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locking wheel nuts

Locking Wheel Nuts Lost! How Not to get at Your

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Locking Wheel Nuts Lost

Locking Wheel Nuts Lost

So, most people in the auto trade know about the “locking wheel nut problem.” As a result, cars arrive at our garages and tyre shops with no way of removing the vehicles’ locking wheel nuts. In the beginning, most cars have a set of tools that enable us to remove the locking wheel nuts. These tools are fitted to secure the alloy wheels and prevent theft. Indeed, some alloy wheels are very expensive and an easy target for thieves.

Many modern vehicles are fitted with alloy wheels, and indeed, at one time, they were a selling point when garages sold a new car. In the early days of this, the wheels were often stolen. The alloys were probably sold as scrap and eventually melted down for other uses. Similar to the latest spate of “catalytic converter” thefts that we are having at the moment!

Alloy wheel thefts what was the answer?

Importantly, the theft problem had to be solved! So, the answer would be the invention of the locking wheel nut. These came in a set of four (one for each wheel). A simple tool would fit on the locker, enabling the driver or garage to remove the locker when required. Over the years, the system has worked, except for a few hiccups!

Mainly that the car owner would loose the lockers and when the car turns up for say a service and needs the wheel removing then “whoops” there is no locker to remove the wheels. So, this happens time and time again. Fortunately, as an ingenious industry, we again solved the problem. Most garages now carry a special tool that enables us to get the locker nuts off without damaging the car’s valuable alloy wheels.

How not to remove with a saw!

So, I thought that I had seen it all until my staff sent me this image for our blog. One of our customers had attempted to cut out the locker with a hacksaw! This can clearly be seen in the images. What do you think? Have you seen anything like this? Please let me know.