Mini R57!locking wheel nut key snapped!

[dobbslc]

The locking key has just snapped on the boys mini wheel. As usual the bolts were over tightened by the tyre shop monkeys!
What's the best way on a Sunday morning to get this out?
I might be able to get a removal tool but I do have a mig welder so would welding a nut on be the best option?
I hate cars!!!
Help.

 

[Matchless]

We used to BIG hammer an old multi point socket over the bolt, a combination of hammering and then turning usually did the job, and it helps it all the other bolts are loosened, the end of the hopefully removed bolt will have a code to order a spare for the others!

 

[Rrobson]

Welding is good option as long as your machine has enough power. I’d not be bothering if you only have a 130a set, but a 180a + would be ok.

The issue with welding is damage. You can cause damage to the wheel very easily, and wheel bearing issues aren’t uncommon due to errant travelling electricity and improper earth placement.

Otherwise the above suggestion is your other alternative. Some locking wheel nuts are more difficult than others, but even those with the spinning collar can be removed this way. The only thing to consider is clearance around the nut inside the wheel, locking nut removal tools often don’t fit inside the bolt hole.

I did once get a couple off by chiseling the bolt out, but I think I was very lucky to get them out this way.

 

[RWD3M]

I've done plenty using my Cebora 130. Very big nut, weld it to whats left, inside the nut! Not round the outside. This should prevent any damage to the wheel.

 

[Robotstar5]

Doesn't help the OP, but whenever I get a car with locking nuts, the first thing I do is throw them away and fit normal nuts, most cars these days have alloy wheels so the chances of theft is much reduced.

 

[Farside]

Doesn't help the OP, but whenever I get a car with locking nuts, the first thing I do is throw them away and fit normal nuts, most cars these days have alloy wheels so the chances of theft is much reduced.

This. Unless you have expensive much fancier wheels, hardly any point in bothering. Some toe-rag could nick them for the tyres, though.

 

[dobbslc]

Thanks for the replies!
Well it turns out the boy had a spare key for the wheels and after some swearing and bashing I got it off
The broken key.



The rear wheels were both very tight and took some swinging on my breaker bar.
I was looking for the knocking noise from the back of the car originally and I now think it's either the anti roll bar bushes or drop links, what I found was the offside brake half seized and the near side not much better.
Loads of crap in and under the shims and I had to knock the inner pads out of the carriers!




I cleaned them up and the pads now move freely. What I found though was the piston dust seals are both split and twisted.


He'll need new pads and discs, roll bar bushes and drop links but I'm not sure if it's worth replacing the dust seals or just buying new calipers.
The offside one did feel stiff.

 

[Blobber]

If you peel the dust covers back I bet its all a bit nasty, they arent mega bucks so probably worth a pair of calipers

 

[roofman]

My daughter had one of those basdet things...hated working on it

 

[dobbslc]

My daughter had one of those basdet things...hated working on it

Yeah well it's better that the poxy Fiat 500 he had before

 

[dobbslc]

To be fair while I had the wheels off I went round all the rollbar bush, drop link bolts and the Torx bolts holding the discs on and they all came out without any trouble so I'll put that down as a win
New Pagid calipers from Halfords are about £40 for the left one and £90 for the right one, why is the right one double the price?

 

[roofman]

To be fair while I had the wheels off I went round all the rollbar bush, drop link bolts and the Torx bolts holding the discs on and they all came out without any trouble so I'll put that down as a win
New Pagid calipers from Halfords are about £40 for the left one and £90 for the right one, why is the right one double the price?

The one that always gets the road salt parked up

 

[bert]

Check amazon for the parts before you order the pagid ones. Seem to be one of the cheapest places at the moment

 

[Matchless]

This. Unless you have expensive much fancier wheels, hardly any point in bothering. Some toe-rag could nick them for the tyres, though.

It is far easier to steal the whole car than just the wheels these days!

 

[indykid]

Check amazon for the parts before you order the pagid ones. Seem to be one of the cheapest places at the moment

I'd fit good used calipers before I entertained pattern/remanufactured parts. I wouldn't touch brake hydraulics from ebay or amazon and doubly so if it has a handbrake mechanism in it.

 

[bricol]

Brake Engineering for reman calipers - always found them excellent to deal with.

However - if you always work on the "the boy's" car - how will he ever learn to do it himself? Or even care enough about the amount of maintenance to make sure it's done and looked after? Even just being able to believe whatever spanner jockey (no offence to any spanner jockeys ) tells him when he takes it to them after you are too old/knackered/fed up to bother? Goes in with a worn out ten quid drop link . . . comes out having paid four grand for completely new suspension

This ties in with the oft mentioned "youth of today" being unable to even wire a plug sort of thread

 

[DanZac]

This ties in with the oft mentioned "youth of today" being unable to even wire a plug sort of thread

Off topic, but the Mrs came home yesterday afternoon and the young couple next door were both stood in the road with their car bonnet up staring into the abyss.

The good lady wandered over to see if she could help and they said that they had just got back from having it serviced and there was smoke coming from under the bonnet and they had no idea what was wrong with it.

Mrs DanZac takes a look and straight away spots the missing coolant cap and empty reservoir. Guess that'll be steam then not smoke and the cap probably wasn't refitted post servicing by the garage.

She points out the problem, suggests letting it cool down a bit and sticking a bit of water into the reservoir then take it back to the garage, taking it easy, as its only a mile down the road. Which they totally ignore, slam the bonnet shut and roar off. Although they did say thank you to her first.

 

[dobbslc]

I got some Febi / Bilstein calipers off eBay from Car parts in Motion and a pair of discs and pads by Apec, I've used those before so I hope they'll be ok.



I'll get the suspension bits from GSF locally.
What @bricol was saying, he's quite handy and has decorated his bedroom a couple of times and recently wall papered a wall.
He'll be out there helping me don't worry about that

 

[Matchless]

Off topic, but the Mrs came home yesterday afternoon and the young couple next door were both stood in the road with their car bonnet up staring into the abyss.

The good lady wandered over to see if she could help and they said that they had just got back from having it serviced and there was smoke coming from under the bonnet and they had no idea what was wrong with it.

Mrs DanZac takes a look and straight away spots the missing coolant cap and empty reservoir. Guess that'll be steam then not smoke and the cap probably wasn't refitted post servicing by the garage.

She points out the problem, suggests letting it cool down a bit and sticking a bit of water into the reservoir then take it back to the garage, taking it easy, as its only a mile down the road. Which they totally ignore, slam the bonnet shut and roar off. Although they did say thank you to her first.

Many many years ago, maybe 25? BMW had an issue with their oil pressure relief valves not passing enough oil on VERY cold days and letting the oil pressure go to massive levels until it had warmed up (they released modified oil pumps to cure this shortly after) so one day in the depths of winter we serviced a fairly newish BMW E21 320/4 from memory, we used a very good quality oil, probably Castrol, a genuine oil filter and the owner picked up the car from our workshop, he parked it outside facing into the wind on the coldest night of the decade and in the morning started the car up and left it revving to warm up the heater, the oil light came on so he decided, without any thoughts of investigating the reason to drive the 8 miles back to us, the oil filter (genuine BMW) had split so he had 0 oil pressure, he wrecked the engine! I explained the cause and said that if he had only rang us up we could have come out foc and sorted out the issue but he went into a rant so I referred his claim to our insurance company as we had defective workmanship cover but they denied his claim telling him that he had driven the engine to destruction with a red warning light fully on!

 

[Robotstar5]

Many many years ago, maybe 25? BMW had an issue with their oil pressure relief valves not passing enough oil on VERY cold days and letting the oil pressure go to massive levels until it had warmed up (they released modified oil pumps to cure this shortly after) so one day in the depths of winter we serviced a fairly newish BMW E21 320/4 from memory, we used a very good quality oil, probably Castrol, a genuine oil filter and the owner picked up the car from our workshop, he parked it outside facing into the wind on the coldest night of the decade and in the morning started the car up and left it revving to warm up the heater, the oil light came on so he decided, without any thoughts of investigating the reason to drive the 8 miles back to us, the oil filter (genuine BMW) had split so he had 0 oil pressure, he wrecked the engine! I explained the cause and said that if he had only rang us up we could have come out foc and sorted out the issue but he went into a rant so I referred his claim to our insurance company as we had defective workmanship cover but they denied his claim telling him that he had driven the engine to destruction with a red warning light fully on!

Mrs Robo did similar with a Daihatsu Sportrack about 30 years ago (before I met her) oil light came on a few miles from home, but she thought it would be OK to drive the last few miles, replacement engine needed.