Went to change my brake pads last weekend and one of my locking wheel bolts has completely stripped the splines - it's basically just a perfect circle in the middle now. I managed to hammer a 20mm socket on the outside, but that is just spinning when I apply any force to it. I picked up a pack of nut/bolt extractors, but the largest one was 19mm which doesn't quite go on - managed to hammer it on about half way, but it just slips off when I apply any force to it - I can't find a 20mm nut extractor anywhere 😞

 

I took it down to the local tyre fitter over the weekend after spending several hours swearing at it, and they tried pretty much the same as me with no luck, so it's booked in for Thursday to have a socket welded on, but is there anything else I can try before then to save a few £?

 

Frustratingly, the wheel was off a few weeks ago to check the disks and pads while I was servicing it and the nut came off no problem then, so I guess I've just over-tightened it 😞

The other option is a set of twist/spiral sockets that bite on from the outside of the bolt head, depends a bit how much clearance you have between the bolt and the wheel though.  The set I use were made by Trident and were very much not cheap. 

 

The other way involves a set of cobalt drill bits and the patience of a saint. 

Edited 4 April, 20224 yr by StevesTruck

Yeah, the spiral socket is what I tried, but it was a cheap £10 set from Amazon (figured it was something I'm unlikely to use very often). Unfortunately the biggest size was 19mm which is "just" too small, I spent about an hour trying to hammer it on to the nut, but couldn't get it on far enough to actually grip 😕

9 hours ago, Haggisking said:

Yeah, the spiral socket is what I tried, but it was a cheap £10 set from Amazon (figured it was something I'm unlikely to use very often). Unfortunately the biggest size was 19mm which is "just" too small, I spent about an hour trying to hammer it on to the nut, but couldn't get it on far enough to actually grip 😕

did you manage to sort this isu=sue out?

 

it happened to me too, luckily i knew someone who is a welder and weldered another wheel nut bolt onto the locking nut then using a wheel nut undoer to undo the broken locking nut.

On 04/04/2022 at 23:17, froggy8 said:

did you manage to sort this isu=sue out?

 

it happened to me too, luckily i knew someone who is a welder and weldered another wheel nut bolt onto the locking nut then using a wheel nut undoer to undo the broken locking nut.

 

I did... but unfortunately this was by taking it to the tyre fitters 😞

3 minutes ago, Haggisking said:

 

I did... but unfortunately this was by taking it to the tyre fitters 😞

at least its done now, dont put the locking nut back in but use a normal wheel nut instead.

Yup, first thing I did was take all the others out and replace with normal wheel nuts, I figure the chances of me getting a flat and needing to change the tyre is higher than the risk of someone decided to steal some beaten up alloys from a 12 year old Octavia 😄

1 minute ago, Haggisking said:

Yup, first thing I did was take all the others out and replace with normal wheel nuts, I figure the chances of me getting a flat and needing to change the tyre is higher than the risk of someone decided to steal some beaten up alloys from a 12 year old Octavia 😄

exactly!

Not quite as unlikely as someone stealing the 15" steelies off mine - I've got no idea why it had locking wheel nuts on when I bought it 🤣