As some of you will have seen from a post of mine, if your key is missing as was mine, or the nut is damaged, it's a nightmare to remove them, some nuts are deeply recessed in the wheel or have a rotating collar and mine were both !!! most garages cannot remove them with drilling/hammer and chisel/reverse spiral sockets etc, all of which damage the alloys. The answer is a special tool made by DYNOMEC in Yorkshire. www.dynomec.co.uk this tool will remove any locking wheel nut inc' rotating collar ones without any damage or marks to the alloys, finally finding a Renault main dealer who have this special tool I watched it easily remove all 4 nuts on my Megane RS 265, absolutely brilliant. You will of course need 4 new nuts+ key. There's a 2 minute vid' on their w/site showing it in action.
Looks like a good tools. Standard locking wheel nuts are a nightmare on any car. I remove them as soon as after buying a new car. They're often done up too tight with impact guns and the removal tools are made of chocolate and easily end up damaged, then chew up the face of the nut further. Best bet is to replace with some TPI wheel bolts or similar, or at least torque the stand ones to 110-120Nm instead of the standard 140Nm.
Very interesting. Thanks both. I always remove mine too on all my cars and fit nice bolts or plastic caps. HOWEVER. Did you know it alters the insurance rating/group. Or you are supposed to tell them as it might. Cheers Andy
Andy, I don't know the answer to that one , I wouldn't have thought it would alter the insurance really. On the same theme my 20 old year old daughter has a 2014 Corsa 1.3 TD, when she lived at home in Mid Wales, virtually crime free, miles in the wilderness and car always in a locked building, she then moved to a major town, car always 24/7 parked on a street well away from where she can see it, guess what, premium never altered,
Anyone that torques lockers up to the same spec as normal bolts is a bit of a spacker anyway. Ive had my fair share of well overtightened locking nuts on various cars from previous owners/garages.
Insurance is a funny thing. Sometimes premiums will go up for a car stored in a garage because it gives a thief a place to hide and take their time breaking into a car, whereas on a lit street with overlooking houses they can't. Also you'd be surprised but people put claims in for damage because of tins of paint or ladders falling on a car stored in a garage! Yup, they're a nightmare when they're over tightened. I had the entire 'patterned' part of a locking wheel nut key shear clean off while changing a puncture - Luckily I wasn't at the side of the road, but it highlighted to me the downsides of them.
