F'in lock nuts

Well we got our Commodore on April 13th. We went to do some suspension stuff (springs, struts, shocks) on Saturday and noticed the wheels have lock nuts. No biggie. Had to find the key first of all, and found it with the spare (full-size oddly enough). So I look at the key and two of the four teeth are gone. Hopefully they will still come out with half of the teeth in the key. First try on the driver's side front wheel...slips off. This happens a couple of other times, and then we find out that another tooth on the key is now gone :bang: . So now the key is useless because it has also rounded out the little holes in the lock nut. So since we did almost all of the work on our cars in the States, we decided to give this a go. The lock nut basically disintegrated while we tried to chisel it round the bolt.

We took it to a place today, recommended by Jax Tires, and a few hours later they call and say they can't get them to move at all. I go to look at it and they had the same problem we had in that they tried to chisel the nut around the bolt and it disintegrated. So they recommend another place (a real tire place this time). We go there and they say that they should be able to get them off but will need to leave it for the day. Hopefully they can get them off without having to destroy the wheels. If not, then we will be getting some more wheels. :thumbsup: and also :bang: at the same time.

Hey Nick.. that sucks but on the bright side you may get new wheels!! Used to have an old VN.. didnt realise when I bought it that the lock nut key wasnt in the vehicle!! Had to get new lock nuts all round, luckily they didnt ruin the mags..
Have you posted pics of the car yet??

At the risk of telling everyone how to get lock nuts off (which they should know anyway lol) You get a 12pt socket, the type with 12 points not 6, that just goes over the edge of the lock nut, tap it on with a hammer so it is firm, get a breaker bar and slowly undo the locknut.

We tried a bunch of things, and so did the first place earlier. These look like they were cheap lock nuts because when you would do serious torque on it, it would fall apart.

speaking of wheel lock nuts if anyones after a set let me know! my car had them when I brought it and I hate the idea. If someone wants my wheels bad enough they'll get them, but I say their brave because the rims are covered in gutter rash where the previous owner tried to teach a learner for 3 years and they just couldnt get used to the whole parallel park concept :whistling

You might have to weld an old wheel nut onto the locknuts... I hade this happen to my in my Nissan Exa. Tyre joint lost my key.

are every single set of lock nuts different

just belt a socket over it, that's the first thing a tyre place should try.

l bought my car back in oct last year and didn't think to check whether the car had lock nuts or not. Anyway, l went to get my rear tires replaced (the previous owner had ****ty tyres on it) at the local tyre place only to find out half an hour later that the previous owner hadn't given me the lock nut key... oh fukin' great!!! so the boys there had a crack at them and got the two rear ones off.... not a problem with a air drill. The owner comes in a few minutes later and says, l've got some good news and some bad. I managed to get your rear nuts off but the front ones are not coming off without the help of satan himself. I've destroyed a $90 drill trying to get them off!!!

He suggested that l weld a piece of metal onto the locknut and try and get it that way.... l haven't had the time to get to it as yet, but at least l've got a new kit of locknuts (with the bloody key) waiting!!