I sheered off the pattern on my locking key exactly as you described! 🤦♂️ I had ALL wheelnuts seized on my Focus! I didn't have a tourch so I first drilled through the spinning ring to brake it, drilled hole to the thread and sprayed WD40 inside.. then hammered a socket on them and they all let go eventually. God I was so pissed off with whoever tightened them b4. With the normal ones I was jumping on my breaker bar and they eventually let go too, but on the last one my USPro socket snapped.. how typical! I got it off in the end and got a replacement socket. I also ditched locking wheelnuts after that trauma! 🤣 Great video Alan, as ever 👍
My present car had damaged wheel bolts through ridiculous overtightening. Locking bolts were removable, several others had to have undersized sockets hammered on then a 3/4" breaker bar! All bolts have been replaced, no locking bolts now and I used a torque wrench on them.
Totally agree with you junk the ruddy things . They were ok when alloy wheels were a luxury but now very few cars don't have alloys so less get nicked ( hopefully) .
A bit like radio codes, no one steals car radios anymore, thieves are more likely to steal your catalytic converter than your wheels and if they wanted your wheels the locking nuts wouldn’t even stop them.
My friend bought a new Ford a couple of years ago and it didn’t come with a key . And as she was at ford to have her car serviced she was told she would have to buy one before the next service. They charged her £65 for a new key and then had the cheek to ask her if she wanted a new tyre for £300 !!. Being half Scottish and a bad temper. You can imagine what her reply was. I’m going to replace all mine eventually when I have the alloys refurbished, and put new chrome nuts on the alloys .
Great video alan, this is my pet hate - I now always remove the wheel nuts whenever I take a car to a garage or tyre shop... my experiences have been garages using air guns to wack the nuts up as tight as ****! Leaving the situation your trying to deal with whenever I want to get the wheel off at home. Absolute nightmare.
One extra thing I do is to slacken the other wheel nuts first. It occasionally takes some of the tension off the remaining wheel nut. When dealing with apart that has a bolt that will not undo, I remove the other bolts and attempt to move the part slightly. I also hit a bolt head with a hammer to shock it loose. With a nut you need to protect the thread by putting something over it. Using heat as with mig welding or a torch really works.
Driving a few hundred meters with the handbrake on heats the hub (preferable) and works the same - knocks a tiny bit of life off the pads but a very sweet trick to try.
I remember damaging the locking nut key on my mk4 mondeo and all 4 locking nuts were still on the wheels and tight. I have nobody else to blame, I damaged the key so no excuses there but I am just sorry that I didn't bin the lock nuts any of the previous times I had them removed. Anyway, went to scrap yards to see if any of them had a key that was similar. They all had buckets of keys but as you all may know, they are all slightly different for obvious reasons so I couldn't get one to work. Went into numerous tyre and alloy wheel shops to see if they had any removal tools or tricks for locking wheel nuts and I was asked what kind of car it was. When I answered I was told that that was a shame because they can remove any lock nuts they said apart from Ford. At this stage I got onto the internet and luckily found a video that shows a couple of very simple tricks to remove Ford locking wheel nuts. All it involved was forcing a small flat head screwdriver bit in between the spinning outer collar and middle part. This very easily breaks the spinning outer collar. Then all you need to do is hammer a 19mm, 12 point socket onto the round lock nut head and spin it off. Worked like a charm and I will never use lock nuts again.
Warning! If using the MIG weld method (which works well) , critical not to earth via the wheel-bearing, so anything that turns with the wheel is fine (another wheel nut / stud using needle mole grips, brake disc), but not car body, suspension, calioer or carrier. Earthing through the wheel bearing causes micro-arcs between outer / inner races and the ball bearings. Effectively forming grit within the bearing. I always tighten the locking nut last and undo it first and usually torque it a little less than the others.
mate thats a great idea, I am a alloy wheel refurbishment and powder coating company and locking wheel nuts are the bain of my day when they are over tightened, I will get my plumbers torch on it next time,,, it doesnt bother me if the wheels coating gets bubbled as I am going to be refurbishing the wheels anyway hahaha :)
After having a lock nut key snap while trying to put a spare wheel on my wife's X3, leaving me in all sorts of trouble, I have also since removed locking nuts from every car I've owned since. Surely alloy wheel theft isn't even a thing these days? Perhaps if you've got some crazy rare 20-21" wheels or something, but bog-standard 16/17/18/19" wheels, it's surely not an issue these days. Besides, even with lock nuts, if someone really wants the wheels they'll have them anyway.
I see this everyday in my job. I’ve used so many different methods now and I find the Lazer locking wheel nut removal kit. It basically breaks the sleeve off and then you can use a normal socket over the top. Failing that a Dynomec kit. There’s so many different ways to get them off now.
Great job. As always very informative. I always thought fire would damage the alloy. Nice to know it wouldn't. I just want to add, I never tighten the lock nut more than 70 Nm. The other four nuts I properly get tightened to 110 Nm. Thanks for the video.
I had a locking nut key fail. I ordered a new one in good time thankfully. My current car came with locking nuts. I've taken them off and bought four second hand wheel bolts off eBay. Does anybody steal alloys these days from the average car ?
I've got a Kuga that had exactly the same locking wheel nuts and couldn't get them off, the wiggly bit of metal in the adaptor was damaged but not completely sheared off, when you tried to undo the nut the adaptor would just push away from them the nut, I used a different approach, although it took slightly longer to do, I drilled the head of the nut on the car and tapped it out to 6mm, then drilled a 7 mm hole through the adaptor and then essentially bolted/clamped them together then put my bar on and they came off, but you do need good quality drills and taps as the metal is harder than ordinary mild steel on the nut and the adaptor, and you need to go really careful with the tap, it squeaks and cracks as you turn it (plenty of oil/lube of some sort) and of course if you do break the tap then you're back to square one...
Great tip Alan, could you help me out mate. I am trying to take off the wheel of my Mondeo Mk5, however, the socket I am using 19 mm or 21mm does not work, the 19 is little small and the 21 a little big.
Hi Alan, a but off topic for this video but I have a 2016 Mondeo with the LED adaptive headlights, is there a way to manually adjust the height as the a aim is quite low. I though LED/Xenon had to auto adjust?
Great advice thanks Alan. Will be checking on my Mk3 at the weekend. Would it be an idea to maybe torque the locking nut a bit less than the other 4 on the wheel?
Same I ll check mine tomorrow and tighten them up a bit loose ( and clean and lube them ) I don't won't a world of shit one night in the rain miles from anywhere! Or maybe I ll go to the scrappy and get some new bolts
Hello. Can you tell me your opinion on the Ford Mondeo Titanium MK4 2011/2012 CC hatchback? I own one and am not happy! 2 l. 144hp auto. This is a mondeo titanium and not a vw polo! It is far too noisy inside while driving!!? Lots of stupid solutions as the instrument panel has tragically little info. Placement of seat warmer in front of cup holder. Motor data control front bumper front. Auto side mirror that goes into auto when you lock the car that you can't turn off. Petrol lid locking mechanism which has a weakness and needs to be replaced and takes the fuse. then you stand there and can't fill up with diesel! Front lights that shine more dimly than you expect. Car stereo that does not have the sound quality you expect from a Mondeo Titanium. Headlights that are no longer sealed and fill up with water. The large shelf plate in the trunk of the hatchback which is CHEAPLY made and breaks quickly if you lift it incorrectly. The floor plate in the luggage compartment is made cheaply and not well. screws for the seat belt in the back seat have screw holes straight through the bodywork and out on the underside. water and salt and everything hits the screw and it rusts. Suddenly high revs when you take off from 0. You can hardly press the gas pedal, when the turbo has spun up you suddenly have high revs and stand there for 2 3 seconds before it shifts. After that everything is 100% ok. and normal. gearbox data and engine data are not programmed correctly! and several other things I dislike!
Alloys very fast disperse heat, and you right ,this lock nuts are f... pointles,i remember 8 years ago when i bought my mk4 mondeo somebody overtight nuts
1st job when I get newer car is to replace all locking wheel nuts, where do u buy your replacement nuts from. Ford are expensive, but eBay can be monkey metal ( as u put it )
Yeah suppose it would be an idea to supply sold cars automatically with an extension bar to make nuts easier to open especially for women, could be a god send in a stupid place.
There again, you could always tighten the locking wheel nut, start talking to yer neighbour, put yer torque spanner in the car , then drive off. Then remeber you never took the lock nut off and its gone, 🤣🤣
I had a tire place on holiday in France blow my air con clutch up. He took my car for a test drive without me knowing and bragged he did 190km an hour in my car. And then said u do realise you have got wheel nuts missing as i had taken the locking nuts out 😂
I had too bin them all 4 due too being pain in the bk side when I got mine new tyres on other 3 came off no issue but front left side was sooooo tight even impact gun couldn't take it off but lucky he managed too get it off after 20mins wack wack it meant too be 110nm but the bloke said looks like it's 150nm wtf. But no more locking nuts.
my trick is to take the other w/nuts off, send ramp up, position nut @ 12oclock, then stretch it by yawking between the back of the rim + the balljoint, flexing the rim by 3/4 inch. overtighten the rest back on + it comes off 80%. works best on w/bolts. the other 20% get a pointed windychisel down their necks. your trick doesn't work with oxy acetelene, wheels go brown
Occasionally you can get away with using a second person to hit the bar & socket onto the nut with a mallet while you put pressure on. This won't be popular but i'm going to say it. Tyre fitters don,t understand the concept of a torque wrench. Just watch them tighten a wheel with a gun, then reach for the torque wrench 'click click yeah that's torqued' (yes it bloody was 1 turn before you stopped tightening the crap out of it with the impact gun!)
@@marklittler784 i never done any mechanic stuff rather than reconnecting the wiring of my car..good thing is,i always have Alan if im in trouble ☺️☺️😚
I take the locking wheel nuts out of my car before getting tires fitted and i wont let them put them back as I've had someone fit them with an air gun😤 once and nearly couldn't get them out with a breaker bar.
It's just wheel nuts in general that annoy me and the way garages whizz um up with their air impacts and then 150psi with their torque wrench. I had the issue the other day, 6 foot scaffold pole over my giant breaker bar to remove a bloody wheel. Back in the 80's - 90's, blokes knew how to tighten a road wheel....women are supposed to be able to change a wheel at road side for crying out loud. Pinch um up, drop the car down and firm um up with a wheel brace. Why are people terrified that a wheel will fall off, it never happens, the noise you get from loose wheel nuts is horrendous as the wheel wobbles on the hud long before the nuts fall off.
The locking wheel nuts aren't a problem, it's the idiots who don't torque them up when fitting them to the correct torque setting. And trying to remove the with a impact gun which smashed the insides out!
I had exactly the same problem after when I bought my mondeo. When the tires are changed, I always say that there is no need to tighten very hard the wheel nuts and never have problem like this. And by the way this people in the tyre service or the owner of the car they don't know the grease?
