Wheel Bolts

[bingo nightly]

I took my Galaxy to my brilliant and reliable tyre fitting place this morning to have 2 replaced. "Help yourself to (real) coffee while you wait sir" I was told, and sat down with a car mag for a relaxing 15 minutes. The fitter popped his head back round the door and inquired as to the location of the wheel security bolt socket/key. I went to the glove box to find it not there, and so searched the boot pockets with the same result. Dumbfounded as to where it could be (I just never lose things, and can lay my hands on any of my tools in seconds), I thought hard and realised that the only people to have touched the car since I bought it, apart from me, was a bodyshop who did a rear end accident repair last October. I assume they must have needed to take off the rear wheels then, and never put the socket back. Bugger!

A long shot call to said bodyshop found them closed untill Tuesday, and lets face it the chance of them still having it is tiny. And so a phone call to the Ford dealer service dept. revealed that they do keep a few master sockets in stock and to bring it in to see if they match. Half an hour later, and the service manager takes one look and announces that the ones they have are nothing like mine (of course!) and suggests that they are probably more likely VW bolts, and so I hurriedly make my way across town to the Veedub dealership. The man comes out and takes one look and announces that the ones they have are nothing like mine, and that they are more likely to be Ford bolts! I explain that thats where I have come from, and he scratches his head and suggests that I have a problem (like I didn't already know!) and that I may have to resort to hammer and chisel to get the wheels off.

Now the tyre place shuts at lunch time, and one of my tyres has a nasty split in it, and I want to take the kids out tommorrow, so I think hard and hurry back across town to the local car breakers thinking that they must have loads of old sockets kicking about from the thousands of wheels that they remove.

Very helpfull bloke in oily overalls takes a look, has a rummage and find one that nearly fits, and with a few good taps with a hammer, is driven home. The 4 security bolts are taken out, 4 normal bolts found and put in their place, and he only wants a tenner, result!

And so I now have my tyres fitted, and am thankfull that this situation manifested itself on a sunny morning rather than a rain swept motorway at night, with a puncture.

The moral of the story is guard your security bolt socket with your life, the main dealers are next to useless, and if all else fails, use a large hammer!

Edited April 7, 2007 by bingo nightly

[mumof4]

Ahhh..the saga of a missing locking nut......glad to hear you got it sorted..as i and teresa and bigd i think have all had probs with the locking nut being naffed and unable to get bolts off wheels.Reverse helix socket usually does the job.and i mean usually.!!

[popeye2755]

The same thing happened to me with my wifes Polo. Went to the local VW dealer, who matched the correct locking nut within minutes, and only charged us a fiver for a new one! Edited April 7, 2007 by popeye2755

[adrianf.]

Not quite the same but, i had four new tyres fitted about 3 months ago and the end of last week i had to remove the wheels from the car.

Got the Ford wheel brace out but wouldnt shift them. Jumped up and down on the brace but it then slipped and rounded the brace off.

Great i thought.

Got my extra long wheel brace out that i bought from the

[Guest Rockdoctor]

I had an old Mondy with alloys and security bolts. I wanted the wheel off while it was on the drive, so I found the security socket in the glove box, and took all the bolts out. When I tried to shift the wheel it wouldn't budge.

In the end I gave up, afraid to apply too much force because the car was showing signs of falling off the jack.

 

Put it all back together and mentioned it to my garage bloke next time I saw him.

He told me it's a common problem with alloys bolted onto steel axles - the electrolytic reaction between the aluminium and the steel causes corrosion that bonds the wheel onto the axle. He said he keeps a long scaffolding pole just for prising such wheels off.

 

In the end I got rid of the car with a trade in (for my Galaxy), having never got the wheels off.

Yet another reminder that you should always have a practice at removing the wheels on a sunny day.

 

Which reminds me, the new Gal has alloys, and I haven't tried taking the wheels off yet....

[MadBaz]

Put it all back together and mentioned it to my garage bloke next time I saw him.

He told me it's a common problem with alloys bolted onto steel axles - the electrolytic reaction between the aluminium and the steel causes corrosion that bonds the wheel onto the axle. He said he keeps a long scaffolding pole just for prising such wheels off.

 

In the end I got rid of the car with a trade in (for my Galaxy), having never got the wheels off.

Yet another reminder that you should always have a practice at removing the wheels on a sunny day.

 

Which reminds me, the new Gal has alloys, and I haven't tried taking the wheels off yet....

 

A tip for getting those alloys off is to REPLACE WHEELS BOLTS but not to tighten them fully, a couple of turns from tight should do, lower car to ground and rock from side to side and alloys should pop off without doing any damage. Found this tip on RAC forum.

[whitty]

that makes me think i dont know if the gal has locking nut's and i know i have not seen a key uh oh i'm gonna look when i get home !