jacking up the car for inner wheel care

joyriide1113

joyriide1113

There is no cure!
how easy is it to lift a car and remove wheels and tires? i have never cleaned the inside of any rims well like u guys and i want to. i dont mind purchasing a quality jack but my question is how easy or hard is it. is removing the wheel and tire easy as just unscrewing. im just worried that i might miss something.
 
have u ever changed a flat. just lift it up with the jack that came with the car if you dont have another one. follow the instructions to take it completly off and clean it and put it back on. there should be instructions on the proper way to take off and put a wheel back on in your car or manual.
 
I bought a very nice floor jack & jack stands @ Sears last spring for @ $100. That way I can remove all 4 wheels at once for easy cleaning.
One other word of caution - be sure you get the nuts properly tightened when reinstalling - look in your Owner's Manual for the proper torque setting and use a torque wrench!
 
so other than removing the screws and then screwing them back in there should be nothing else right. the wheels should just slide perfectly into their place and no wheel alignment or anything of that sort should be neccesary right? im not the mechanical nucff as u can see :)
 
joyriide1113 said:
so other than removing the screws and then screwing them back in there should be nothing else right. the wheels should just slide perfectly into their place and no wheel alignment or anything of that sort should be neccesary right? im not the mechanical nucff as u can see :)
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You are basically correct.
Do as someone suggested, read your owners manual. It should give you instructions on where to place the jack and how to remove and replace the lug nuts. If you follow the instructions, it should be a piece of cake.

Charles
 
joyriide1113 said:
dumb question and a jinx at that but how big is the chance of the car just falling! :ohmy:
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:-p Practically none if you follow the instructions. That's why you read the manual. :)

Charles
 
Joy,
Unless BMW's are dramatically different from all the cars I've seen, you'll be removing the (lug) nuts, not the "screws".
And unless you do something really dumb, in removing & reinstalling the wheels, no, you won't need an alignment or re-balance.
And read your Owner's Manual BEFORE you start!! Do you have a torque wrench? Getting the nuts properly tightened IS important!!
I would hate to hear of you losing a wheel while doing 125 on a detour to the FL keys!!
 
hahah! so u read my post. well yea i guess u're right they are nuts and by torque wrenche what do u mean.,

of course im planning on reading the manual. im probably gonna read, read it again, sleep with it under my pillow, recite ity to my marketting class, and then call a priest over to bless the garage while i do it
 
No, Joy, "a mother just knows" what her kids have been up to!! ;)

A "torque wrench" is a specialized tool which measures /regulates the amount of force (torque) used to tighten a nut.
If you have to buy one, I think they can be found @ Sears for @ $ 60 ~ 75, but maybe somebody you know will have one that you can borrow for a day?
 
Yea no worries on removing the tires or having the car fall, as long as you use a sturdy part of the car to lift it up (frame) and put jackstands under the frame. I would probably do one side first, put them back on and go around to the other side. You may want to chalk the wheels just in case too...
 
If you are trying to clean the inside part of tire and rim area....I went to a janitorial supply place they have a whole bunch of brushes....I got two toilet brushes one is the stand one that you see for home use and the next one is a L shaped one...I spray the best that I can on the back of the wheel with cleaner, then use that L shaped brush to rub the tire....The inside part I can get with the other brush...Seems to save me allot of time and I don't have to remove the wheels...They call this one an elbow brush and mine is a wood handle with stiff black bristles
 
The Meguiar's "Spoke Brush" works pretty good for me. I only remove wheels to rotate tires, install brakes, or put on new tires.:)
Hopefully, this link will let you see it.

Charles
 
You got your car new correct? If so better get the sledge hammer out. I remember my friend was painting his bro's 330ci brake calipers and could not get off the rim even with the lug nuts removed. He ended up calling my other friend for some :helpsmili and my other friend who owns a new Eclipse at the time told him he had the same problem, I guess they are overtightened from the factory. What he did was wrap a block up with an old blanket or rag and had to use the sledge hammer to knock the wheels off. Sounds kinda odd but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to get them off. Just giving you a heads up based on what I heard.
 
The ONLY time I have had a car fall off jacks is when a earthqauke hit in the Azores, Portugal. I do my best to be ALWAYS fully supported with jackstands and I have two jacks that I leave under it as well.
 
some things are just left to those who know.....if you have no under standing on how to change a flat "Don't Do It" the life you may save might be your own.
 
I actually had a truck fall off a jack once too. I was laying next to it trying to figure out the rusted spare tire mechinism on an old S10 when the stock jack gave out. Not a fun experience. Now, I don't use the stock jack and when I do lift cars up, use jackstands and wheel chalks for the ones that are still on the ground. Its not a good think when you are laying under a 3000+ pound object and it falling on you... On the other hand, it really isn't a difficult task to do. I did it while rotating tires, I figured why not, the tires were off but there really isn't a need to do it on a normail routine if you keep up with the maintenance of cleaning what you can from the outside.
 
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