alan911sc

Bought new wheels and tires and when attempting to change them the McGard style factory wheel lock were seized on the studs. I was able to loosen the 4 other stock lug nuts on each wheel but the lock lugs wouldn't budge. The Mcgard style socket split while attempting to remove them with a breaker bar and two of the locking lugs snapped of at the little nub above the stud. Fortunately for me the Mcgard factory is 2 miles from my house and I stopped there on my way home from work. They were kind enough to give a replacement socket and two locking lugs for free. I then gave it another shot. I was able to to loosen the two rears but the fronts wouldn't budge. I tried a hammer style impact driver, breaker bar, PB Blaster, and propane with no luck. The new socket from Mcgard also began to split. So I'm off to McGard again for another replacement. I have an O2/acetylene set at home and consider really heating them up but fear off damaging them wheels. They are polished 928 style Manhole Covers so clear coat is not an issue. Any other suggestions before I get back at again to break those little bast**ds free. By the way if I every get the Manhole Covers off they are for sale ( reasonable).

Thanks in Advance

Colin 90 C2

you will probably need to use an air impact gun and a wheel lock removal socket. Any garage or sevice center should be able to assist you.

Good Luck.

alan911sc

I was think along those lines myself, a friend has a garage and I can get access to his large impact gun but I fear splitting the socket again. That why I was considering the heat.

sullivs

Hey Alan911sc,

If I may throw in my two cents worth, I would heartily avoid the blowtorch method until all other mechanical means are exhausted. The aluminum wheel has a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than does the steel stud. So when all gets hot, the wheel will expand more than the stud, and in three dimensions. The clamping forces between the lug nut and the wheel will go even higher. Unless you can somehow heat only the stud while keeping the wheel cool.

I had a moron apply an impact wrench to one of my lugs and broke the top off. Talk about tight. I was able to get a hole saw that fits snugly over the stud, and slowly cut away the broken lug nut. There was literally zero damage done to the wheel. And it was amazingly easy and stress-free. I was told that this is the factory approved method of removing broken lug nuts.

Do you know if those locking lug nuts are aluminum, similar to the stock ones? And does any of the stud stick out past the end of the nut? If so, it would be pretty easy to cut the lug nut out. I can get the part number of the hole saw if you wish. Just a thought for consideration.

Good luck,
Steve

alan911sc

I'm going to get a new socket and try the impact gun route first. If that fails I have a small brazing torch and would use the largest tip, I can get right at the lug and concentrate the heat on it. I really don't think the wheel would absorb enough heat to expand it significantly to have any adverse clamping force. Another thought was to loosen the remain lugs a bit and go for a drive around the block to see if that would loosen the lock lug some. Then again I might just stop a the local tire/wheel shop once I get the new socket and see what they could do for me. If they are reasonable I'll let them try, I'm sure they have seen the problem many times. There looks like there are quite a bit of gizmos out there to remove locks from Snap On and others, they should have somthing that would work. I've seen the hole saw method on other posts and sites, that would be my method of last resort.

Thanks for the help

alan911sc

Wheel locks off, new wheels and tires on. A total of three wheel lock sockets split. Took car to local wheel shop and EZ out style socket used on the "BIG" impact gun, again no charge. McGard rep advised against using any type of greased based anti seize. Grease runs out at high temps and the remaining ingrediants create seize. In addition the grease in the anti seize leads to over torqing the lugs due to the lubricant qualities of the anti seize. They recommend dry threads and torque to spec, remove and re-torque a couple times a year or use a greaseless lubricant such as LPS-1 what ever that is.

Now the 928 Manhole Cover Style wheels and tires are for sale that came as a special option on my car as shown in Adrian's book on page 280.