There are a myriad of reasons you might have taken a Road Wheel off your DB9, but eventually it needs to go back on.  I know, I hear you laughing, how hard can this be.   It’s not hard, but there are a few tips I can share to help you get it done just the way Aston Martin wants.

If you are reading this you might also be interested in a few other posts and video’s regarding preparation I’ve done to make sure my tires and wheel are in tip-top shape to reinstall:

• Preparing to remove a road wheel
• Single point jacking
• Putting the car on jack stands
• Deep cleaning your wheel rims
• Inspecting your tires
• Checking your tire pressures
• Understanding your tire pressure sensors
• Measuring your tire tread depths

Tools

You don’t need many tools for this task:

• 22mm 6-point hex socket
• masking tape
• Anti-seize compound/paste

Installation

The process is simple, but here are the tips I learned along the way:

• I put a small ‘dab’ of anti-seize compound on the first few threads of each wheel stud.  As the wheel nut spins on it will distribute the compound.  This will make your life easier down the road the next time you need to get the wheel nuts off.
• If you’ve have all the wheels off the car, be sure you are putting the correct wheel back on the correct corner.  The Tire Pressure Sensors are designed for a specific spot only (learn where each belongs by checking out this article).

• 

  Aston Martin warns us against banging the wheel down and along the threaded studs as we install the wheel.   But, the wheels are heavy (nearly 25+lbs and here is a link to a forum post where someone really wanted to know this exactly) so this is tough to do without some technique.  In the video below you’ll see how I used my feet to carry the weight and keep the wheel raised in position while I used my arms to just line up and carefully slide the wheel over the studs.  It’s pretty easy when you see how.

• You’ll notice the hub has a small ridge/lip that the wheel rim will actually align over top of when you locate it all the way on.  Make sure you center it home all the way before you start tightening up wheel nuts.   It can ‘catch’ on this lip and sit a few mm proud of its final position and look cock-eyed until you sort it out.
• I wrapped the outside end of the 22mm socket with a layer of blue painters masking tape to prevent the socket from scratching our beautiful (and expensive) rims.
• Using your hands and the socket, get all five (5) wheel nuts started and snugged all the way down as best you can (but not final torqued).
• It will be easier to do the final Torqueing with the wheel in contact with the ground, and thus restrained from spinning while being torqued.
• Lower the wheel to the ground properly.

But wait – I haven’t finished the story!   Of course the next step is to Torque the wheel nuts properly (and there is a trick to this so check out the post on this), but I’ve split that off into a separate post (that you can view here) since there are times you need to check or re-torque the wheel nuts when the wheels have not been taken off the car.

Here is a short video on how I lifted the wheel into place and installed the wheel nuts:

Check out my other posts on Torqueing the Wheel Nuts and Taking the Car Off Jack Stands.