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[bootie]

  Today started badly and got worse.

Grating noise coming from rear was due to worn brake pad, easy enough I thought, pop the wheel off, new pads, check over the handbrake shoes as well, jobs a goodun!

Yeah? No!  Took the plastic cover off the locking wheel bolt only to find the holes elongated and the key only had two bent pins.
Right, chisel off the collar, bash on an 18mm socket and away you go...... now remember I am at my son's place and have limited resources i.e. No 18mm socket! Right up to the local garage to get the offending bolt removed and get the other side at the same time, duly done at no charge (thanks Matt) so back down the road, offside wheel off, pads out, brake fluid reservoir cap off, rag around the neck and push the pistons back in, new pads in with a little copper grease. Job 1/2 done
Get to the other side, 2 bolts loosened, 2 bolts tight, standing on a 2 ft breaker and the 1/2" drive snapped.... Time was getting on, in fact it was just past 5.30... local garage shut, all I had left was a T bar, all of 8"!

I had to admit defeat, the car was needed for urgent granddaughter transport. Put a new locking bolt on, tightened up the two loose bolts as best I could, standing on the end of that 8" T bar should be enough.

Problem is I need, no I have to be at Edinburgh airport for a 6am flight back to work so no can do anything about the brake pad situation.... It 'feels' OK and I have told SWMBO that Matt will have to replace the pads on the other side tomorrow when she gets back....  shouldn't be a problem for that sort of distance, should it?

The upshot is, I need 4 new locking wheel bolts...or do I. I reckon the theft of alloy wheels has lessened dramatically since more cars are getting them as standard, I mean who wants to nick a set of standard Omega alloys nowadays??

It would appear that the last time this was at a tyre depot, they used a windy gun on full chat. I have never been defeated by tight nuts before... As for the locking wheel bolts, I know they were the crappy 3 pin design but even so to have elongated the holes and broken and bent the pins shows a complete disregard for somebody else's property, don't you think?

[Vamps]

Today started badly and got worse.

Grating noise coming from rear was due to worn brake pad, easy enough I thought, pop the wheel off, new pads, check over the handbrake shoes as well, jobs a goodun!

Yeah? No!  Took the plastic cover off the locking wheel bolt only to find the holes elongated and the key only had two bent pins.
Right, chisel off the collar, bash on an 18mm socket and away you go...... now remember I am at my son's place and have limited resources i.e. No 18mm socket! Right up to the local garage to get the offending bolt removed and get the other side at the same time, duly done at no charge (thanks Matt) so back down the road, offside wheel off, pads out, brake fluid reservoir cap off, rag around the neck and push the pistons back in, new pads in with a little copper grease. Job 1/2 done
Get to the other side, 2 bolts loosened, 2 bolts tight, standing on a 2 ft breaker and the 1/2" drive snapped.... Time was getting on, in fact it was just past 5.30... local garage shut, all I had left was a T bar, all of 8"!

I had to admit defeat, the car was needed for urgent granddaughter transport. Put a new locking bolt on, tightened up the two loose bolts as best I could, standing on the end of that 8" T bar should be enough.

Problem is I need, no I have to be at Edinburgh airport for a 6am flight back to work so no can do anything about the brake pad situation.... It 'feels' OK and I have told SWMBO that Matt will have to replace the pads on the other side tomorrow when she gets back....  shouldn't be a problem for that sort of distance, should it?

The upshot is, I need 4 new locking wheel bolts...or do I. I reckon the theft of alloy wheels has lessened dramatically since more cars are getting them as standard, I mean who wants to nick a set of standard Omega alloys nowadays??

It would appear that the last time this was at a tyre depot, they used a windy gun on full chat. I have never been defeated by tight nuts before... As for the locking wheel bolts, I know they were the crappy 3 pin design but even so to have elongated the holes and broken and bent the pins shows a complete disregard for somebody else's property, don't you think?

I tend to agree with that, or any standard alloy and tyre, always a risk but not like in the old days   I noticed the Jeep does not have locking wheel nuts and am not rushing out to fit them....

Windy Guns cause so much trouble, I had to change the wheel on my old Mig and fortunately I have an electric driven, mind gone blank tool that spins up to a high speed and then engages, still took a few goes though

[Varche]

I got a puncture the day I was leaving for France. Kwik Fit couldn't get the wheel off. Took it to the towns VX dealer where it had just been for a full service. To their credit at Midday on a saturday , they angle grinded the bolt off. Since then NO ONE has ever fitted a locking wheel bolt to my car. I carry my own torque wrench and spare non locking for services. I hate those three pin locking nuts. I wrote to VX but typically their product was fine and must have been MY fault...............

[Andy B]

.. I wrote to VX but typically their product was fine and ................

I wonder why they changed the design then .............   

[Marks DTM Calib]

Different supplier.

The three pin locking bolts are fine as long as you dont get some gorilla over tightening them. 

[omega3000]

Had many problems with locking wheel bolts in the past , mostly where the pins just snap off cos of the monkey metal construction ...had some burnt off in the past with a welding torch "oh what fun" wont use them anymore 

[Plomien]

When Myself and Seth did my brake pads we had similar issues with the locking nuts and got them taken off by a local garage in the end, never replaced the locking nuts, just standard ones, and had no issues with it

[cem_devecioglu]

Different supplier.

The three pin locking bolts are fine as long as you dont get some gorilla over tightening them. 

tire shop workers (sorry for that)  do that job everyday so their muscles are over standard
 
so I never let them tighten any of my cars bolts( from last time) .. the wound in my hand not healed yet

[omega3000]

Different supplier.

The three pin locking bolts are fine as long as you dont get some gorilla over tightening them. 

tire shop workers (sorry for that)  do that job everyday so their muscles are over standard
 
so I never let them tighten any of my cars bolts( from last time) .. the wound in my hand not healed yet

Had a 3ft breaker bar and scaffold pole on wheel nut ..still no budge with 2 hanging on pole ....it was on my carlton 2.o 

[OOMV6]

Today started badly and got worse.

Grating noise coming from rear was due to worn brake pad, easy enough I thought, pop the wheel off, new pads, check over the handbrake shoes as well, jobs a goodun!

Yeah? No!  Took the plastic cover off the locking wheel bolt only to find the holes elongated and the key only had two bent pins.
Right, chisel off the collar, bash on an 18mm socket and away you go...... now remember I am at my son's place and have limited resources i.e. No 18mm socket! Right up to the local garage to get the offending bolt removed and get the other side at the same time, duly done at no charge (thanks Matt) so back down the road, offside wheel off, pads out, brake fluid reservoir cap off, rag around the neck and push the pistons back in, new pads in with a little copper grease. Job 1/2 done
Get to the other side, 2 bolts loosened, 2 bolts tight, standing on a 2 ft breaker and the 1/2" drive snapped.... Time was getting on, in fact it was just past 5.30... local garage shut, all I had left was a T bar, all of 8"!

I had to admit defeat, the car was needed for urgent granddaughter transport. Put a new locking bolt on, tightened up the two loose bolts as best I could, standing on the end of that 8" T bar should be enough.

Problem is I need, no I have to be at Edinburgh airport for a 6am flight back to work so no can do anything about the brake pad situation.... It 'feels' OK and I have told SWMBO that Matt will have to replace the pads on the other side tomorrow when she gets back....  shouldn't be a problem for that sort of distance, should it?

The upshot is, I need 4 new locking wheel bolts...or do I. I reckon the theft of alloy wheels has lessened dramatically since more cars are getting them as standard, I mean who wants to nick a set of standard Omega alloys nowadays??

It would appear that the last time this was at a tyre depot, they used a windy gun on full chat. I have never been defeated by tight nuts before... As for the locking wheel bolts, I know they were the crappy 3 pin design but even so to have elongated the holes and broken and bent the pins shows a complete disregard for somebody else's property, don't you think?

 
 

[GastronomicKleptomaniac]

I must admit, I have half a dozen tricks for getting wheelnuts undone, and sometimes I struggle after they've been windy-gunned. And I'm not the smallest chap...