Ugh! I swear the powers that be are against me! In the midst of crossing off my list of many things to do on the car (good baseline prep for dyno; subframe repair; damaged windshield), hurdles for existing items along with new additions to the list (blown exhaust; new tires) keep adding up.

This here problem starts with the new tires. My old ones were worn on the inside, but at least 80% of the tread width were still usable and only one had wear bad enough to bubble. But damn, if I could find a shop to dismount and rotate them! Every place I went to simply wouldn't do it, suggesting I get new tires. Anyway, sick of it all, I just went to the local Wheel Works. After getting price jacked, scratched wheels, and over torqued lug nuts, I go and lose my wheel lock key.

Before the job, I specifically asked that they not use an impact gun for fear of scratching my wheels and over torquing. Figured they would anyway and I knew I was gonna have to go home to loosen them and retorque to 80 ft. lb. Big surprise, they overtorqued. I broke a socket wrench, even bent a crow bar! Couldn't get one lug nut to budge!! Running late for dinner, I packed my tools and headed out, but in my haste, I may have left the wheel lock key on the wheel because I couldn't find it anywhere the next few days.

Called Gorilla but they wouldn't give me a replacement unless (a.) I had the registration number, which I don't, or (b.) send them a wheel lock. Did a search and quickly found solutions on taking them off, but they involve ruining the splines of the lock, which renders sending it to them useless. Any suggestions, on taking one off without jacking up all sixteen (yep, that's what I said!) and replacing the whole set?

Thanks for letting me vent,

A-dub

 

Depends how deep they are in the wheel. What we did at my shop was weld a socket onto the end of the lugnut. Then you could use a breaker bar or impact to remove the nut, and leave the splines intact for identification.

 

Reading up on the many methods of remaoval, thought I remember how one guy said he went to his tire and wheel shop and they removed them easily without damaging the wheel lock. However, he didn't mention how it was done. Universal lock removal tool? How do those work again?

As for welding, the conical portion of the lock/lug sticks out, but not by much. Still, I'd like to hold off on that because: a. I'd have to hire someone to do that; b. they're tight enought to cause a permanent bend on the crow bar, would the welds even hold?

 

What about Gator Grip sockets? Only problem I can think of to prevent this from working is whether both the socket wall and enough of the socket's spring splines will fit in there to get a proper grip and not strip the wheel lock's splines.

Anyone tried this? Unless anyone's heard of any 'if's, and's, or but's', this has got to be better than all the other whack 'n hack methods...

Here's a pic...

 

Can you send them this pic? Maybe they can match it up for you.

 

Man, that is really sad for you. At this point get titanium drill bits and a dremel and just drill them out. You're working with hardened steel so its going to take some time.