Locknut removal, new tyre and tracking on a Vauxhall in Barnham

Hometyre was called to fit a tyre to a Vauxhall Signum in Barnham, when the customer booked the job in he said that he was having trouble locating the locking wheel nut removal tool, so we may have to do a locknut removal. Additionally the problem with the tyre was caused by one side of the tyre wearing down to the wires, while the other side had 4 to 5mm of tread remaining. This made him think he had a tracking problem, so he wanted us to also carry out a wheel alignment.

I arrived at the job and the customer explained that he had put the locknut removal tool down in his garage, but had been unable to locate it since, so it was definite that we would have to do a removal as part of the job.

The car was fitted with Mcgard locknuts, these are the ones that look like a clover leaf type pattern with a revolving ring around the top. This makes then difficult to remove with most aftermarket removal tools that can be bought on line. We at Hometyre have specialist tools just for jobs like this, our tool comes with interchangeable heads for different types of locknut. I selected the head for this type of nut and hammered it onto the locknut, it took a number of hits and about 5 minutes to get it loose.

Once free, I was then able to jack the car up and remove the wheel, it was then taken into my van where I removed the tyre from the wheel, I also removed the old rubber valve and cleaned up the rim. A new valve was inserted, tyre wax was added to the rim and a new tyre was fitted. It was then inflated to the correct pressure and put onto the balancing machine. The wheel was spun and weights added at the correct points to counterbalance any inaccuracies.

Before putting the wheel back on the car I cleaned up and oiled the tie-rod nuts then loosened them off. The wheel was then put on and torqued to the correct setting, the car was lowered and the jack put away. I then cleaned up and loosened off the tie-rod on the opposite side. Before starting the wheel alignment, I checked and adjusted the tyre pressures on all the other tyres. The supertracker laser alignment was then put on the car, and the figures checked against the factory settings. It was easy to see from the figures that the car was badly out on one side. Using the laser lights, I was able to make adjustments to both sides until I had the car back to correct settings. All of the equipment was then taken off the car, and I took it for a test drive before returning it back to the customers address.

Happy with the feel of the test drive, I completed the tyre report and invoice before taking a payment from the customer. His receipt will then be emailed through to him.

 Supertracker laser alignment on a Vauxhall Signum.