[culpability]

Had an awful, awful experience all around yesterday. Went to discount tire to get some new shoes for my '14. Discount guys broke my wheel lock when trying to remove the 4th wheel. Thankfully, they came and spoke to me about it and were very up front that they didn't think they could get the broken key off without totally eff'ing my custom-painted wheels and recommended I go to BMW.

Went to BMW and my dealer told me it was going to cost $200 to get the damn wheel lock out... sure enough, they let my car sit in the back for a full 2 hours, exactly til my tire shop closed.

All this to say... don't buy the BMW wheel locks, and if you got 'em, I'd probably recommend taking them off. I threw away the lock already, wish I had taken a picture for you guys first, but it seems as if the actual key part and the part designed for your tool to turn it are connected by 5 pieces of plastic instead of being a solid metal piece. These things must break ALL THE TIME.


Since I have your attention though I'll go ahead and plug using wheel protectors.. during yesterday's shennigans I really looked at them for the first time in a while and holy smokes, my wife has absolutely demolished those poor protectors and the wheel remain rash free!

[1ben1245]

I had even the lug nuts get rounded and ended up having to drill them out. Your best bet is to drill out the wheel locks nice and slowly. I've tried the extractors but have had no luck with them. If its not seized it may work.

[cfm56d7b]

When was the last time your wheels were mounted? What you described happens often enough when an impact wrench has been used to tighten the lug nuts and wheel lock instead of a proper torque wrench.

Thanks for sharing.

[mlev]

The locks are an issue, but not as much of an issue as the knucklehead that previously used a torque gun to overtorque your wheel locks.

I learned this lesson when I bought my car. Previous owner clearly let someone overtorque the nuts/locks and had get one drilled by BMW.

Always require the mechanic working on your wheels to use a torque wrench, or do it yourself if they're too lazy to avoid this headache.

[exE36M3]

Well looking at your NC location... weather, climate, and road conditions do do a number on wheel bolts. I generally like to loosen/torque my bolts once a year. This helps brake any rust or build up off the wheel as well as normalize wheel torque from a bad install job.

I also keep TWO sets of wheel lock adapters, one in the trunk and one in my home toolbox. I like the 36-ish spline pattern lug bolt and Tungsten/Chromoly lock adapter. These won't strip or break off like those stupid wavvy ones.

[cfm56d7b]

Originally Posted by exE36M3

Well looking at your NC location... weather, climate, and road conditions do do a number on wheel bolts. I generally like to loosen/torque my bolts once a year. This helps brake any rust or build up off the wheel as well as normalize wheel torque from a bad install job.

I also keep TWO sets of wheel lock adapters, one in the trunk and one in my home toolbox. I like the 36-ish spline pattern lug bolt and Tungsten/Chromoly lock adapter. These won't strip or break off like those stupid wavvy ones.

Great advice to loosen and retorque lug nuts once a year.

[AspektUSA]

My BMW dealer is putting in a new hub, because of their moronic technician who put 600 ft lbs of force into the security bolt.

Idiots are at every shop.

[cfm56d7b]

Originally Posted by AspektUSA

My BMW dealer is putting in a new hub, because of their moronic technician who put 600 ft lbs of force into the security bolt.

Idiots are at every shop.

600 ft lbs of force? Impact wrench instead of torque wrench?

[culpability]

Thanks for replies all. Not a bad idea to be torque'ing it myself. My guess is that it wasn't Discount Tire's fault, but rather the particularly bad local tire shop that I let replace one of my factory tires ~15,000 miles ago after a puncture. Those boys don't know what they're doing at all but they were MUCH cheaper for that tire than anyone else in town. Guess I ended up paying the difference in the end!

Still shocked BMW dinged me for $200 to drill it out though. My guess is it was less than 15 mins of labor...

[AspektUSA]

Originally Posted by cfm56d7b

600 ft lbs of force? Impact wrench instead of torque wrench?

Tighten until it looses up, then back a quarter turn.