Locking Wheel Nut Disaster in Burnley | Hometyre Mobile Locking Wheel Nut Removal

With temperatures rapidly dropping, we're already starting to see some gritters out on the road! With the gritters comes salt and we all know what that means; corrosion and rust.

The wheels and wheel wells of a car are particularly susceptible to corrosion whether it be in the suspension, the bead between the tyre and wheel causing a slow puncture or just on the bolts. After noticing the TPMS (Tyre Pressure Monitoring System) warning light illuminate on her BMW 3 Series, this customer contacted us to book in a repair.

After arriving at her place of work in Burnley, we noticed the rear tyre was leaking on the outer side wall unfortunately this can't be saved and would require a new tyre! On removal of the wheel nuts, it soon became apparent that the nuts were extremely over tightened and had even started to corrode and fuse onto the wheel. Even using an extremely large two-foot breaker bar, it was starting to bend even going as far as snapping a nut in two!

Having used all the available free tools, it was time to break out the locking wheel nut removal kit. This kit contains a brass puck that, when hit, deforms to form the shape of the nut. From there, the nut can be removed using conventional methods. However, as the nut was so tight, we had to use the kit to dig into the head of the nut and force it off using an excessive amount of torque.

After an hour or so of hitting the nut, it finally broke free of its rusted cage!

I then proceeded onto the change the 235/45R18 tyre over to a new Maxxis VS01 and ensured the nuts were cleaned back and torqued to the correct setting.

Using a 'drill' to install the nuts is never a good idea as you don't know what torque setting your putting the nuts at. Always start the nuts by hand to prevent cross threading and then use a torque wrench to tighten to the manufacturer's specification!

If you're having an issue with one of your locking wheel nuts or need a puncture repair, give us a call on 0333 444 5454 to get booked in at a date and time of your choosing!