Hmmppfff. Early start this morning... 6am and got the car ready for adjusting the handbrake and inspecting the rear discs coz the rear of the car starts to faintly howl when approaching 60 mph+.
Piece of cake, right? Not quite. My first experience of trying to take off the alloy wheels (having had no problems with decent jobs like replacing heads and timing belts in the past) has forced me to give up and most likely buy some stock non-locking wheel nuts.
Is it just me or are the OE locking wheel nut (with the tiny pins) a right bugger to stay on the bolt head? They just keep slipping and I can't work out how to exert enough force onto each bolt with either my extending wheel wrench or (don't laugh) the wheel wrench supplied by Peugeot. It might be easier with a wheel brace because you can probably balance the forces and push onto the bolt more effectively without cam-out but I'm really concerned with how easily the pins slide off the female holes.
I've tried both rear wheels and I can't remove either.
Hmmmm. come to think of it, perhaps that's why the handbrake hasn't been adjusted and the howling may be due to erroded brake discs that they couldn't get access to...
I know I'm going on about something so small and trivial but imagine getting a flat tyre somewhere remote!
Perhaps I have a replacement locking wheel bolt key. The key head has both 19mm and 17mm profiles, and a code stamped into the top of it with 3 letters on the first line and then a letter, a number, a letter and then a number on the next line.
If I look closely at where the pins locate into the head, the walls of the head are slightly angled (a couple of degrees) and worse still, the edges of the pins are uniformly rounded off! What a great design! That would explain so many things....
Is it worth asking the main stealer for a spanking new replacement key?
the oem locking wheel nuts are pants!
they can easily be taken off by hammering an old 20 mm socket of them, so anyone could easily steal your wheels, i ditched the oem ones for a set of mcgaurd ones, i got them cheap from maccess (trade only ) but i know they arent cheap, but one thing good is, its almost impossible to get them off without the key, so dont loose it
Peugeot wrote:what are you worried about? we made car that lasted 10 years"..."Zat is very goode non?
Razza wrote:Is it just me or are the OE locking wheel nut (with the tiny pins) a right bugger to stay on the bolt head? They just keep slipping and I can't work out how to exert enough force onto each bolt with either my extending wheel wrench or (don't laugh) the wheel wrench supplied by Peugeot. It might be easier with a wheel brace because you can probably balance the forces and push onto the bolt more effectively without cam-out but I'm really concerned with how easily the pins slide off the female holes.
That's exactly what I said the other day in another thread. They're a right pain in the rear!
You're also right about the spider wrench, since in the past I've had to take my car back to Kwik-Fit to tell them they've put the locking nuts on too tight just to watch them loosen them easily with a spider wrench.
Sod it! I paid Peugeot in Stevenage (due to the high risk of damage to the alloys by anyone fearing the job) to remove the bolts and replaced them with standard bolts that I supplied. Having never used these guys before, I waited just under an hour before I spotted my car parked up outside. I checked whether they had finished and was told that they were just running up the bill. When the bill arrived, they had charged my an hour and a half! As you would imagine, I highlighted this simple fact to the 'master fitter' who stated that it was a timecard machine issue! Stealers? You bet...
an old 20 mm socket of them, so anyone could easily steal your wheels, i ditched the oem ones for a set of mcgaurd ones, i got them cheap from maccess (trade only 
) but i know they arent cheap, but one thing good is, its almost impossible to get them off without the key, so dont loose it 
