![]() The other favoured option when dealing with a lost key or damaged locking wheel nut is to drill out the offending wheel nut. Many people have used them successfully, but even Halfords advises the tool should be used with a compressed air hammer for best results, and most people don’t have that sort of equipment at home. There are DIY tools available to remove locking wheel nuts without a key, but using a locking wheel nut remover requires a certain amount of confidence and they don’t always work.įor example, Halfords sells a special socket designed with a reverse thread on the inside that bites into your wheel nut and grips it hard enough for you to undo it. How to remove a locking wheel nut without the key (Remember each wheel nut manufacturer has a limited number of patterns.) In this case you’ll often have to supply evidence that you own the vehicle you’re trying to get a wheel off, which could also mean sending a photo of your V5C log book. If you can’t find the key all is not lost, because there are firms who will match your key pattern from a phone picture you send in showing the shape of your wheel nut. This is easy if you have the code - check your car’s handbook or document file - as with this you can simply order a replacement key from your local dealer. If you’re stuck with a locking wheel nut and no key, the first thing you can do is order a new one. Finally, on cars that use removable wheel bolts instead of nuts, you find bolts with heads that are designed to shear off if you don’t have the proper removal key. ![]() Next are the type of locking wheel nuts with a rotating collar around the nut, designed to make it impossible to get purchase on the nut without the key. There are three main types of locking wheel nut, and the simplest and most popular is a keyed head on your wheel nut that requires a matching socket to undo it. You can also attempt DIY removal using locking wheel nut removal tools available to buy from accessory shops or online, but it’s easy to damage your expensive wheels or make the problem worse if you get it wrong. To make matters worse, you may not realise you’ve lost your wheel nut key until you need it - perhaps leaving you stranded at the side of the road with a punctured tyre on a wheel you can’t remove.įortunately locking wheel nut removal is relatively easy for breakdown services, professional tyre fitters and mechanics with the right equipment. Theft aside, as with most forms of security, problems often start for the locking wheel nut owner when you lose or damage the key. In which case, it’s easy to see how people might be tempted to ask no questions when offered a cheap ‘second hand’ wheel replacement via an internet ad. That’s because anyone who damages wheels on a car they’re driving on a PCP will find themselves liable for replacement costs that could run into thousands of pounds when they’re due to return their car. That’s because, given the right equipment and a few minutes work, committed criminals can overcome most of the challenges the different types of locking wheel nuts present.Īlloy wheels are becoming ever more extravagant and expensive, and one of the factors influencing an increasing incidence of wheel theft could be Personal Contract Purchase (PCP) schemes. ![]() However, the bad news is that wheel theft from premium cars could be on the rise again, in spite of widespread use of locking wheel nuts. In fact, as a result of locking wheel nuts being widely fitted, car wheel theft has become pretty rare. Fitting locking wheel nuts is easy, and they provide an excellent deterrent against opportunistic theft. You only need to use one locking nut on each wheel, where it simply replaces one of the regular wheel nuts.
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