Peugeot 307 in Cheshunt EN7 with Arrowspeed 195/65/15H tyre and locking wheel nuts

Called out to a customer with a flat tyre and locking wheel nuts that he could not remove. Spoke to him about his driving style and millage and recommended an Arrowspeed 195/65/15 tyre for his needs, arrange an appointment so I could replace his tyres at home.

Arrived at the job and checked the tyre. The tyre was wrecked as it had been driven on while deflated. Not problem as I already had a replacement tyre on board.

Now to look at the locking wheel nut problem. It looked like the last time the tyres had been changed the locking wheel nut must have been gunned on with a pneumatic gun. The customer had then also tried to remove the locking wheel nut with the key also using a pneumatic gun. The inside of the locking wheel nut key was mangled and would no longer fit onto the locking wheel nut so that option was out the window.

Broke out the special tools that we have on board the vans. Attached the tool to the locking wheel nut and applied pressure via impact wrench we have for these situations. An impact wrench by taking the force of hitting it and turning this into a turning motion at the end of the wrench, thus by hitting the wrench you can slowly release a stubborn nut. After 5 minutes the nut finally moved so we could undo and remove the locking wheel nut bolt, 3 more nuts to do and that part of the job would be finished. The last 3 nuts came off in 15 minutes so they had all been over tightened.

Now to replace the flat tyre, jacked the car up and removed the wheel bolts and took the wheel over to the van, we try to work out what could have caused the puncture but in this case the tyre was so damaged that we could not. Stripped the tyre off the wheel and most of the inside fell onto the floor, this tyre had not just been driven a couple of feet while flat. Cut out the old valve and checked the rim for any damage, none found.

Put the new rubber valve in and applied paste to the wheel rim and tyre so that it would slip on. Mounted the tyre and inflated to the correct pressure, over to the wheel balancer to balance the wheel. Set the parameters up on the wheel balancer and spun the wheel up, came back needing 45 grams, added the weight and spun the wheel again. Came back as zero so time to put it back on the car.

Mounted the wheel on the car and torqued up the wheel bolts using the manufacturers torque specification. This means that at least the customer could undo the wheel nuts next time. One more job to do, as I had removed all the locking wheel nut bolts from the wheels I had to put a wheel bolt into each of them, luckily the customer had the spare wheel nuts that had been removed to put the locking wheel nut bolts on. Once on and all torqued up I put the tools away and took payment from the customer.

If you have had this problem call hometyre on 0800 783 93 10 or look at out contact page.