Locking wheel nut ...

pvr

Dutch
 Ruler of the South East UK
Nice sunny day, time to change the X5 winters for summer wheels. Only thing I forgot was the brake fluid service last month ....

So no way I could get the locking wheel nut undone. Breaker bar, etc. Nothing. Trip to quick fit and the guys were great. They tried everything but no luck to get it undone with any of there tools.

Call to Vines tomorrow then to get them to sort it at their expense of course. But it did leave me in a nasty mood though as I had everything ready for the swap.

I will have to check the wheels after every service so it seems then. So much for me torquing it to 140nm each time when I swap the wheels. Grrrr. :headbang:
 
Is that the recommended torque 140Nm?

Oops, just checked the spec on the Disco 3 and it's 140 as well !
 
You could always try it on for a complete new set of bolts all round - unless Vines can prove they are not stretched...

This is one of the reasons I try to avoid garages at all costs. It's not particularly difficult to do the job properly yet almost all don't. And if you can't trust them with a wheel bolt how can you trust them with anything else.
 
ronk said:
140Nm is 103ft/lbs in old money :o
Yeah, but they're 14mm bolts...

BMW's recommendations for wheel nuts are (140 +/- 10)Nm for 14mm bolts and (120 +/- 10)Nm for 12mm bolts
 
I think the problem is garages always use a an airgun for tightening up the nuts but I bet they overtighten them as they know 99.9% of customers don't check them after 100 miles so cover themselves, better on tighter than loose.

Had the same problem when I tried swapping over to winters on a 1 Series which had been previously serviced by BMW, wheel nuts wouldn't budge.

Tim.
 
I don't use locking wheel nuts for pretty much all of these reasons...

I've had too many round off or just shatter...the hours and days I've wasted faffing around with breaker bars, air guns, mallets and at garages...and besides, my wheels aren't ever nice enough to want nicking.
 
These days with most cars sporting a nice set of alloys they aren't targeted like they used to be. I'm planning to fit spacers front and back, and when I do I'll ditch the locking nuts.
 
Blown a fuse after receiving this …



Had a rather severe discussion with the service manager and got it down to £93. Still a joke :x
 
pvr said:
Had a rather severe discussion with the service manager and got it down to £93. Still a joke :x
That's rather a lot for a man to fiddle with your nuts... bet it's cheaper in Holland... :P
 
Their fault let them bear the cost. If it was me they would get a couple of letters then a County Court claim along with my own costs...
 
:o

Can't believe they charged you, let alone that amount.

Presume you had to pay to get your keys back.

£223 assumes they had trouble also.
 
pvr said:
Blown a fuse after receiving this …



Had a rather severe discussion with the service manager and got it down to £93. Still a joke :x

Wow, I thought that would have been for free & certainly nothing like what the invoice said, even at £93 that £83 more that it should have been (£10 cash towards their Christmas kitty), their fault, they should carry it.
 
pvr said:
Blown a fuse after receiving this …



Had a rather severe discussion with the service manager and got it down to £93. Still a joke :x

That's shocking !!!! :headbang: did the dealer not have the masters ? My dealer had a box of masters the last time I had no locker key in a car I had bought. Dropped into dealer & they matched it with the master set. Ordered one up for me.
I'll ask my son he's a apprentice tech with BMW if they still have the masters :thumbsup:
Did they show you the old lockers pvr ?
 
They said they destroyed their master as well which is why they could not remove the other three bolts that I had loosely put back on the other three wheels.

They said that they never remove wheels during services so it was not their problem. I find it extremely odd that all the bolts were tighter than I ever put them, and I have been changing the wheels for years on both my x5s and they always need the same amount of pressure to remove them, but not this time.

In the end, what can you do when they blatantly make a statement that they never touch the wheels.
 
Call their bluff and see if they will take it to court. You could certainly argue it would be almost impossible for you to do them up that tight. If you've had them off before and they have been the only service provider since who else could it have been? Also, If the schedule says grease hubs and they flat out say they don't take wheels off then they're not doing the work they're charging for.
 
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