I've just treated myself to a cordless one. Is it OK to use it with the socket for the security road wheel nut?

Thanks.

Absolutely not! Only ever use a bar and torque wrench on the locking wheel nuts.

@Doily - If you need an impact wrench your wheel nuts are too tight! In which case use a 6-point socket, tommy bar and if need be a breaker bar (I have a 3 foot length of scaffolding pipe for this) or a spider (again possibly with the breaker bar) to release them, and the supplied wheel brace (by design you should get about the correct torque using arm strength with this; no need for full body strength) or a torque wrench to tighten them.

11 hours ago, Doily said:

I've just treated myself to a cordless one. Is it OK to use it with the socket for the security road wheel nut?

Thanks.

 

Unless you earn a living with one, they're really not that useful, cheap ones aren't powerful enough to help with really stubborn fasteners and expensive ones are overkill for most jobs. When you do need one, you really need it.

 

Basic rules are; don't use it with regular sockets, don't use it to tighten anything properly and only use it when you have a stuck bolt you can't shift by hand. I have a good one and I hardly ever need it these days.

Most locking wheel nuts will take being removed with an impact, but it is considered bad practice and does ruin them over time.

 

I always slacken them off with a ratchet while the car is still on the ground and then just buzz off the rest.

 

As Sepulchrave said, it doesn't save much time using it for wheel nuts but if you buy a good quality gun it can save you having to break a sweat undoing things like caliper carrier bolts which can be a pain when you don't have a ramp.

13 hours ago, Doily said:

I've just treated myself to a cordless one. Is it OK to use it with the socket for the security road wheel nut?

Thanks.

 

I just do what SuperbTWM said, I use a bar though as it makes easier cracking them off.

 

I would respectfully disagree with Sepulchrave, I have a cordless impact gun and its my favourite tool for working on cars, it takes a lot of the manual graft out of bigger jobs, I usually crack off the nut/bolt with a ratchet and then buzz them off with the gun, reverse this when doing up.

 

 

Perhaps I wasn't clear, I do use mine (I have two, 3/8" and 1/2") primarily as nut-runners, I tend not to use the impact action unless a stuck fastener would benefit from the kick, when I tighten I generally stop as soon as it starts to kick and then torque up by hand, so I'm the same as Duck, but I could as easily use a cordless drill with an adapter, which I do with 1/4" socketry. Also overused rattle guns are irritatingly noisy.