Hi, my locking wheel nuts appear to have been over tightened! I went to change my brakes today and the key just snapped. Does anyone know how i can remove them?

Thanks
James

 

Incase anyone comes up against this problem. I searched the internet and found this chap http://www.lockingwheelnutremovers.co.uk. Took it down to him as he was only 8 miles away and he took them off in a matter of minutes with a hammer! Absolute life saver, i can't recommend him enough! Can you believe Volvo wanted £260 to drill them off and said it could take 3 days!

 

Wheel locks and radio codes are probably the stupidest thing that the manufacturer has done to make working on older cars a pain. If I get cars that come in with wheel locks, we pull them off and replace them with an OEM style bolt.

I was trained to hammer a socket over the wheel lock and there are tools that are basically just that.

The other thing was radio codes on earlier cars. Who is going to steal the radio out of a Volvo 960 or 850? I haven't dealt with a radio code since we had an older Mercedes 210 model but still, what a pain.

Imagine needing to change a tire and can't get the wheel lug off? If someone is creative enough to steal the wheels, they'll steal the car too.

 

It really depends on what style you have. Some won't allow the "hammer a socket on it" technique to work.

 

Thankfully I haven't been down that road yet.