2011 Oct. 18, I had recently bought two used snow tires on rims for $15.00/wheel from Buck’s, a local car wrecker. It was a great deal as they were almost new! Today I decided to put the snow tires on my car and seeing I had two extra wheels, I decided to put the front touring tires on the back, and put the back tires in the garage for the winter. I had a little bit of a problem with the front wheel bolts, but I found a better tire wrench in the garage and that made the job easier. After I mounted the front snow tires, I jacked up the car to replace the right rear wheel and found that getting the nuts off was even harder than the front, but I managed to remove them and install the front wheel.
I then went to change my last wheel (left rear driver’s side) and again, I had a tough job loosening the bolts. I managed to loosen two bolts, and when I began to twist on the third bolt, the bolt broke off from the brake drum with the nut still on it. I didn’t want to chance getting the other tight and rusty bolts off in case I broke them too as then I wouldn’t be able to drive my car. I re-tightened the two bolts and took the car for a test drive. Everything is still okay for now. I called the Toyota dealer and made arrangements to take the car in on Oct. 27 to have the problem fixed.
Later I thought about why the bolts were so difficult to remove and realized that the Toyota dealer in Woodstock had rotated my tires and that they had tightened the bolts with an air wrench. I was lucky the problem happened now as had I had a flat tire on the road, I would never have been able to get the nuts off with the wheel wrench I had with my vehicle. The wheel bolts don’t have to be on SUPER tight, and when the mechanic is using power tools, they don’t think about taking them off using a hand tool. I’m going to mention that to the Toyota dealer when I go to see them on Thursday.
Saysame (Says-a-me) 