recently had new brakes fitted and a wheel refurbished and lost 3 of the metal nut caps from my mk 2.5.

firstly does anyone know what size replacement I need, are they 17mm?

secondly, do they need to be replaced with original parts or can I use ones from eBay etc?

I know the caps are designed to be the bolt head, but can the bolts be removed without the cap on?

I was thinking about ordering black plastic caps which would probably be easily broken if used as the bolt head .

You get them from ebay

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/201485011068

The wheel brace you get with the car no but you get a brace from halfrauds that does the job 

 

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductMobileDisplay?catalogId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=318448&productId=1085559&storeId=10001

thanks, might sound daft but do you need to Jack the car up to change the nuts? 

If one at a time no.

No need to jack car up , just change one or two at a time, you will need a 18mm socket to fit the ones with no caps on.

6 minutes ago, F0CUE said:

If one at a time no.

what size is the wheel brace that comes with the car?

It's 19mm to fit the lug covers 

the nuts you posted the link for are also 19mm so won't they fit the wheel brace i have with the car?

The one u get with the car is 19 so guess it would 

normally the wheel spanners you get with cars are very poor, particularly lack of leverage for tight nuts and the chance of slipping off

I always have one of these style in the car.  They are good because you can apply even pressure from each end so the spanner does not slip off. And if very tight you can push one side with your foot whilst pulling the other end with two hands. Put a piece of tape at the end that fits your nuts to mark it  to save you keep trying each size whenever you use it. 

also handy for helping damsels in distress who can't get their wheel nuts undone when they have a puncture because their wheel nuts are toot tight and they are using the sh***y standard spanner.   you know it makes sense, buy one now, every car boot should have one of these.

 

thanks for the advice, forgot I had a old halfords intending wheel wrench in the shed, 19mm fit the nuts with the caps on, was a little loose on the ones without(17mm too small) but got enough purchase to loosen the nut, just waiting for my new nuts and centre caps and the wheels will look smart again