Car Garage & Wheel Change Issue

couriervanman

As others have said they are a pain in the ar5e and unless on an expensive car take them off 

se2020

Hasbeen said:

se2020 said:

Ring a ford dealer with the vin number and ask for the price of a new key that way.

If you go back to the garage that broke it you will have a better chance of them sorting it out if you can walk in and tell them exactly what you want them to do.

If you walk in and say "that key you broke is going to cost £28 do you want to pay for it?" more than likely they will just cover the cost to save any arguement or hassle.

If you walk back in telling them you want them to try and take all 4 lockers off and replace for free (remember they have already tried and failed on the first one) its likely to end up in a long discussion and a load of head scratching. 

You are only entitled to be put back in the same position you were before. 
It's unlikely they will be able to do that unless they can find a used key with the same code so, apart from the wasted time for you and the garage, you will get betterment if they pay for a new key.
You can then work out how to get the nuts off yourself.

Or, you could go back in, ask nicely if they will have another go at removing the locking nuts and replacing them with normal ones and if they would knock whatever the key would have cost off the final bill.

Personally, if a professional garage with a long wrench and a mallet can not get it off I would count myself lucky that I found out then. Not at 8pm on a rainy sunday night when I got a call from the wife saying she has a puncture and she can't get the wheel nuts undone.
If the key won't undo the nuts then its worthless anyway. I would buy 4 normal nuts from ebay and go back to the garage, remind them that this is the car the nuts were so tight on that the key broke and ask how much to get them out and put the others back in.

Long breaker bar and mallet would not work. To much give / spring.
One person sitting down back against wall and pushing the socket with foot and one standing both feet on bar would be better.

But as you say not for wife LOL.

I would have thought they would be pulling on the bar while wacking the socket (bit like a manual impact wrench) not hitting the bar.
As, like you say, too much spring.
If they were hitting the bar then maybe just go to a different garage next time...

marlot

Some of these locking wheel nuts and their keys are pretty weak.  I ditched them on my wife's car last time I swapped the wheels around.
Unless they're really expensive wheels, I wouldn't bother with them.

mattyprice4004

Most locking wheel nut keys can take a bit of welly, but it sounds like yours was properly stuck hence the key giving way.

If you had been consulted and they asked permission, what would you have said? Leave it, and drive around with bald tyres potentially missing your MOT appointment... or much more likely 'go on then' and be where you are now?

It sucks, but it's just one of those things. The usual cost through dealers for these is about £20-£30, not worth raising your blood pressure over.