Okay. That still didn't work. Raise it back up. Get as large of a pry bar as you can. Make sure when you pry you're not prying a brake line or anything like that. I'm going to loosen up the lug nuts really well. Alright. You saw the wheel move. Take the lug nuts off the rest of the way and take the wheel off.

Okay. To prevent that from happening again, what you want to do—or the right way to do it—is to use some anti-seize compound. You just put just a little dab, and then you want to make sure it's just a light coat. Okay. The other thing you can do if you don't anti-seize—you can just use some regular motor oil. Again, I have a rag here in my hand, just because you want to dip it in. And you just want to put a really light, thin coat because you don't want the motor oil to end up getting all over your brakes. So, just make sure it's a really, really thin coat, and that motor oil will help to keep that wheel from getting stuck to the brake again.

Once you've coated the back to the wheel, put the wheel in place, thread the top lug nut on first, then you can use that, push the bottom on, and thread those on. Tighten up, preliminarily. Lower the vehicle down onto the ground. Make sure it's in park or the wheel is blocked, and torque the lug nuts to 100 foot-pounds, and use a star pattern.

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