My mate and I were chatting last week about vehicles in general as he is a mechanic.The subject got on to punctures as he was looking at the size of the wheels on my truck and the deep tread on them and said that it would be unlikely that I would get a puncture, talk about inviting fate! Today I was visiting my friend who lives about fifteen minutes away but would be quicker if the road wasn't so rough so 20 mph was top speed. I then heard this flapping noise which I reciognised and I knew I had got a puncture! Got the tyre iron out and loosened the nuts then wound down the spare wheel and placed it under the truck and proceeded to jack the truck up.The nuts were supprisingly easy to loosen when I stood on the tyre iron which pleased me as I have had a night mare in the past on other vehicles that I have owned.Piece of cake as I had managed all this in under ten minutes in the rain and I removed the nuts.Pulled at the wheel and it wouldn't budge so I gave it a kick or two from the inside of the wheel and nothing and I struggled with this for about ten minutes before I gave up and phoned my friend.He asked me if the wheel rims were Alloy and I said yes. Oh he said it has got heated when breaking and had adheared to the metal behind the wheel as alloy is softer than steel .Well I never thought of that as this is the first vehicle I have had with alloy wheels and have always been iron rims and never had this trouble with them.He asked if I had a hammer and I hadn't got one with me and said you will need a hammer mate and I will fetch one to you. He arrived and I got wet and dirty and gave the wheel a few thumps with the hammer behind the wheel with a bit of force and it broke free to my joy!I changed the wheel and carried onto his place following cautiously behind him as I had no spare now.

So the moral of this story is if you have alloy wheels make sure you have a hammer on board!

A Friend of mine had the same problem once so now he lightly greases the hub before he puts the wheels on and no problems since, apparently its a common problem with alloy wheel and corrosion.

BGTRAVELLER wrote:

A Friend of mine had the same problem once so now he lightly greases the hub before he puts the wheels on and no problems since, apparently its a common problem with alloy wheel and corrosion.

Good idea thanks BGT

speedgunner wrote:

My mate and I were chatting last week about vehicles in general as he is a mechanic.The subject got on to punctures as he was looking at the size of the wheels on my truck and the deep tread on them and said that it would be unlikely that I would get a puncture, talk about inviting fate! Today I was visiting my friend who lives about fifteen minutes away but would be quicker if the road wasn't so rough so 20 mph was top speed. I then heard this flapping noise which I reciognised and I knew I had got a puncture! Got the tyre iron out and loosened the nuts then wound down the spare wheel and placed it under the truck and proceeded to jack the truck up.The nuts were supprisingly easy to loosen when I stood on the tyre iron which pleased me as I have had a night mare in the past on other vehicles that I have owned.Piece of cake as I had managed all this in under ten minutes in the rain and I removed the nuts.Pulled at the wheel and it wouldn't budge so I gave it a kick or two from the inside of the wheel and nothing and I struggled with this for about ten minutes before I gave up and phoned my friend.He asked me if the wheel rims were Alloy and I said yes. Oh he said it has got heated when breaking and had adheared to the metal behind the wheel as alloy is softer than steel .Well I never thought of that as this is the first vehicle I have had with alloy wheels and have always been iron rims and never had this trouble with them.He asked if I had a hammer and I hadn't got one with me and said you will need a hammer mate and I will fetch one to you. He arrived and I got wet and dirty and gave the wheel a few thumps with the hammer behind the wheel with a bit of force and it broke free to my joy!I changed the wheel and carried onto his place following cautiously behind him as I had no spare now.

So the moral of this story is if you have alloy wheels make sure you have a hammer on board!

Useful information speedgunner - we have alloy wheels and would have the same problem.

Do you think this is a problem because of the extreme temperatures in Bulgaria, as I have had alloy wheels on various vehicles for years and never come across this problem before. Mind you thats probably tempting fate now !

I have a Pajero here in the uk and it's the same with mine so I wouldn't it's anything to do with the climate. Good tip above from BGT that's what I do.

I'm with Mike on this one..I've had alloys on my vehicles in Australia, UK and here in Bulgaria, for over twenty years and I've not come across this problem before. I'm not saying that it can't happen, but whenever I have a wheel off, for any reason, I clean the hub and the wheel before I put it back on.

Yep I agree with you should clean your hubs but I have never had the wheels of in the 14 months that I have owned it as i have had no need to and I don't think taking the wheels off is part of a service schedual and only if the braking system need seeing to.The reason my mate new what to do was he had the same trouble in Germany and the rescue services hit the insde of the wheel with a hammer. Any way I was supprised at how cheap it was to repair the flAt tyre as I had it done in Dobrich. It wasn't so much a nail but looked as though it was slit with a knife obviously it wasn't as I had driven a couple of miles before it happened, I had run over something sharp.For a patch repair and balancing cost 15lv including an all round tyre inflation and check, no way in the UK at that price possibly an estimate.

we had a flat tyre yesterday, put the spare on and took it down to they tyre repair. there was no puncture it was the valve. so new valve, balanced, took the spare off, put the repaired one on, put the spare back in the rear case. total cost 8 lev, unbelievable.

As said above smear a fine amount of grease on the hub first and the problem goes away.

Those prices are about right for this country. The service protocols on all my four vehicles suggest I rotate the wheels every six months or so and because I run winter and summer tyres they get changed twice a year anyway. I use a local tyre company here in Plovdiv and they charge me 8 leva per vehicle, balancing is free but a puncture repair costs about 10 leva, depending on the size of the patch.