Listen, this isn't for me, but rather for a poorly engineered Kia Sportage I went wheeling with

After doing some winter wheeling and hitting some nice fluffy climbs... my buddy's front wheel froze up (surprisingly at a stop sign, which left him spinning 3 wheels while the front left was frozen)

we finally got in into the condo parking lot outside... jacked up the front wheel and removed it and found that the caliper was iced up and froze to the rotor

We used some varsol and tried meltin the ice, which freed the rotor temporarilly
once we put the wheel back on, it froze immediately...

this thingy is my neighbor's only transportation and we need a quick stratigy to get him freed'd up

also, all the ground around here is pure "ice" and we are not due for a thaw until next week

FIXED!


Managed to "donkey" kick the wheel off
Took 2 bottles of Brake Cleaner and doused the inside of the wheel and the brake disk\caliper

Let it soak for about 5 minutes and broke some ice off
Managed to spin the spindle YAY

Re-attached the wheel and we were good to head up to the car wash!

Problem Now is that it appears his Kia is messed up, in 4hi\4lo, only the rear wheels spin...

Not sure, probbaly a front actuator issue or possibly broken driveshaft/ujoint (not sure how as the skid plate looks fine and everything looks good
but no real way to test the front wheels without a full out hydraulic jack

I used to read the old VMAG forums.  It was a recurring theme on the KIA Sportage forum that the front wheel hub mechanism on the Kia is a weak point.  The hubs don't lock when 4wd is engaged.  They also complain that the dealership service depts don't seem to know how to fix it either...

There was always a lot of complaining, but nobody ever seemed to come up with a solution.  That helped me decide to buy the Tracker instead of that KIA convt that caught my eye.  (that, and the clutch was reallly flaky...)

If it has the vacuum hubs, you might want to go to manual hubs...

http://www.kia-forums.com/1g-1994-2002-sportage/35396-manual-hubs.html