Lost locking wheel nut key

oldsmokey

Yes indeed, this old chestnut, but with a little twist...the car's a 2012 V70, with the 'new-type' locking wheel nut, those damn things where you cant bang on an undersize socket, cos the visible part of the 'stud' freewheels...only the very innermost part of the stud is located by the special key...and theres 120 varieties, not stocked by the local volvo crowd service dept. This setup kills the idea of welding on a stud to each wheel too I'd imagine
Any ideas out there?

keithsfleet

Drilling it out?
Or at least drilling enough of the freewheeling part and welding a bolt.

MarkR

I went to Victory Tyres in Limerick earlier in the week with a work lock nut. Had it off in five minutes. He reckons none have defeated him in ten years. :-)

Check your local tyre guys, someone should be able to remove it.

kirving

Sounds like a pain alright, particularly since it's some new design.

Surely Volvo could order one in for you in a couple of days though? Apart from that, how do the likes of the AA deal with them?

visual

Kevin Irving wrote: »

Sounds like a pain alright, particularly since it's some new design.

Surely Volvo could order one in for you in a couple of days though? Apart from that, how do the likes of the AA deal with them?

They arrive with a tow truck

knotknowbody

I had a set of these and no key on my car a few months ago, the freewheeling part makes them almost impossible to get off without the correct key, I visited at least ten or twelve tire places, they all said yeah not a bother until they seen the freewheel part and then changed their tune to sorry you're on your own there mate. They called the freewheeling part a floating collar, I don't know if that's the correct name for it but it sound right.

Went to many local local main dealers for various makes including my own, none could help me because I wasn't the original owner of the car and didn't have the key code number that would have been supplied with the lock nuts, drove three hours to the original main dealer and they could get the key code for me from their records, but McGard were insisting I send them proof of ownership(pictures of car, copy of registration certificate, copy of a proof of identity/drivers license) before I got a key as obviously they would not want to send a key out to an alloy thief, they also wanted €80 for the key and it would be 10-14 days before they could ship it..

I couldn't wait that long as needed to make a few long journeys and couldn't risk a punctures miles away from home with no way to change the wheel.

I got them off without the key by using a small angle grinder to cut a slot across the head of the lock-nut, I was able to do this as the nut protruded out proud of the alloy by about 3mm, I protected the alloy from sparks and done my best to avoid slips which I managed to do, once I had the slot cut I could catch it with a chisel and tap it open with a hammer. It took about 20 minutes to do all four once I picked up the courage to start into them with the grinder.

Bigus

I had this problem with a ford this week, its ridiculous that they can't supply a new key even with a chassis number. The ford ones would be the Same as Volvos.

Any way after a few tries this is the definitive way to get them off and replace with ordinary chrome nut at 2.48 euro each from ford.

The outer collar breaks fairly easily with a hammer and small chisel.

One this floating collar is broken off a 16mm ordinary socket can be hammered on and nut removed. Socket will be damaged afterwards.
The normal wheel lock removal sockets don't seem to go Down to 16 mm
Job done

knotknowbody

Bigus wrote: »

The outer collar breaks fairly easily with a hammer and small chisel.

Not on the ones I had, it was the first thing I tried even before going to the tyre shop, was at them for a while with the chisel and hammer trying to break the collar and no go.

Bigus

knotknowbody wrote: »

Not on the ones I had, it was the first thing I tried even before going to the tyre shop, was at them for a while with the chisel and hammer trying to break the collar and no go.

Mine were counter sunk into the wheels so it was the only way to go, hammer and punch might be a more accurate description.