I recently changed my brake fluid and in the process I had to remove the front aluminum wheels (98 F150 4X4). Naturally, the wheels were stuck to the hub because of the corrision between dissimilar metals. So I loosened up the lug nuts and then proceeded to drive back and forth in my driveway using the brakes to loosen up the wheel to hub corrosion. This worked very well on both fronts. Now the question I have is this....how does a tire shop remove the stuck on wheels if you were to get new tires? I mean, do they put the truck up on the rack, remove the lug nuts, try to remove the wheel/tire, cuss a lot, beat the heck out of it with a big hammer? Anyone ever see how a shop would do this? Just curious, and post any other methods you've used to remove stuck aluminum wheels. Thanks.

Dave

 

I knew mine would be stuck the first time I needed to take them off so I went to Discount Tire and paid for a balance and rotation.
To get them off, the tech stood with his back to the tire and mule kicked it several times. Eventually, it came off. Since then, I slather some anti-sieze around the hubs and never had the problem again.

 

When I had this happen on another car some time ago, that I bought used.
I used a 36" pipe wrench and hit the tire from the inside bottom. This is the rubber only, not the wheel.
I started out not too aggressive, and then kept increasing the swing until it came off. Just be real careful not to hit the wheel along the lip of the rim, else junk time for that wheel.

Never seen how a shop does it. If I remember to, I'll ask a friend of the family that is a mechanic how they do it at their shop.

 

We (the shops) use a rubber mallet to avoid tire damage