Tyre fitters
 

Went yesterday to have a puncture done he said go to the waiting room and it will be done 2 mins later he walks in with my locking wheel nut key and says sorry can not get the wheel off showing me a well chewed up key



Paul

Opps, trust they removed all the locking nuts and paid for a replacment set.

Hmm, tricky one, a cwr of that age obviosly wheels have been off about a million times so may have been overtorqued in the past, or may currently be too tight, if its the old style ones fairly easy to remove anyway

OR they used the power gun to try and remove the locking nuts - to which they are not supposed too

I dont use the buzz gun on them, but you can generally okay provided they arent overtorqued or worn. I crack them off with a bar and wind them off by hand, but even then if its been overtightened or worn then they can still not work, can be a right pain in the arse, the mcguard ones i just mig a nut onto them now if they are broken and remove them

my Mcguard nuts are the older design, the key is longer so fits nicely with the wiggly design it has - will never sell them, they go on solid - try buggering that up - you wont!

had a few of the MG type that have two lugs on them...a previous garage/owner tightens them up too much and it knacks the key as soon as you try to undo them...

No went back home 5 mins later back there with it in my hand easy when you know how and a nice new set bought today

Paul

Yes mcgaurd are what I have replaced them with as I already had a set on knowing how easy it is to take the mg ones off



Paul

The mcguard ones when they start skipping, if you give the design part a good smack with a flat suface and a hammer you can flatten it back down and they then come off again so.etimes, bain of my life locking wheel keys

I replaced the standard MG McGard ones that the car came with (that are made of cheese), and replaced them with FORD McGard ones

Removing with a power gun isn't really an issue, they just shouldn't be done up with one. If the locking nut key was damaged trying to get the nuts off then they were obviously already done up to tight previously. Not really the tyre fitters fault.

I've been a mobile tyre fitter for 7 years and i've snapped countless locking nut keys due to monkey mechanics doing them up to tight with air guns. Not really avoidable.

I know the nuts were not tight as I did them up I lost one as I do not do them tight and when getting them off they were not tight as the others


Paul

Your probably more likely to snap a locking nut key using a breaker bar than you are with an air gun when removing them.

Reason being with a breaker bar your pushing down on the nut which tends push the key downwards and off the nut rounding it off. Atleast with a gun your putting inwards force on it keeping the pressure the same all the way round.