Idiot: Lost locking wheel nut key

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Soldato
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Staffordshire
So at a recent track day I misplaced my locking wheel nut key, presumably left it in the wheel and then went out on track with it, depositing it somewhere whilst I was out.

How do I resolve this? I can't be bothered going through BMW to get a new one unless absolutely necessary, so my question is basically can I drill out the ones which are in there (front wheels only, rear wheels came with normal bolts in all five holes) and replace them or is there a special process to go through to remove them?

I say nuts, they're actually bolts, i.e. there are fives holes in the hub on the car.

Cheers
 
My dad didn't get the locking nut with his Carlton years ago, just went to a tyre place and explained and the guy had them off in the usual amount of time.
 
I can't remember the BMW design but:

If they have a collar you can try and split the collar so that it comes off and then either weld a nut onto the end or hammer an impact socket over the top.

If they don't have a collar and you have enough clearance you can either buy a locking wheel nut extractor (Halfords sell them) or again hammer a socket over the top.

Sadly, you cant try and split them with a chisel as you've got bolts not nuts and they are probably made of hardened steel so drilling isn't an option either.

Depending on the shape you could also try and get the pin-type removal tools, but they are expensive compared to impact sockets.

A lot of this is just brute force and ignorance and your success or failure may depend on your love for your alloys and/or how tight you did up the wheel nuts in the first place.

EDIT:

In summary, get the collar off if there is one, smash a socket on over the top (or buy an extractor) and either get a bloody long bar or use an impact gun and hope for the best. You might need more than one socket in the same size per wheel, and Halfords are onto people ruining the Halfords Pro sockets doing exactly this - so no, they won't swap them ad infinitum for you to end up with a usable socket afterwards ;)
 
Last edited:
I lost mine and got a new one from BMW for around £7 - could be easier than drilling them out.
 
alexisonfire said:
I took my clio down to the local renault dealer and asked them to remove them...
Click to expand...

The car is going to a local indi bmw shop to have it's transmission leak looked at, so I'll see if they can help me there too, if not we have a main dealer in town which I can try.

DRZ said:
I can't remember the BMW design but:

If they have a collar you can try and split the collar so that it comes off and then either weld a nut onto the end or hammer an impact socket over the top.

If they don't have a collar and you have enough clearance you can either buy a locking wheel nut extractor (Halfords sell them) or again hammer a socket over the top.

Sadly, you cant try and split them with a chisel as you've got bolts not nuts and they are probably made of hardened steel so drilling isn't an option either.

Depending on the shape you could also try and get the pin-type removal tools, but they are expensive compared to impact sockets.

A lot of this is just brute force and ignorance and your success or failure may depend on your love for your alloys and/or how tight you did up the wheel nuts in the first place.

EDIT:

In summary, get the collar off if there is one, smash a socket on over the top (or buy an extractor) and either get a bloody long bar or use an impact gun and hope for the best. You might need more than one socket in the same size per wheel, and Halfords are onto people ruining the Halfords Pro sockets doing exactly this - so no, they won't swap them ad infinitum for you to end up with a usable socket afterwards ;)
Click to expand...

The bolt head is just like this one:

34xq60x.jpg


Wondering if I can fabricate a tool to do it - sockets are out as you can see :(

Cheers for the info though, very helpful!

aMb said:
I lost mine and got a new one from BMW for around £7 - could be easier than drilling them out.
Click to expand...

The car is 16 years old and this is assuming that the bolts are the ones which were sold with the car, its been messed around with so much I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't the original set of lockers - worth a try though :D
 
That's actually still possible to get a socket over if there is sufficient gap between that and the wheel.

The pin-type removers (they are like the executive toys where you'd leave an impression of your hand or face etc in the pins) will do a decent job of that too I would have thought.
 
I bought one for the wife's zafira on eBay all the guy wanted was a close up hq picture and make model etc and he matched it, about £12
 
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