If my yeti didn't come with locking nuts, I wouldn't be worried.

It did come fitted with them and they're staying put.

I'm afraid I don't think your analysis supports your view. When did you last even see an XR2? Or a corsa on O/E Alloys?

 

Not quite sure what the vehicle the has to do with it, but if you're arguing that the problem isn't as prevalent now as it used to be then I'm not disagreeing with you - and I've offered some suggestions above as to why that might be.  I was disagreeing with your assertion that it was a "historical myth" - historical it may be, but myth it ain't.  Even if it's only 3.45% (thanks to Llanigraham for doing the number crunching!) that's not the same as 0%.

 

If you react to such low risks in going about your daily life you wouldn't get out much or even sit near someone eating a rare steak!

 

Pointless exaggeration.  The car comes with security wheel bolts as standard therefore I didn't have to "react".  I've not had any problem with the security wheel bolts in five complete wheel changes.  It would be more effort to swap them out than to keep them.  I've not "reacted" to anything.

 

People did react back when wheel theft was a significant problem in the past.  I did buy security wheel bolts for my first car back in 1985 precisely because it was a significant risk at the time - I had seen cars up on bricks in the streets around my part of London.  I also swapped the standard radio cassette for a removable one, because radio theft was a significant problem in those days, too.  (These days AV systems don't get stolen nearly as much because of measures like security codes.)  I would argue that the steps taken at that time reduced the risk then, and by sustaining and enhancing the preventive measures since then the risk has been maintained at a low level.  I don't believe that that necessarily means that we can safely abandon those preventive measures now, especially since they are now the zero-effort, default option.  It's not like smallpox: we haven't eradicated the problem - the scallies are still out there and won't hesitate to take advantage of ready opportunities for thieving - we've just made certain crimes sufficiently awkward to carry out that they've become less prevalent.

 

Basically I agree with you that modern life is relatively risk-free for a lot of people (arguably driving is probably one of riskier activities commonly undertaken.)  The fact that we don't experience directly many of the risks that previous generations did is partly because those previous generations recognised those risks and put mechanisms in place to prevent them.  Unless the risk factor has completely disappeared - which in the case of criminality as a general risk, I'd suggest it fairly clearly hasn't - allowing those mechanisms to fall in to disuse potentially creates a vulnerability to those same risks all over again.

 

And I do like a nice rare steak!  I also remember enjoying an extra fried egg for free at a Little Chef, shortly after Edwina Curry had kicked off the salmonella scare - the customer ahead of me having decided that it was the one bit of their Olympic Breakfast that was likely to kill them.

A nearby school had a ford transit minibus they use for school trips, one early morning we turned up to work there and noticed the van with its back wheels gone (four wheels on the rear axle) and it standing with its discs on bricks. They also cut the spare wheel off the bottom, took the windscreen wipers and the drivers side mirror glass - clearly some nimble-fingered gentlemen needed some discount parts for their tranny!

A guy at work had the door....that's right....the door taken off his Vectra.

 

They punched the lock on the driver's door to open the car and took the passenger door. Clearly no point in nicking a damaged door.

 

I happened to walk out with the owner and as we approached the car we were aghast. It was parked 20 yards from the office reception and no-one saw a thing.

 

Police thought the door was targeted as the right colour.

 

We had several motorcycles taken from the car park......in a Transit van.

 

I used to leave early for work and thirty years ago it was not uncommon to see XRs and GTEs on bricks or their discs but I suggest wheel theft is less common these days for the reasons stated in other posts.

 

Personally I'm leaving my copper greased lockers on.....but I have discarded the plastic caps..... I have a view that they hold water and corosive salts etc. To me it is almost unnoticable and my wife's Mini doesn't have covers anyway

As I've stated on another thread that with the wheel nut covers on all nuts look the same externally, unless you take the covers off you will not know if a locking nut is fitted. I can agree with 33q that without the covers it is clear that lockers are on but I'm undecided if I prefer the covers on (plastic does not show surface corrosion in the same way that wheel nuts do). Maybe I'll go for some new regular nuts (with new covers as they are different internal size to non locking nut covers) and keep my locking nuts in a bag, just in case I change my mind.

First time post as a new Yeti owner. I recall hearing a conversation at work in the 80s about the shocking experience of having a set of alloys stollen. The guy speaking then went on to console himself by saying it was OK he could get a set fairly cheap down at the pub. A good example of supply and demand I thought, and I wondered what was the chance if being offered his own wheels back again.

Having read the previous post I will leave the supplier lock bolts on and have bought a new tube if copper grease to make sure I can get them off when I want - which now and again for inspection and evening up wear front and back.

Just a thought. I have got winter tyres on steel wheels fitted (had to inform the insurance co.) The black wheels don't reflect any light at night so I got plastic trims yesterday to improve side on visibility. Are the trims at risk of being pinched? I really can't be bothered with the cable tie business and anyway anyone with snips will able to cut them off.

Been an interesting thread and I would agree the supplied locking bolts aren't as secure in the socket as the locking nuts on previous cars with an obvious potential to twist out. But on balance I've decided I'll keep the locking wheel bolts and just remember every couple of months when washing the car to take the plastic cover off the locking bolt on each wheel, back it off a bit and then re-tighten. It only takes a couple of minutes (and it's the perfect opportunity to check the pressure in the spare tyre) and hopefully avoid a problem in the future.

 

Not being too technically minded, there is a lot of talk in various threads about using a torque wrench when tightening wheel bolts. How critical is this for real life? I appreciate it''s important not to have the wheels fall off at one extreme or to strip the thread at the other but in the past when I've had to remove and replace wheels I've used a telescopic wrench, collapsed to tighten and extended for the extra leverage to remove and never had a problem. Is there any reason to assume that Skodas in general and Yetis in particular need any more care than this?

Is there any reason to assume that Skodas in general and Yetis in particular need any more care than this?

No, It is only that the design of the locking heads is poor.

It's best practice to use a torque wrench to finally tighten any bolts to their correct value on any piece of equipment, not just cars.

Some are critical, such as cylinder head bolts.

Another good example is the swing arm pivot bolt on a motorcycle.

If not tight enough there will be slack in the pivot causing sloppy handling.

Too tight and the swing arm won't move freely so the shock can't do its job.