Just purchased a Ford Focus 2011 from CAR GIANT in London. Two months in and somewhat mysteriously I opened the car this morning to find the glove compartment open and the contents turned out on to the passenger well. So someone has been in the car last night. The only thing missing is the wheel locking nut, they even left a couple of pound coines. Can someone tell me the most efficient and economical way of aquiring the correct replacement wheel locking nut please.

Replacement O.E.M. or aftermarket locking nuts can be found on e - bay , BEWARE they could be back for your wheels now they have your locking wheelnut key.

Any evidence of forced entry ?

No evidence of forced entry which is strange. Thanks for the warning.How do I know which lock nut to purchase for my make and model?

We have had to fit extra locks to all our Transits in the Watford area, although they cannot get into the rear we kept finding the doors open, it appears you can easily buy a lock out kit off E Bay, that opens any ford with the flat blade locks.

We had to do this 11 months ago BTW.

There should be a key code with your cars owners pack. Unless of course the code was with the key still in the packet.

I would get the old locknuts taken off by ford dealer who have master sets for this issue then either buy another set off them or buy a set off ebay..

i installed a set of taperpro locking nuts direct from taperpro and got a spare key ordered at the same time. £40 ish all in.

http://www.taperpro.co.uk/2012/locks.htm

email them with your car details/wheel details if you have aftermarket wheels and they will tell you which set you need.

Thanks for the replies. It seems that i may be be paying out for removal of the locking nuts and a new set. I think my code was in the packet with the lock nut. Hindsight is a fine thing. There are several videos on youtube which give DIY ideas for locking nut removal so I will look at these. My thinking was go to the main dealer with my make and model and vin number and order the exact replacement locking nut needed for about £20 or £30 and collect it in a couple of weeks. Am I being naive?

You have to remember they have taken a key.

No point getting another key, you need new nuts and a new key, so they can't come and take your alloys...

Good point.

I know this sounds silly but are you sure it was in the glove box and not in the boot with the tyre and all of the other wheel removal items?

Go to mcgaurd website one its cheaper than the dealers they wont give you exact ones without the code but you can get new ones with a new key

It was in the glove compartment. I checked for the wheel lock key when i bought the car and that's where the dealer had put it so I just left it in there. I wish it had been in the boot because that wasn't broken in to. It's going to cause me some hassle now and expense. I'll post to say how I solved it when it's sorted.

Just spent a couple of hours carrying out research to see how I can sort this problem as cheaply and effectively as possible. The conclusion I have come to is that the most effective method will be to find a garage with the Dynotech wheel locking nut removal system which costs £120 to buy, so no value there for a one time user. It apparently takes about 30 seconds to remove each nut and works on 99% of cars.If I phone Dynotech they will apparently give me a list of local garages who stock this tool. Garages seem to be charging about £20 - £40 for removal of the locking nuts. Apparently this is the device that the AA and RAC use when they are called out for a puncture repair and the owner doesn't have a wheel nut locking remover.

Lots of devices out there on the market, but the experts seem to think that most of them are useless or only work on bolts which are not difficult to remove. some people have been successfull with hammering in a socket which is a little smaller than the wheel locking nut but this seems to be hit and miss.

Hi john

try the smaller socket option first and if that doesnt work then your going to have to pay to remove it unfortunately. If the locking nut is a round type one then the chances of a small socket working is minimal. Some people weld on a bolt and then use that to remove the locking nut.

Surely a ford dealer willl remove and fit new set labout free, only takes 2 mins to do.

Surely a ford dealer willl remove and fit new set labout free, only takes 2 mins to do.

worth a try but i very much doubt it. all they see is £££ signs

They do them round here foc. in the meantime , your waiting for the scumbag to comeback for your wheels, and driving knowing if you have puncture your stuffed.

is faffing about really worth it for a set of locknuts fitted in 2 mins?

Wouldn't be hard for a dealer to identify what colour-coded locking key you'd need so you can order a new one or replace them with a new set. Depends how helpful the dealer wants to be. Will pm you details why.

Don't think that Ford will keep a log of which coded of keys go with which cars sadly.

As you'll have realised now, the glovebox isn't the best place for your locking key to live either ;)

I decided to call The RAC because I am a member. I told them the issue and they said they will come out on Saturday, remove the locking nuts for me with their state of the art kit and I will replace them with an after market set which I bought at Halfords yesterday. Easy to find the correct replacement ones, they just ran my reg through there computer. £36 for the four nuts and the key. fairly cheap fix, much better than drilling them off as Fords suggested. I will of course keep the new lock key hidden away in the car where it is difficault to find.My only issue now is that somone out there knows how to get in to my Focus without damaging locks and can therefore get in at any time.

Hi johnr just had my locking wheel nuts taken off at ford cost me 20 pounds to do a got new ones off e bay

Sent from my iPad using Ford OC

Well, it got sorted yesterday. The RAC came out and removed the locking nuts for me. He tried a slightly smaller reverse thread nut first, which didn't work. He then got his Dynotech wheel nut removing kit out and had all four nuts off in 15 minutes. An interesting bit of kit. You insert a peace in to the end of a cylindrical tube and then use a 2lb hammer to hammer it on to the locking nut. This forms a tight grip and loosens the nut at the same time and the tool can then simply be turned by hand to remove the nut. The RAC man said that it works a lot of the time, but not all of the time. So total expense for me was £36 for a new set of wheel locking nuts and a lesson learnt - don't leave your wheel locking nut in the glove compartment, hide it away somewhere where it will not be found.

The Dynomech kit is very good. They put a new blank in it each time. Hammering it onto the locking nut shapes the soft metal to the shape of the key and then they can undo them. As you say though they don't always work. I had a Mr tyre trying to get some Macguard nuts of my Ztt cause the the key bust. He only managed to do one with that kit as they were seized solid. So he ended up breaking the spinning collars off and heating the nuts with an icy torch then using slightly smaller socket to remove the rest. This does cause some damage to the wheels as it burns the lacquer but they were a mess anyway.

Strangely I have just posted my answer to removing locking nuts in a relaxed non destructive way in another thread.

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/67231-alloy-wheel-key/

I needed a replacement McGard key a while back. I had no key
details at all. There were 3 places I tried.

The local Ford dealer. They had a set of master keys. If one matched they could order one
for me and from memory it was not a rip off price. Not so easy if none matched since the dealer set did not cover every key differ.

McGard themselves in Germany. Here.
They needed a good photo of your wheel nut, driving licence, vehicle registration
document, and about £25.

Alloy wheel shop in Liverpool. Here. This is
where I had mine from. Chris is a McGard agent though I cannot see this from his
site. All transactions were by email and phone. I sent him a photo of the nut
and details of the car. The new key came through the post directly quite
quickly from McGard. Although he is a few quid more than going to the supplier I
felt happier dealing with someone closer to home and he also supplied me with 4
regular wheel nuts to replace the keyed nuts once I got then off. The photo has
to be in focus and fill the frame.

Let us know how you
got on.

ScaniaPBman.