Wheel nut lock key broke

Reg'stoy

The R.A.F did an in house magazine and a regular item was "I learned about flying from..." where people would share snags and problem they came up against in the hopes that others might avoid the problems they had. So here is my story...

Kerbed the front left wheel on my 09 Ford ka. Only the second flat I've ever had on the car, anyway was literally 30 secs from the house and it was deflating quickly, parked up on a relatively flat spot. Got one nut loosened after WD40 was used and the fecking wheel nut key cracked. So got it to my local atlas store (shout out to the guys in the Swords branch) and they reckoned there might be trouble getting it off.
Who should walk in only a guy wearing a Ford work jacket, who told me that they don't make those keys any more. Ford will be able to take off the nuts and I will be asking them to fit ordinary nuts as a replacement.
So, if you do have wheel nut locks fitted, either get a second key (just in case) or replace them with ordinary nuts.

Never would have occurred to me just how firstly easily the key would crack and secondly that a replacement might not be that easy to find. It's hard enough removing wheel nuts at the best of times but you'd be completely snookered if late at night on a back road miles away from anywhere and the key broke. Probably teaching most people on here how to suck eggs but if just one person goes, "you know what" and avoids a similar problem to mine sure isn't that a good thing.

colm_mcm

Another top tip is to not over tighten the lock nut going on. Don’t let anyone near it with an air gun.

TheBoyConor

Anytime i had to take off a locknut and hadn't the key I'd just weld a normal nut onto the top of it. Either that or hack it off with a chisel.