So, How totally fecked am I??

I've had a similar problem on mine (three out of four wheels ) - as the steel perished or just the ally cap?
I managed to hammer a socket over just enough to crack the nut - had to hammer through the ally with a screwdriver and prise it off first

There are specialist nut removal guys out there.
We used one when my lad destroyed a locking nut on his Corsa after a local tyre fitter had torqued it up to about a million lbs/ft with an air gun.
The guy came out and I assumed he was going to drill it out (cos that's what we;d discussed on the phone), but he looked at it, hammered a sacrificial socket over the offending nut, attached a 1 inch socket extension to that, then a massive bar with a 3ft long length of scaffold bar slipped over the top.
He then braced the whole lot with an axle stand, gave the end of the extension bar five hefty whacks with a 5lb club hammer and the nut just gave way.
£40 quid well spent if you ask me. Might be worth searching for a similar guy round your way.
If he can't get it off, he'll always be able to drill it out, something which a DIYer would have trouble doing as the nut will be hardened steel and almost impossible to drill

bigdel said:

There are specialist nut removal guys out there.
We used one when my lad destroyed a locking nut on his Corsa after a local tyre fitter had torqued it up to about a million lbs/ft with an air gun.
The guy came out and I assumed he was going to drill it out (cos that's what we;d discussed on the phone), but he looked at it, hammered a sacrificial socket over the offending nut, attached a 1 inch socket extension to that, then a massive bar with a 3ft long length of scaffold bar slipped over the top.
He then braced the whole lot with an axle stand, gave the end of the extension bar five hefty whacks with a 5lb club hammer and the nut just gave way.
£40 quid well spent if you ask me. Might be worth searching for a similar guy round your way.
If he can't get it off, he'll always be able to drill it out, something which a DIYer would have trouble doing as the nut will be hardened steel and almost impossible to drill

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Hi bigdel,

Thanks for the tips there....

I have spoken to a company called Dynomec based in West Yorkshire.

They guarantee to remvoe 100% of failed wheel nuts with their wonderful tool.

I have spoken with them the last couple of days, and they are redesigning their Range Rover tool to be harder and stronger to deal with the way some of the Range Rover wheel nuts are treated and over tightened.

I have arranged to go up there at the end of the week, and they will get the nut off for the princely sum of £10 a corner ( only need one removed ) so for the price of a tank and half of LPG, an overnight stay in a Hotel and £10 to remove the wheel nut, plus I can visit some family who live in Beverley while we're there so we decided to make a weekend out of it....

The problem with the undersized socket method is the spinning cover, so if I hammer a socket over that it won't grip the nut underneath.

I will keep y'all up dated.....

surely simplest and cheapest method is cut ally cap with a dremal or similar and then hammer a socket over the remaining steel nut.??

Bring it to gloucestershire weekdays Or Yeovil, weekends and I'll remove it without damaging the wheel at all. and it won't take me very long at all..

Cap isn't ally, thought it was, but after trying to prise, cut and drill it....it certainly isn't ally...!!

Good call though if it was!!

fein tool

doesn't matter what it's made of mild steel chrome stainless or ally, it'll still cut off to expose the main nut underneath.. bring it to Yeovil Saturday I'll get the fooker off..

Off to Castleford, West Yorks Saturday, to watch Dynomec use their newly designed L322 Range Rover Locking Wheel Nut removal tool in action!!!

Appreciate the offer....they claim 100% success.....if not, I may just knock on your door!!

take some pictures of the guy using the tool. if he lets you

Saint.V8 said:

Off to Castleford, West Yorks Saturday, to watch Dynomec use their newly designed L322 Range Rover Locking Wheel Nut removal tool in action!!!

Appreciate the offer....they claim 100% success.....if not, I may just knock on your door!!

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I take it after this saga you won't be fitting new locking wheel nuts ever again??

defender300td1 said:

I take it after this saga you won't be fitting new locking wheel nuts ever again??

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Standard nuts on order from Land Rover - picking up this afternoon (£5 odd each + the VAT) the locking ones are then being lobbed....

Already to start to 240 mile trip to Castleford - what a time to do it with all that weather they have had in West Yorks!!

Gonna see the chaps at Dynomec who have a 100% guarantee to get locking bolts off with no damage to the alloy....fingers crossed it all works out, will report back after the 4 1/2 hour drive back tomorrow!!!!!

If I am allowed I will try and take some pics for y'all to see.

Saint.V8 said:

Already to start to 240 mile trip to Castleford - what a time to do it with all that weather they have had in West Yorks!!

Gonna see the chaps at Dynomec who have a 100% guarantee to get locking bolts off with no damage to the alloy....fingers crossed it all works out, will report back after the 4 1/2 hour drive back tomorrow!!!!!

If I am allowed I will try and take some pics for y'all to see.

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Good luck!

Land Rover quality to the fore again, it's turning into an expensive impulse purchase and you've only had it a few days. Did you make it to Castleford?

Surely there's a local garage to you who could get it off ? That 250 mile trip will cost you a bomb in petrol !! :S

Saint.V8 said:

I popped to the Halfrauds, the largest size Locking Wheel Nut extractor tool at 1" was too small to fit over the top of the Wheel Nut....

I purchased a 30mm socket to hammer over the top and remove, but the socket is to fat to fit in the hole for the wheel nut....huurruummmppphhh

Off to the Father In Laws to see if he has an Imapct Driver and force the thing to move....if that doesn't work, I am not sure what else I can do other than off to a Tyre Fitters to see if they can help tomorrow....

Any other tips would be help chaps and chapettes....??

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Depends on nut type but you can often beat a twelve point chrome socket on! It's not recommended as it may break so take precautions. But it works 9 out of 10 times! Just don't attempt it if the top of the nuts hardened!!

2.0_hippo said:

Surely there's a local garage to you who could get it off ? That 250 mile trip will cost you a bomb in petrol !! :S

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I'd be more worried about the uneven brakes, the miles that have been put through, I imagine there might be some interesting braking characteristics after the work is finally done.

Well no report back, hope he's not stranded with water in the electrics

Datatek said:

Well no report back, hope he's not stranded with water in the electrics

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Hope he hasn't resorted to cutting the wheel off as land rover suggested

Thank you for all your kind words...

Made it there and back again.....total 503 miles, no uneven braking as there was still 2-3mm of meat on the old pads, plus I drive like my Grandma so I don't tend to brake heavy or often anyway!!!

Took 5 hours to get there, left at 7.30pm and arrived just after 12.30am - into hotel for a well earned kip.

L322 on Gas averaged 17.1mpg all the way there @ 70mph on cruise control. M25, M1, M62 into Castlford.

Premier Inn double room for £44, plus breakfast at £8.95

Phoned Dynomec at 9am, I asked if they would be available around 9.30am - all good.

Spoke with their chap Steve, he explained the issue with the L322 Locking nuts, they use a hardened steel cover and he showed me how hard by getting one of my old lock nuts and trying to drill and air chisel into it, not a fecking mark...!!!

He pulled out there new L322 Tool that has been redesigned to deal with the hardened nut covers as they were finding their original design was failing after a few uses, so they have made the wall thicker, and have had them hardened using a specialist in Sheffield.

He placed the tool over the wheel locking nut, a few hefty hits with a large hickory handled hammer, attached the impact driver, a few futher deft thwacks, and the little beasty was off.

The tool uses a toughened cutting blade that, like a dot punch, on each hit of the hammer, drives the blade into the nut head and then with the impact driver, torques it off....fecking brilliant tool.

I wanted to get pictures or a vid of the process, but the whole job was done so quickly I didn't even have time to turn the camera on!!!

Literally 45 seconds and it was off, no damage to the Alloy, no sweat on the brow nothing....

They charge £20 for the first wheel nut and then £10 for each additional....I only had one to get off but handed him £30 for his time (as they don't usually work on Saturdays - but they made an exception - now THAT is customer service).

I then started the 4.5 hour journey home.....

In total it cost me £106 in fuel, £53 for the hotal and £30 to get the nut off, plus 10 hours of my time driving....total £189 ish, over 503 miles and 10 hours drivingfor one wheel nut!!!!

Yes Range Rover ownership is expensive, and yes it was an impulse purchase on the L322, but with luck all these little jobs will make it worth it in the end....

Next job is to remove the 'welded' in ABS sensor that has broken off in the hole as the previous owner didn't use any lube on fitment - I mean the lube comes with the fecking sensor for Pete's sake .....any tips??