Wheel locks (lug nut locks) - Do they work, or can thieves defeat them easily? My son will be parking our Highlander with brand new Blizzaks on alloy rims in a questionable area. I’m from a part of the world where my dad woke to find thieves taking the wheels off his Acura not long ago (maybe 5 ye…

Thanks, GeorgeSanJose! I like a definitive answer, even if it is not the one I had hoped for.

Wheel locks will just slow determined thieves. If you really want to have on your wheels, I recommend McGard tuner style locks.

Interesting. I used to have locks for my wire wheel covers on my Buicks and Olds. They were nice because they kept the covers from falling off. When I had to replace one though, I ended up just welding a nut on the thing but then had to carry a socket plus the lock key.

Of course a dedicated thief can defeat wheel locks. But just like the old Boy Scout joke*, you don’t have to outrun the bear. Just be harder to steal than a similarly-enticing target, and you should be good. *(The joke, for those who haven’t heard: Two scouts are sleeping in their tent, when they’r…

The whole point of wheel locks is to get the thief to go to your neighbor’s car, not yours. ANY of them can be foiled if the thief is persistent enough. Same for The Club. Anybody remember these big red steering locks? What a pain! But not for the thieves!

I still have a club, and use it the first 2 years after a buy a new car. Then it goes back into storage. As was said, easy to foil by cutting the steering wheel, but then the thief has to replace the wheel. It’s just to add another step, make it more likely that the thief will move to another car.

I remember the club very well. One time, I was with a pal and we got in his car and he explained to me that he never locked his club, just propped it on the wheel in the way it would be if locked. He had @Mustangman ’s point of view. His car was never stolen.

Maybe there are different types of clubs, but the one I have, you need to turn the key to adjust it to the wheel (or remove it), and then when you take the key out, it’s locked.

The club saved one of my cars back in the day. As mentioned, they just moved on to easier targets, like the car right next to mine in the work parking lot. I also got lazy and didn’t even lock mine. Pretty sure the key came out in either position so you could just pull it open or closed. It’s the il…

Wheel Locks - Do they actually work?

General Discussion

George_San_Jose1 November 17, 2016, 3:55am 5

I’ve always had a knack with locks for some reason. Last year some teenagers were pulling pranks in the gym locker room, when nobody looking, they’d install cylinder locks on other people’s lockers. They got me, my clothes were locked inside the locker and I had to leave for a meeting. I had the lock opened in 60 seconds … lol … .

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Wheel Locks - Do they actually work?

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