A key that does not fit is worse than no key at all, because you waste twenty minutes proving it. It happens most often on used cars: the previous owner had wheels changed, a different locking set went on, and the key in the boot is the one that came with the car originally. It looks right, it goes into the recess, and it turns without gripping anything.
When that is the situation, extraction is the answer and it is quick. A hardened socket is driven over the nut, bites as it turns anticlockwise and brings it out, with the alloy shielded throughout. If it is one nut you get one replacement. If the whole set is a mystery, and on a used car it often is, having all four swapped for plain nuts while we are there means the boot key becomes irrelevant forever. Everything goes back torqued to the manufacturer's figure, and the tyre job carries on immediately afterwards.
Four wheels, four locking nuts, and they do not always fail together. We come to where the car is, in Hadley or wherever it is standing, deal with whichever nuts are seized or rounded, and fit standard or replacement nuts across the set afterwards. Great North Road, the A1 and the streets around Arkley sit inside EN5. Tight in Arkley, easy in Hadley: neither stops the job. Arkley side streets, Hadley drives, the bays on the A1: room enough for us.
Locking wheel nut removal in Barnet is part of our wider mobile tyre fitting cover. For locking wheel nut removal in Barnet, call 07717 389637 or ask us for a quote.
A used car bought locally may have been through several sets of wheels before it reached you, and around EN5 there is nothing unusual about finding a key in the boot that belongs to a car somebody else owns now. That only matters once a tyre goes down. Extracting the nut at your address in New Barnet or Hadley closes the whole subject, and swapping the set to plain nuts means it never resurfaces.
The key in the boot of a recently bought car in High Barnet fitted nothing. All four nuts were extracted and replaced with plain ones.
A car in Chipping Barnet had two different locking patterns across the four wheels. Both were removed and the whole car standardised.
A flat out near Arkley with a key that would not grip. The nut came out at the verge and the tyre was changed there.
It is almost certainly not the key for the nuts currently fitted. Used cars often have wheels or nuts changed without the matching key being passed on.
If the set is a mystery, it is worth it. Otherwise you will discover the same problem on a different wheel at a worse moment.
Sometimes, but sourcing one takes days and you have a flat tyre now. Extraction is usually the faster and simpler route.
No. The socket grips the nut and the wheel face is shielded, so the finish is protected while the nut comes out.
Yes, provided the car is parked safely and can be chocked. On the Great North Road or the A1 get well clear of the traffic first.
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