Newbie with wheel nut cover issue

[McG]

Hi, does anyone have any idea how too remove the chrome wheel nut covers ? Have tried long nose pliers with taped ends but with no luck. 
Have actually thought about asking usual tyre fitters if they’ll remove them all at tyre change and ordering a full replace t set of plastics with removal tool

[unofix]

I would have thought on a 2018 vehicle it would be fitted with the One Piece lug nut. Ford stopped using nuts with the removable chrome caps quite a number of years ago.

[unofix]

On 2/28/2021 at 7:41 AM, JW1982 said:

In 2012 Ford started to standardize the wheel types and wheel nuts that were used. The main purpose of this was to reduce the large number of different wheel nuts and wheel types that were used at the time on the various Ford models arround the world.

Because almost every type of wheel nut that Ford used also had its own tightening torque this also means that the tightening torque of the wheel nuts is also standardized.

However standardizing the Wheel types and wheel nuts has also caused a lot of confusion. It is not clear to many people which combination of wheel / wheel nut is or is not allowed. A wrong wheel / wheel nut combination can even be dangerous. It is therefore very important to use the correct wheel / wheel nut combination.

On the Focus MK3 Ford has used the new wheel type (Global Wheel) from its introduction in 2011. However at that time the Focus MK3 did still have the old 1-piece wheel nut design for alloy wheels. From 05-11-2012 onwards the new type Global Wheelnut design is used.

 

The table above shows which combinations are possible. In addition I have also listed the prescribed tightening torques for the different wheel nut types on the Focus MK3. 

Be aware that different types of wheel nuts should never be combined. Do not combine new design locking wheel nuts with old design wheel nuts (or vice versa)!

 

Recognition of wheel types:

Old design alloy wheel.

 

Alloy Global Wheel.

 

The alloy wheel type is fairly easy to determine based on the size of the mounting holes. The old alloy wheel type has considerably larger mounting holes than the new type of Global Wheel. 

 

Recognition of wheel nut types:

Old Wheel nut design:

Left:

Old design wheel nut for steel rims. This type of wheel nut is available in 2 different versions. These can be recognized by the color (Gold  or Silver). The color indicates the type of material of the wheel nut. It is important to pay attention to this as both types have a different tightening torque.

Middle:

Old type solid (1-piece design) wheel nut for alloy wheels.

Right:

Old type solid (1-piece design) locking wheel nut for alloy wheels.

 

New Global Wheel nut design:

Left:

Global Wheel nut for steel wheels.

Middle:

Global Wheel nut for Alloy Wheels.

Right:

Global locking Wheel nut for Alloy Wheels.

 

 

Old 2-piece design wheel nut for Alloy Wheels:

The old 2-piece design wheel nut for alloy wheels has a loose conical shaped collar. This type of wheel nut must never be used in combination with Global Wheels !!

The reason for this is that this type of wheel nut has not enough contact surface to the wheel due to the loose conical collar. This can cause the wheel to come loose.