I’m not saying it’s the case here at all, but I have seen people attempting to rotate the tires on their new cars absolutely mangle regular six-sided lug nuts with the factory lug wrench tool.
If hex lugs can be butchered there’s no reason to think that security lugs would be more difficult.
My first step with security lugs on my cars is to ditch them entirely. The last thing I want on the side of the road if it comes down to it is looking for the specialty tool or having to wrestle one of them loose.
I would also suspect that 200 dollar figure involves something more than a simple tire rotation.
^ Neither have I but…you never know.
Back in the '70s, one of the other faculty members had all 4 wheels and tires stolen from her Dodge Colt–in the daytime–from the school parking lot. And, she didn’t have alloy wheels or expensive tires. Nobody saw or heard anything, so the thieves must have been fairly quick. Clearly, somebody wanted those tires and wheels.
Would locking lug nuts have stopped this from happening?
I have no idea about the answer to that question.
The faculty had been asking for security in the parking lots for quite some time, but the administration felt that this was not a priority–until we went on strike–and then they had 4 rent-a-cops posted in the front and rear parking lots. When the strike ended a few days later, the security guards disappeared, and never returned.
^
Sure, I suppose that is a possibility, but this woman was the poster child for the word “benign”.
She taught Home Economics, and in those days, no boys took those courses. She treated the girls very well, and I doubt if most of the boys in the school even knew who she was.
Anyway…the faculty even had a few prime suspects, but the theft went unsolved.
And, IIRC, she had some difficulty getting replacement wheels from the dealership. I recall that other faculty members had to drive her back & forth for a few days, until she had her car back in drivable condition.
I couldnt agree MORE with OK4450…My philosophy exactly. I never use the lockers…tho my GTi has a nicely designed Double Torx style locker. The wheels on this vehicle are actually special so I left them on…but I have been bothered by trying to find my key for this VW. The style of locker the OP has ARE THE WORST!!!
DB4690 does make a point that those sockets dont work all that well…they do…on SOFT &*$%#… LOL.
I usually am the one using the Air chisel and other methods to remove them. Hell Ive even welded the cut end of a 4 way lug wrench onto these in the past…spin em right off after that.
But 4690 is right…I just mentioned those sockets as a way to postulate that there are other methods. Nevada is also correct. I dont know the OPs experience level so I wasnt going to get into the specialty tool department just yet.
Hmmmm this is possibly the most conflicted post I’ve ever posted… I’m full of contradictions this morning. Give me a break…I was up till 430AM last night dealing with a failed coil in an Acura Integra…so I need a little slack today… lol
I’ve had some luck with those sockets with the reverse spiral, but only if you have the room to drive the socket onto the bolt/nut pretty good. If you can’t those things just slip loose.
That not looked like it was in the open enough that you’d be able to get a good pipe wrench on it and turn it right off.
But as others have mentioned. I’ll bet the key is in the area of the jack, or in the glove box.
Those are meant to remove regular hex head bolts, which have been rounded off. The reason they’re rounded off is because some MORON was probably using the wrong size socket on them. The wrong size usually means 1 or 2 sizes too big
They are certainly not mean to remove McGard lugs . . . and they won’t do it. I know this for a fact
You may as well bite the McGards with your teeth and try to loosen them. It also won’t work
If nothing else worked, I wonder if a nut-cracker tool could be used to remove one of those security nuts? I’ve been successful using my nut-cracker tool to get out of jams like that. Seems it would be fairly easy to just split the nut in two, then pry it off.
Point well taken @db4690 about the wrong size socket. This also happens when they use a short socket or they get only part way onto the nut.
I had one a month ago that I couldn’t get any socket on it, SAE or Metric. When I finally got it off and looked close…they had actually twisted the nut (slightly spiraled).
This was my nieces car and I called the place that put the new tires on and read them the riot act about tightening lug nuts.
I’ve rounded off a few sockets myself . . . usually because I didn’t have the socket on all the way. This usually happened because the bolt head was dirty and I was too lazy to clean it off
So when it was rounded, I pointed the finger at myself
