Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (mr_brent)

it is to help guide the wheel out of and into position on the hub. What you do is after removing the top lug nut - then screw in the plactic threaded thing and remove the other lugs. Pull off the wheel and attach the spare or other wheel over this plastic guide. HTH.

 

Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (BlueGLX)

thats pretty stupid...

 

Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (mr_brent)

It's pretty stupid....until you've turned the hub and can't get a lug nut in. After you've changed/swapped wheels a few times you'll find that it's a pretty handy little tool.

Rian

 

Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (Rian_Colorado)

Yep, try lifting an 18" wheel 3 feet from the ground without that little plastic thing. Gets hard to mount it without it. VW makes some things easy, others harder then some, but this one is a good thing to have when your stressin' a flat tire.

 

Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (Scuba2001)

I've not got this little thing... hmmm... another trinket to look for in my next salvage yard trip.

 

Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (Scotaku)

I broke mine the second day I owned that car.

It really needs to be made of metal.

 

Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (Mr_Mike)

Metal would be nice.

 

Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (mr_brent)

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>thats pretty stupid... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>I agree, the threads stripped the FIRST time I used it and it doesn't work for shit now. A piece of soft plastic isn't going to hold up an 18" wheel for very long, it's easier to just raise the car so the wheel is about half an inch off the ground. I don't know why the poster above raised his car so he had to lift his 18's 3 feet in the air, any lift or jack he puts his car on should allow him to raise the wheel only a tiny bit off the ground.

 

Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (Paradigm)

I was just making a point. Granted, I cant say that I have raised the car up 3 feet, but I have seen at school that some of the future techs will jack the car up 5 feet on the lift and they try to remove wheels and tires, and then try to torque them on the hubs, WHILE IN THE AIR. So, thats what I was talking about.

 

Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (Paradigm)

thats why i think its stupid.. the idea is smart, but being of plastic, your putting your heavy ass 18's on and if theres too much weight on the plastic its gonna snap and then you've got a piece of plastic stuck in your threads. i guess i'll have to try it out once i get the screw taken out.

 

Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (Scuba2001)

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:<HR>I was just making a point. Granted, I cant say that I have raised the car up 3 feet, but I have seen at school that some of the future techs will jack the car up 5 feet on the lift and they try to remove wheels and tires, and then try to torque them on the hubs, WHILE IN THE AIR. So, thats what I was talking about.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>No offense or anything, it's just that I would never support an 18 inch (probably expensive) wheel by that crappy piece of plastic unless the wheel was almost touching the ground, and then you don't need the plastic holder thingie.

I'm also glad that I'm not the only one who broke his

 

Re: VW car jacker up'er... whats the little plastic thing? (Paradigm)

Keep in mind it is not intended to "hold" anything, just act as a guide to get the wheel in place on the hub and to align the holes. You definately should not be resting the wheel on the piece of plastic until you get the wheel sitting against the hub. VW used to make these out of metal, why they stopped though is anybody's guess.

It does make a huge difference if you get your hub twisted a bit and have trouble aligning the holes. For some reason, I've never found it necessary to use on my front wheels, but have on the rears.