ALLOY WHEELS can be a bit of a bind - quite literally!
"Even the most experienced motorist can be caught out every so often - sometimes by the annoyingly simple oversight of insufficient alloy wheel maintenance," said mytyres business communications advisor, Ken Mann.
"Drivers will generally raise an eyebrow over the term 'maintenance' in respect of alloy wheels, but I have story to illustrate what I mean.
"One evening I was approaching the village where I live when I saw a friend of mine who had pulled off the road and was out of his car talking on his mobile phone. I thought he had stopped to take a call - possibly because he didn't have a hands-free kit. As I passed, I gave him a wave and carried on.
"About a week later, he jokingly took me to task for not stopping to help. He had actually been phoning the RAC to come out and change a wheel with a puncture. He had a good spare, all the tools and knew what to do - but the alloy wheel had stuck solid to the wheel hub.
"I told him that applying a thin film of copper grease to the centre flange of the wheel would prevent road salts, and any reaction between the different materials of the wheel and hub, causing the problem.
"The moral of the tale is to ask your garage about this when the car goes in for routine servicing."
Press