BMW in N20 with a damaged locking wheel nut key

Had a customer on Saturday who had damaged his locking wheel nut key while trying to remove his locking wheel nuts.

Looks like the locking wheel nut had been gunned on.

He had been trying to remove them because he only had 3 locking wheel nuts and had purchased a replacement set so all wheel would be protected. He had managed to remove 1 locking wheel nut but then damaged the locking wheel nut on the next wheel.

So 2 locking wheel nuts to remove.

Started on the first locking wheel nut. On very tight but managed to remove the spinning outer ring and then we used our special tools to remove it. This took about 15 mins.

One more to go, again very very tight. Tried the standard tricks to get this one off but it would not budge. Spoke to the customer to say we would have to use a bit more force and this could cause some damage to the wheel, he said that this was ok as come what may they had to come off.

Out with the big boy's tools, with a centre point we managed to remove the spinning collar and then using same tool as above we finally managed to remove the locking wheel nut. Took almost an hour to remove this last locking wheel nut. Only 1 very small scratches in the area of the locking wheel nut.

Customer was very happy with the result and surprised at how little damage had occurred as he had been watching the whole process.

We also informed him that he had 2 run flat tyres on the passenger side of the car and 2 non run flat tyres on the driver's side, a big no no.

He had only just recently purchased the car so he was going to go back to the dealership to get them to rectify the problems we had identified.

Only let people that know what they are doing work on your car, locking wheel nuts should NEVER be gunned on, they should only be tightened by hand and then with a torque wrench (in fact this applies to all your wheel nuts, locking and normal)

If you have lost or damaged your locking wheel nut key and need to remove your locking wheel nuts call Hometyre on 0800 783 93 10 and we can come to you to remove them