Locking wheel nut advice please....

[Mister Paul]

We've got a 2014 Roomster. At Christmas it went to a local garage (1) for new front tyres. It went to the particular garage because they're a Black Circles fitter.

 

Anyway, this morning the car went in to the garage we normally use for a service (2). They rang to say that the locking wheel socket is mashed, and the front 2 locking nuts are mashed. The socket can't be used to get the rear nuts off either. This garage said that they haven't tried to get the nuts off yet.

 

I rang the tyre fitter place (1). Two conversations with the workshop manager, who from the start denied that it could possibly be anything to do with them, because if the socket was damaged they wouldn't have been able to get the wheels up to torque. Claimed that garage 2 had caused the damage.

 

Call to garage 2 who claimed again that they hadn't used the socket yet. Also said that it's possible that the socket was damaged getting the wheels off, but because of where the damage could be it could still be possible to torque them back on.

 

Call from owner of garage 1. 30 minutes of him talking over me, going on about how much business they do in the town, and repeating that it categorically couldn't have been them because they use a torque wrench to get the nuts back on and this wouldn't have been possible had the socket been damaged. Also threatened to sue me if I posted anything on social media. He also said if I was a customer he'd have sorted me out but I'm not because I went elsewhere. 

 

So my question is, is it possible for a locking socket to be damaged in a way that you could get the wheel back on but not off again? I can follow the logic and have seen it with normal bolts and nuts, but don't know the Skoda security socket.

 

That's £100 added to the service to get the nuts welded off and a new security set. I won't be going back to garage 1, regardless of who caused this damage, because of his stinking, thuggish and unprofessional phone call and attitude.

[Tilt]

Difficult to reply or advise on this one............and assuming you have it all sorted now anyway, but..........

 

Did the second garage show you the damage? and did they give you the damaged items, ie damaged locking nuts and socket???

 

How long had you had the car before taking it to the first garage??? I ask this as in asking is it possible that the socket was damaged before they used it, but they used it anyway (to get the job done) and in doing so, damaged both of the locking nuts in the process......

 

Maybe the first garage just managed to complete the job (properly hopefully?) but (understandably) the second garage weren't happy to try undoing the nuts knowing that it could go wrong and then they would get the blame.

[MarkyG82]

On 06/03/2020 at 13:08, Mister Paul said:

is it possible for a locking socket to be damaged in a way that you could get the wheel back on but not off again?.

 

Can't tell for certain as can't remember the design of the Skoda ones (if they are even similar between models). However, from a mechanical point of view it would be possible to undo a bolt and damage it in the process but still be able to refit the bolts. Whether this happened or not? I dunno.

 

I agree with you though that fitter (1) does not sound like a company you want to be using. If the manager treats customers like that then maybe it's possible that they mistreat wheels too.

[BoxerBoy]

I’ve used these key nuts for years and think there is a slight chance that they key could have been damaged by Mis-use in one direction, yet still work in the other direction.

 

Though serious damage would probably deform the key pattern to such a degree that it would NOT fit into the wheel bolt at all.

 

Just my tuppence worth.

 

As an aside, I swap wheels twice a year on 2 cars and am always very careful with the keys. Always hold it in tight so it can’t slip off and round off the pattern. Am even more careful when spinning bolts out and in with the impact gun.

 

Tightening wheel bolts to 140 Nm is Quite Tight. I sometimes leave the locking key bolt slightly less tight.

 

My new car arrived last week and I checked 2 bolts per wheel to check they hadn’t been over tightened. They were ok.

[xman]

Pretty obvious to me the fault lies with tyre fitter 1)

 

Used an air gun at full unrestricted setting. These alloy keys must never be used with an air gun. 

 

Seen plenty of examples of airgun misuse. Then requiring a 1.2 metre breaker bar and my full body weight to undo. No alloy key would take that, the locking parts are thin and soft.

 

Keys have to be kept perfectly perpendicular and fully engaged when used, otherwise instant damage.  You can't just hang or tighten on the end of your bar without holding the key fully home.

 

Keys are often asymmetric designs so possible to damage asymmetrically (hope that makes sense).

 

Thats why I never allow my wheels to be fitted by anyone but me.

 

Expensive lessons and all that.

 

Skoda alloys 120 Nm tightening torque, only ever dry,  never lube/copper slip bolts as you will overtighten and stretch/damage bolts and threads.

 

Edited 29 March, 2020 by xman

[Mister Paul]

Thanks everyone. 

 

It was a dead end trying to get garage no.1 to correct their error. I emailed Black Circles just to feed back what appalling service I'd had from one of their agents. I wasn't expecting anything, but they asked a couple of questions, apologised and then refunded the cost of putting the damage right. 

[silver1011]

On 06/03/2020 at 13:08, Mister Paul said:

Also threatened to sue me if I posted anything on social media. He also said if I was a customer he'd have sorted me out but I'm not because I went elsewhere. 

 

Regardless of fault, with a threat like that I'd be telling him to see you in court. ****head.

[silver1011]

On 29/03/2020 at 20:00, Mister Paul said:

I emailed Black Circles just to feed back what appalling service I'd had from one of their agents. I wasn't expecting anything, but they asked a couple of questions, apologised and then refunded the cost of putting the damage right. 

 

Well done Black Circles. A prime example of brilliant customer service. I will be more inclined to use them now after reading this.

 

The complete opposite from garage no.1, to be now referred to as Dog Turd Motors, anything you can do to warn off others would, I'm sure be very welcome.