So, How totally fecked am I??

After the faff of Friday, getting a new jack and then realising I don't have the required Allen Key for Caliper Slide pins....Saturday I changed my dads exhaust and Ignition module, sparks etc on his Astra, today was time to turn attention to the L322 Brakes...

I have done 3 Corners, and after the first one (the learning one) the other two corners were done in 15minutes each or so.....

Then comes the last corner (Drivers Front)....

Position jack and pump up to just about touching, crack off 4 of the wheel nuts, position the Locking Wheel Nut tool, attach bar, go to lean on it to crack it off, and it just spins with a grinding noise and feeling....

Take the tool out - no, thats fine, peer into the wheel nut hole, fragments of metal abound....blow this out with a few good short blasts of lung power, refit tool....still spins.

On closer inspection the wheel nut has disintergrated - not the tool adaptor - the wheel nut...wtf..????

I have had this wheel off a few weeks back to replace an ABS sensor, and I didn't grind it up that tight!!

So how totally fecked am I ???

Any tips on getting this thing off???

Am I still OK to drive (carefully and no heavy sudden braking) with 3 corners done until I/we can find a solution??

you can buy removal tools search halfords or the like

or take to good tyre shop..they proberly have tool..

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....??

My local garage has one of these Locking Wheel Nut Remover, Removes 100% of Locknuts with No Damage to the Wheel, it deforms to the shape of the nut and you wallop it like an impact driver

We hammer them with a punch or get a multi point socket and beat it on what size is the locking key socket most Nissan use a 19/22mm for an example on the lock key so beat the same size socket on and see how it goes u may find it has an outer sleeve which may spin all I can suggest is brute force

Just get a bolt extraction socket, they work a treat, every time I've had a nut or bolt strip the head (even works for Alan keys), just hammer one on, attach windy gun and remove. If space is an issue you could try grinding down the outside of a socket, of course this is never ideal when you've just had to buy a new toy, but needs must.

Turn ya socket down on a lathe, get a drift , give the nut a Sharp tap, hammer socket on, is it a steel nut?

Steel nut with ali cover.

What are the chances of drilling into the nut and using an extractor (the type with a reverse thread on!) ??

Saint.V8 said:

Steel nut with ali cover.

What are the chances of drilling into the nut and using an extractor (the type with a reverse thread on!) ??

Click to expand...

Slim, I would say, if the socket trick don't work, remove Ali cap, weld bolt to nut! Had to do that once

Cant get ali cover off to weld socket on. The way the nut is designed is the ali cover is humogulous to the steel part, they are bonded together! But now the steel part has disintegrated the ali is free to rotate but not come off! If i can i'll take a photo of one i can get off to show you!

I'd get it to a quiet tyre shop and pray for help....

What a bugger. Best of luck.

As can been seen in the attached image from one of the locking wheel nuts I can get off - there is a silver top part and a steel lower part to the head of the nut.

On the offending article, the top silver part just rotates, and the steel lower part of the keyed head had rounded off and disintergrated.

The Halfrauds tool is too small to fit over the Silver part and it spins anyway so that is no good, the required socket to hammer over and cut in, doesn't fit the wheel hole size and again the silver part just spins, I tried an air powered impact wrench, to little avail....

I am going to pop into a local tyre fitters we use at work to see if they can shift it....

This little fecker is turning out to be a bit of a git!!

Saint.V8 said:

As can been seen in the attached image from one of the locking wheel nuts I can get off - there is a silver top part and a steel lower part to the head of the nut.

On the offending article, the top silver part just rotates, and the steel lower part of the keyed head had rounded off and disintergrated.

The Halfrauds tool is too small to fit over the Silver part and it spins anyway so that is no good, the required socket to hammer over and cut in, doesn't fit the wheel hole size and again the silver part just spins, I tried an air powered impact wrench, to little avail....

I am going to pop into a local tyre fitters we use at work to see if they can shift it....

This little fecker is turning out to be a bit of a git!!

Click to expand...

Least they are secure got it off yet?

Chrisfrain2007 said:

Least they are secure got it off yet?

Click to expand...

Nope....

Been to two tyre fitters, they have a tool which is claimed to get 100% of locking wheel nuts off - except these ones apparently....

The problem is the limited clearance between wheel nut and the alloy, you can't get their magic tool over the wheel nut to cut into it and turn it off....

The very helpful chap offered two (well three if you count calling Land Rover to see if they have experianced this before) alternatives....

One could damage the Alloy, and the second will take a couple of days.

The first is to use fire/plasma cutter to cut the wheel nut out, but will dmage the alloy beyond repair - £££ for a new alloy.

The second is to sit there and slowly drill the head off the wheel nut, starting with a small drill, and working upwards in size....but they are hard as hell, and to compound the issue, the top part of the wheel nut spins, so that will have to be held in place somehow to allow the drill to get purchase....

In despair at present, I need to get the wheel off to change the brake pads, as I have a nice new set on one side, and flat as a pancake on the other....when those new ones bed in, the braking diffrential will be quite noticable....

I rekon my Dynomec would get that off.

Locking Wheel Nut Remover - DYNOMEC - YouTube

If you have AA or RAC cover it may be worth calling them cos they use the same set.

Just phoned Land Rover - No special tool other than a strong technician with a Hammer and Chisel to split the nut, but this could damge the Alloy.....and cost a fortune....

So, am I totally fecked or what???

Why can't you just drill the Centre of it and use a bolt extracter ?
Is that not possible?

I think cutting the wheel off with a plasma is the last thing to do, if you could drill / grind the Ali cover off, you could then try the undersized socket approach again

Thats Bollocks said:

Why can't you just drill the Centre of it and use a bolt extracter ?
Is that not possible?

Click to expand...

The size of extractor you would need would be quite large, and you would need a deep hole, potentially cutting into the stud, which I don't know if you can get out of the hub, and if you snap the extractor you will then struggle to drill that out