I was trying to change my tire and I have wheel locks. The pricks at Midas torqued the lug nuts on to tight so I had to stand on the wrench. Well I broke both the key and the lug nut. How the hell do I get them off now?

 

Pics of the broken lug nut?

My thought would be to take a Dremel and make a slot in the lug nut then use an impact wrench to get it off.

 

If you have the propper tools, you may be able to remove the lugs yourself. Mine broke a few weeks back and took it to a local garage.

You will want to get a hex-socket just smaller than the size of the lug to bang onto the locking lug. Bang it on hard so that it is jammed pretty solid. then, you can just torque it off.

 

I was going to say, spray a little bolt loosener on the lug, anddremel a hex shape onto the head of the lock. then try that, or dremel a scored line down the lug and split that sucker off. gonna be a headache, but if you can't do it, any experienced shop or garage can do it easilly.

 

Ahhh...stealing rims do pay off....

 

your better off bringing it to a place like pep boys, this way if they mess your rim up, they are liable for trying to perform the work in the first place. if you mess it up, then your pissed at your self for breaking it in the first place and then f'ing up your rim.

your not supposed to torque the lock nuts, just the rest of the lugs. the lock nut should be hand tightened. the shop that did it should stand by their mistake(yeah good luck with that) I work for Costco and in our tire shops, we don't torque them for exactly that reason. if you put up a big enough stink, maybe you can get them to pay for it(the shop that is).

 

I took the car to Discount Tire. They have some tool and took a 3lb sledge and broke the bolt off. They didn't charge me cause I got new tires. Thanks for the replys

 

Uh no it should be torqued to 80 lbs just like the rest of the lugs. What's the point of hand tightening the lock? So someone can spin it off by hand and steal your wheels?

 

That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard.......
Just wondering, does your shop stand by it's mistake of warping brake rotors by not tightening all of the locks and lugs evenly?

 

Of course they need to be torqued.
I'm thinking he meant to say that you’re not supposed to do it with an AIR HAMMER.
ALL my lugs are locking lugs so I torque them all. With a hand torque wrench of course.

 

I almost had the same issue recently with my girl's car. She purchased tires from Mr. Tire and those suckers were on so tight that I needed a breaker bar to get the bolt off- I litterally had to jump up and stomp on them to get them off. I weigh every bit of 200 lbs and with a two foot long breaker bar, I guessed that they torqued the bolts to about 250.

BTW the usual torque spec on most vehicles is initially 75-80 foot pounds, adjusting the wrench again to 100 to finish. If you EVER see anyone installing (mounting) your tires with an air wrench, STOP THEM IMMEDIATELY and make them use a torque wrench and torque the bolts to spec...You will be glad you did when you have a flat somewhere in BFE in the rain...

 

"your not supposed to torque the lock nuts, just the rest of the lugs. the lock nut should be hand tightened."

Wow. Hand tightened? Really......NOT. It will fall off within 10 miles.

 

i ALWAYS remove the wheel locks and put the regular wheel nuts on the car BEFORE taking it to the shop. this way you prevent some jack-ass from doing just what he did to you - torquing on the wheel locks. bummer.

glad to hear you got them off. next time make sure you have them off before you put the car in the shop.