Dale_Stevens

I'm no mechanic, but I guess it makes sense to have new pads at the same time, especially is the current pads may have worn to shape to the current discs and might give uneven wear on the new discs?

Same here.

Just like you, I really don't have the need for winter tyres, my Efficient Grips are perfectly fine for my use (and probably even for winter). When I got my spare set of alloys for winter (to protect my nice alloys) there wasn't any need to put winter tyres on them so I put all seasons on them. I can now leave the all season wheel set on all year if I want to, or swap back to my nice alloys with Efficient Grips for summer. Best of both worlds. Whilst there is obviously an upfront cost involved in buying an extra set of tyres, that cost is spread out over the same period as if running one set of tyres, as tyre wear is balanced over that period.

A baseball bat is probably more a 'weapon of offence' than offensive weapon, depending if it's used towards anyone or simply just held. But then if its used/threatened towards anyone then it could be a robbery. The circumstances will dictate, but otherwise it may just be a theft.

Honda Jazz are notorious for getting their cats stolen, so is the Toyota Auris.

My job entails collating and recording information such as thefts from vehicles and I don't think I've come across a theft of alloys for many many years. Catalytic converters are a different matter, I've seen them go from discreet thefts from cars parked in long term car parks, to pulling up next to the car on the road in broad daylight with pedestrians about, crawl under the car with a cordless angle grinder and cut the cat off, with his mate stood by him with a baseball bat incase anyone tries to stop him.

How do you keep the security key on the bolt? It hardly grips the bolt and separates at the soonest opportunity

Of the wheel bolt? 😀

Bend down to see which is the round cap. Then when all the caps are off, if im stood close to the side of the car I still can't see which one is the locking bolt, I have to step back, or bend right down. Maybe Im too tall?

I know, but I still have to bend right down to see it, if I know its in a certain place it makes it easier for me.

They are a godsend aren't they. I only have one, but will probably buy a second one soon. Good tip earlier from whoever suggested putting the locking wheel bolt opposite the tyre valve so you always know where it it 👍

A bit of an update to my rounded bolt fiasco... Having purchased a new wheel bolt and decent six sided socket today, I managed to finally swap my wheels over to the winter set. When jacking the wheel with with the rounded bolt, one thing i'm sure I saw was some slight flex to the wheel as it lifted from the ground, suggesting it probably hadn't been seated against the hub correctly? I say that 'I'm sure I saw' as it all happened so quickly, but if the wheel hadn't been seated properly all this summer, then the whole wheel will have been slightly 'skew wiff', maybe putting some sideways pressure on the bolt and making it difficult to remove and maybe this caused the cheap 12 point socket to crack?? This will now be something I'll be any careful about when putting wheels back on in the future.

I’m guessing they mean all bolts finger tight, then a bit of a nip with the wrench to just the remaining 4 bolts, then lower the car, torque the 4 bolts and then finally tighten and torque the locking bolt?

Ended up buying a bolt from my Skoda dealer for £6ish, as I wanted to be back to having five bolts on the wheel ASAP. Picked up a 17mm 6 x sided socket from Halfords too. Wont be using 12 point sockets on the wheels again. I now need to see if the new digital torque wrench reads the same as my normal wrench, to see if it's over tightening the bolts. Im quite sure the correct setting is 120Nm?

Can anyone recommend which bolts in that link would be best please? They all seem to be the same part number, some are different manufacturers whilst a few of them are Febi Bilstein. I'll also be giving my Skoda dealer a call tomorrow and see how much they charge.

I'm the only person who has touched the wheel bolts whilst I've owned the car, and I've only ever fitted/removed them using hand tools.

Ha, no, I didn’t tighten it by mistake. one thing I noticed was a few other bolts were quite tight. When I last put them on I was using a brand new digital torque wrench. Despite setting it correctly I’m wondering if it’s not calibrated correctly and has over tightened them? I’ll have to compare it to my standard torque wrench. Yes, I absolutely need a good quality 6 sides socket and wrench/brace, the socket that cracked was a 12 point socket. I’m off to get a Halfords Advanced/Professional socket tomorrow. They do decent looking 18” Advanced breaker bar that I’ll take a look at.

This is a normal wheel bolt, not the locking bolt. Thinking of getting rid of the locking wheel bolts to be honest.

Had to take the Yeti to a garage to get the bolt removed, they used a breaker bar, good quality socket that they whacked on with a nylon mallet, and cracked it off. I doubt that I had put it on too tight as I use a torque wrench at 120Nm. I have a couple of short journeys that I need to make, so I'm checking the remaining 4 bolts on that wheel every few miles, hope to get a replacement bolt soon.

That's cheaper than I expected from a dealer, I'll give mine a call tomorrow, thanks.

Thanks Urrell, quite a price difference between those two sites. On the second link for buycarparts.co.uk they are so much cheaper, though I haven't looked at postage prices. Are all of those bolts in the link the same kind of quality, or are any of them OEM? Also now need to get a good quality 17mm socket, buy cheap buy twice as I have just found out! Think I'll get a better wheel brace too.

Anyone know a good place to source good quality 17mm wheel bolts for my Yeti please, preferably original Skoda branded? I've rounded off one of my wheel bolts, the 17mm socket had cracked without me knowing, serves me right for using a cheap socket I suppose!! I hope to get it off with one of those bolt removing sockets that remove rounded bolts, but I'll need to replace there bolt and may as well get a set of five so I can do away with the locking bolts as well.

I've explained before, I don't want winter tyres as I don't see the need for them, our winters aren't usually that bad apart from a few days of snow like we are currently experiencing, and I've still got my summer tyres fitted and they have been perfectly fine in the snow so far. But for my spare set of alloys that I like to fit for the winter I needed some tyres for them, and seeing as I don't want winter tyres I decided to put all season tyres on them. That way I don't have to rush to swap them over in spring, if I want to I can leave them on as long as I like. Not much more I can say on the matter to be honest. what I have suits me perfectly fine.

All I've done is get a second set of alloys for winter to try and keep my nice alloys looking nice, and I've put all season tyres on them. My nice alloys have perfectly good summer tyres, didn't see the point on binning those tyres whilst there is still good tread on them, so I'm making full use of them during the summer. I don't see the need for winter tyres, all season will be good enough for my driving needs, so I predict I will eventually have both sets of wheels running all season tyres, swapping from the nice alloys to the not so nice alloys each spring/winter.

At least somebody understands 😀