Locking wheel nut key stripped

nig3d

Hi
When it comes to motors I know near to nothing and I rely on the honesty of my garage. I know it's very hard to find honest ones, but even if I feel that sometimes I pay some extra "taxes", it's many years I go to f1 garage and I can't complain much as I have seen worse. However it feels to me that they tend to lie when they cause damage that I cannot prove they did. In this case they told me that the wheel nut locking key was stripped, fact that I find incredible, as I basically remember the number of times I used it.
I didn't complain on the spot, but now that I know that Peugeot wants 150 pound to replaces the nuts instead to give me a new key, I wonder what I should do. 

AdrianC

Pay buttons for four non-locking bolts. Do wheels and tyres ever get nicked around you? Would yours be high demand?

Whether they were using the key at the time it stripped or not is a bit irrelevant. If your bolts were so tight that they wouldn't undo without stripping the key, that's not the garage's fault. It may well be the fault of whoever put them in too tight last time, or they may have stripped the key while over-tightening them on refitting... As you say, you can't prove anything.

nig3d

I wonder why F1 garage didn't suggest to replace the bolts themselves. If it's so simple to remove the bolts without the keys, I can see on ebay that there are several after market locking bolts for very reasonable price and surely I would go for that option.

Norman_Castle

Locking keys will strip when used with air tools. Experienced mechanics know this.

Are you sure there isn't a second key?

Never tried them but an option, https://www.lockingwheelnutkeys.co.uk/

nig3d

Norman_Castle said:

Locking keys will strip when used with air tools. Good mechanics know this.

Are you sure there isn't a second key?

Never tried them but an option, https://www.lockingwheelnutkeys.co.uk/

yeah and as I said, they are the only garage I use, so they must have done the damage and didn't tell me so. I don't think I have a second key. Thanks for the option, at this point I want to investigate how simple is to remove the bolts without the key without doing more damage.

AdrianC

nig3d said:
at this point I want to investigate how simple is to remove the bolts without the key without doing more damage.

F1 are a tyre fast-fit chain.
Any half-way competent tyre place will remove locking wheelnuts without the key EVERY SINGLE DAY without blinking.

Norman_Castle

nig3d said:

 However it feels to me that they tend to lie when they cause damage that I cannot prove they did. In this case they told me that the wheel nut locking key was stripped,

How often has potentially spurious damage happened?

oh_really

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=locking+wheel+nut+remover+Peugeot

wongataa

nig3d said:

I didn't complain on the spot, but now that I know that Peugeot wants 150 pound to replaces the nuts instead to give me a new key, I wonder what I should do. 

I had my wheel nut key strip.  I replaced the locking nuts with normal nuts.  Cheap and no danger of it happening again.

nig3d

Norman_Castle said:

nig3d said:

 However it feels to me that they tend to lie when they cause damage that I cannot prove they did. In this case they told me that the wheel nut locking key was stripped,

How often has potentially spurious damage happened?

twice as far as I remember, the first time happened last year. After the servicing the car wasn't starting anymore, they said was a blown fuse, but eventually the real problem was the starter motor. Not their fault to be honest, but I was not impressed.

AdrianC

nig3d said:

Norman_Castle said:

How often has potentially spurious damage happened?

twice as far as I remember, the first time happened last year. After the servicing the car wasn't starting anymore, they said was a blown fuse, but eventually the real problem was the starter motor. Not their fault to be honest, but I was not impressed.

It may very well have been a fuse blown causing the starter to not be operated.

But fuses don't just blow. Things blow them.
A starter on the way out may well draw more current, blowing the fuse.