Hey guys,
I lost my key to my wheel lugs. Cant find the same key pattern anywhere. Has anyone ever used any methods of self-lug removal? Any help would be great, I have new rims and they need to go on soon. Would prefer not to drill the studs :p. Any suggestions would really help. Thanks:D!
Any tire shop should be able to either order a replacement for you if you still have the card with the code on it.
OR
They will be able to remove them for you, or you can do it yourself, with an extractor. Then just buy a new set.
Funny story.
On Wednesday this week, I had a blowout on the rear passenger side. They key broke on my so I could not remove the wheel. Called a tow truck to come get me, waited 2 hours in a field on hyway 7 for him to come. Drove me to a tire shop about 5 kms away, charged me $60.
Guys at the tire shop (Superior Tire) said that it would take a day to order a new key, so I told them to break them all off and I’d buy a new set from them. They got them off in like 15 min. Charged me $40. Then they did not have a replacement set I needed, since they should have washers on them.
So there is a Toyota dealership across the street (Markville Toyota) I go there and they do not have a set in stock either. They call Don Vally North Lexus, and they say that they have a set. I drive there, they no longer had one appearently. they send me to Scarborough Lexus. Finally I get to buy a new set of lock nuts for another $40.
The flat happened at 8:00 am on my way to work. I put the loks on in the dealership lot at 2:30pm.
So that day cost me $140 and a day of work.
Ouch…what a day…talk about being given “the runaround”:p. I hope a wheel shop can do it for me. I bought my car with these wheels on them, owner only gave me 1 out of 2 keys and I need and stuffed it in 5 or 6 boxes of car stuff he gave me along with the car. To my surprise:rolleyes:I cant find that 1 wheel key.
Thanks for the help so far dude, I will take it to a wheel shop.
I’ve used the self removal tool.
Works great as long as it’s the same size and fits into the wheel.
Sometimes if you have a big enough hammer, you can hit the end of the lug nut “dead on” and it will slightly squish the tapered hold in the rim, and you can turn them out with vice grips or even your fingers…
USE THIS METHOD AT OWN RISK. Not responsible for damage that could occur.
Eric
i had the same situation last week…except mine, i lost the keys AND two of the lock ones were rusted…anyway they had a kit and hammered it in, and eventually removed it…but if they werent rusted, it woulda come out easily…so check out ur mechanic to see if he’s got the kit…
If it looks like the alan key style a cold chisle and vise grips work great(trust me i loose the stupid key all the time
another method you can do is hammer a socket that is a bit smaller than the lock nut itself. then you can turn it out. works for me everytime.
Use a Drill and drill it out works find i have done it like about 5 times now. Just be careful and take your time. Center punch and start out with a really small bit and slowly work your way up just be really careful not to drill into your rim. Then just buy a new stud and your good to go but this is the last thing i would do. Try everthing posted above before drilling.
Good Luck
Be careful which lug nut removal tool you use, if they are aftermarket rims most conventional ones wont work. Snap on, however, sells a nice one that you pound onto the lug much like a socket but the wall of said tool is very thin, thusly allowing it to fit into tight spaces as such.
Of course if all else fails, you could just weld a nut to the end of it.
buy four 13/16" twelve point sockets. just hammer them on and wrench them off
When this happened to me I had a lot of trouble.
Looked into the snap-on ones but they would have taken a while for to get.
I tried hammering on other sockets but the damn lugnut was way too tough. Ditto with drilling it I used 3 bits and got about 3mm in.
Tried welding onto it but it wasn’t strong enough (and it melted a little spot on my wheels)
Finally I brought it to Moore’s in Oakville and they got it off in about 30 seconds with an air chisel 
got them off yet? If not PM me…I finally got my kit
depenging on how far the wheel nut sticks out but i welded a normal nut to locking wheel nut.
i hammered on a crappy socket i had.
Yeah you did that for Atutt, right? That did work well. The kit I have has a tapered extractor that you pound onto said locknut and then you slowly go at it with an impact then Vollia! and 9 times outta 10 you can still use the wheel lock afterwards. Or you could get fancy with the torch and blow it (and the stud) out.