Garage is going to cost me thousands

Graham1979

Hi all, first time posting in this part of the MSE forums and I'm hoping for some advice around how to deal with my insurer and their approved repairers.

To set the scene, my car had some front-end accident damage fixed in Jan/Feb by the approved repairer of my insurer. The work they did on the repair was of good quality so I had no issues when I took the car back from them.

However, a problem has come up when I came to get the front tyres replaced last weekend, in that the locking wheel nuts have been over-torqued and the key has been shredded in trying to remove them. So now I have no locking wheel nut key and can't get the wheels off, and the main dealer have advised that the only thing they can do is to chisel the bolts off, probably damaging the alloys in the process. :mad:

I have a friend who works in a family tyre fitting business so he always does my tyres, and the last time they needed changing was 2 years ago. He assures me that neither he or his dad (who has over 25yrs experience in the trade) would have over-torqued them, and I have no reason to doubt him. He even wrecked over £200 of his own tools trying to remove the bolts so it's not even an option to just get a new key for the nuts.

So that leaves the approved repairer as the likely guilty party. However, they claim not to have removed the wheels (even though to remove the bumper which was replaced you need to remove the wheels according to the hayes manual).

My insurers don't want to know, their approved repairers are refusing to admit even touching the wheels, and I'm left facing a bill for a few hours labour to drill/chisel the bolts off, new/re-conditioning of 2 or more alloys, and replacement locking wheel nuts, and that's assuming that there isn't damage caused to any other parts when the dealer removes the bolts. :mad:

Does anyone have any suggestions for my next step other than just pay the bill and learn never to deal with this insurer or their approved repairer again? Any advice gratefully received.

colino

Try another wheel/tyre place, ideally one that sells a lot of sets of new alloys as its not at all uncommon for the security key to be lost/missing and a lot of fitters have become adept at getting them off. (They generally are better than fast fits as if they cant get the old ones off they lose a very high value sale).

Microstar_2

You can special sockets for removing locking bolts. We use them all the time. They have a reverse spiral blade. £24 for a set of four sizes from our tool factor. AA/RAC men also probably carry them. When you see a van stopped, knock on the window and offer a tenner for him to loosen them a bit for you.

cyclonebri1

Graham1979 wrote: »

Hi all, first time posting in this part of the MSE forums and I'm hoping for some advice around how to deal with my insurer and their approved repairers.

To set the scene, my car had some front-end accident damage fixed in Jan/Feb by the approved repairer of my insurer. The work they did on the repair was of good quality so I had no issues when I took the car back from them.

However, a problem has come up when I came to get the front tyres replaced last weekend, in that the locking wheel nuts have been over-torqued and the key has been shredded in trying to remove them. So now I have no locking wheel nut key and can't get the wheels off, and the main dealer have advised that the only thing they can do is to chisel the bolts off, probably damaging the alloys in the process. :mad:

I have a friend who works in a family tyre fitting business so he always does my tyres, and the last time they needed changing was 2 years ago. He assures me that neither he or his dad (who has over 25yrs experience in the trade) would have over-torqued them, and I have no reason to doubt him. He even wrecked over £200 of his own tools trying to remove the bolts so it's not even an option to just get a new key for the nuts.

So that leaves the approved repairer as the likely guilty party. However, they claim not to have removed the wheels (even though to remove the bumper which was replaced you need to remove the wheels according to the hayes manual).

My insurers don't want to know, their approved repairers are refusing to admit even touching the wheels, and I'm left facing a bill for a few hours labour to drill/chisel the bolts off, new/re-conditioning of 2 or more alloys, and replacement locking wheel nuts, and that's assuming that there isn't damage caused to any other parts when the dealer removes the bolts. :mad:

Does anyone have any suggestions for my next step other than just pay the bill and learn never to deal with this insurer or their approved repairer again? Any advice gratefully received.

We've been discussing this on here a while ago, no help to you I'm afraid, but you do not have to go to your insurers pet, you can take it elsewher and should do so IMHO.

But have tou any evidence that they actually did remove the wheels??

Was there definate front suspension damage?, which would of course have definately needed the wheels removing

Hintza

A slightly undesized socket hammered on can also be used (bit uncouth but normally works) but sounds like microstar is on the button here.

Bit overdramatic OP...:)

Graham1979

Thanks for all the responses so far.

cyclonebri1 - no evidence that they did remove the wheels, just the guidance of an independent repairer who said they'd normally remove the wheels to get to the bolts that go through the wheel arch liners and the hayes manual which supports the location of the bolts. Sound advice about not using the approved repairers, a lesson which I'm learning the hard way.

Microstar - my friend also has a range of specialist tools for removing locking bolts, but not one of these did the trick when he tried them (and he broke a few of them in the process) so I'm not totally confident that they will do the trick, but I will try speaking to an AA/RAC man next time I see a van at roadside.

colino - I did speak to a local place that sells a lot of alloys but they didn't want to know (probably because I wasn't buying alloys from them to be fair). I'm just nervous that a smaller place might break some of their tools like my friend did, and unlike my friend other garages may want to charge me for them if they do.

And Hintza - yep, probably was being a bit over-dramatic, had the winning combination of frustrated (with insurer and approved repairer) and panicked (by the main dealers estimate) when I typed.

pendulum

Graham1979 wrote: »

He even wrecked over £200 of his own tools trying to remove the bolts

Please entertain me - how did he manage to wreck £200 worth of tools?
He doesn't sound that experienced at all if he managed to wreck so many tools over a stuck bolt.

somech

what car is it??

big hammer and smash a socket over the lock nut

Microstar_2

Well, in a few decades in the trade I've come across more than one or two lost locking keys, and never yet failed to remove a wheel without damage. If desperate you could try welding a nut on the end (weld around the inside of the hole in the nut). I think the heat going down the bolt helps free things up too.

WTTM

pendulum wrote: »

Please entertain me - how did he manage to wreck £200 worth of tools?
He doesn't sound that experienced at all if he managed to wreck so many tools over a stuck bolt.

That had me PMSL too :rotfl:

OP - how is it going to cost you £000's? please elaborate.


MOMENT

Graham1979

pendulum - I'm only going off what he told me these sets cost. One was a laser emergency locking nut removal set that he reckoned cost £125, and a similar looking set from another company (can't recall the name) that he said was £100. The sockets of both sets of tools warped when he tried to remove the stuck nuts on my car so he'll have to order new sets (I assume the whole set, may not be that much if it's just the sockets).

My mate has only been doing tyre fitting for 2.5 years, but it's his dads company and he's been doing it for 25 years+ and still works there, so there is enough knowledge there between them to handle this job.

somech - The locking nuts have got the spinners around the outside so don't know if I could find a socket that would fit the inside of the lock nut (unless I could smash the spinner off somehow). It's an '07 plate Mazda 3 MPS.

WTTM - In terms of the thousands cost for me, the main dealer have advised that they will try their master key (goes in tomorrow) but won't force it because they don't want to wreck their master key. In that scenario (IMO quite likely given the tools that have failed on it so far) they reckon they'll have to chisel the bolts off, and they advised that this is likely to cause damage to the alloys and possibly some other parts too (they didn't elaborate so maybe they are just covering their backs with that last part).

What they've quoted me to remove the bolts and replace 2 alloys (with Mazda original parts) is just over £1200 all in (parts, labour and VAT), then there is scope for more damage during removal so that could rise.

I could be panicking over nothing I suppose, but I have a tendency to plan for the worst case scenario and see anything else as an unexpected bonus.

From reading the comments on here and a spot of googling, sounds like I'd be better off taking it to a local independent if the main dealer can't get it sorted with the master key tomorrow. The chiselling route sounds like it should be an absolute last resort rather than the first thing to try other than the master key.