I posted this in the wheel forum also but there's no love for me there

OK
I'm trying to take of the wheels to paint the calipers. All the lug nuts are loose but the wheel refuses to let go. I assume that there's something under the center cap holding the wheels on. This may be a stupid question but how do you remove the little Mazda symbol in the center of the P5 wheels? I don't want to start prying at it until I'm sure that's the way to do it.

Thanks guys.

Dave

 

There's nothing holding it on. Mine was "stuck" too. Give the wheel a boot, it oughtta come off.

Also, if all else fails, one guy loosened his bolts and lowered the car back off the jack and rolled it forward a bit. That did the trick.

 

a big hammer to the sidewall (don't smash it too hard or you might scratch something or miss)

just hit it till it pops off, usually the rear tires don't come off easy for some reason. my fronts came off with no problem

 

I had tried to kick it already but after your reply I went out and hit them the old rubber mallet and that worked. I've never seen that happen.

Thanks alot.!!

 

This happened to mine also when I went to paint my calipers. The problem is that the wheel alloy is bonding with the metal on the brake disk. No problem really. Actually I used a piece of 2x4 to dislodge the wheel with the nuts on a couple of turns so I did not damage the rim.

I also put on steel rims for winter with my winter tires and the same thing happened so you may want to watch that if you do the winter swap thing.

 

use the rubber mallet!
i usually give mine a little kick to loosen it...

 

Dood!
Keep you love life out of this
J/K

 

oops... thought we were talking about getting it off.
use the rubber mallet!

i hate getting dirty when i yank the tire off.
shoulda bought a bentley (comes with white gloves to change ur tire) instead of a p5...

 

When removing the wheels, I just make sure to wear the steel-toe **** kickers and give 'em a solid boot. Works just fine.

I think it is pretty common for alloy wheels to stick.

~HH