V70: Wheels/Brakes Security wheel nuts

[cloggers]

Nearly forgot, another trick is to try and hammer a cheap size 10 socket into the nut. This might just allow you to loosen it enough to prevent you from having to pay for the whole welding saga.

Also nearly forgot I do have two scratches on one of my alloys now because of this locking wheel nuts...

[Clan]

19 mm socket actualy , this will work on locking bolts 1999-2001 but not on later ones .

[Sanzomat]

Okay, I've got the bolt off! Hooray! Thanks for the advice but I thought I'd try a simpler version first before digging my old welding kit out of the back of my shed and sacrificing a trusty old ring spanner.
After sleeping on it I thought that maybe some two-part epoxy to glue the key to the bolt might do the trick and I'd got some araldite already. As the rounding of the key causes the key to lift out of the bolt when torqued I thought that as long as the glue bonded sufficiently to hold the clover leaf in then there should be enough contact for the cloverleaf pattern on the key to do the actual turning. As such there is a lot of contact surface between the inside of the key and the sides/face of the slip ring as well as the cloverleaf itself so there was a reasonable chance of success. I also thought that if it failed the likely result would be that the key would detach itself by the key lifting off the bolt so I'd be no worse off and the welding trick could still be done.
As it happened it has worked a treat. I cleaned both surfaces as best I could, marked the key and the wheel to note the position in which the key engaged, mixed up some araldite and smeared it liberally around the inside of the key. After pushing it in with the marks lined up I gave it a couple of hours to set firmly and then simply undid it. As it happens it wasn't particularly tight so I can't imagine why the bolt had damaged in the first place, must have been made of chocolate.
The damaged bolt and key are now permanently attached to one another but as they were going in the bin anyway thats no problem and no spanners were harmed in the process.
As an aside, I have had an email back from McGard offering to lend me a "drill-out kit" free of charge as long as I promise to send it back. They have also offered a free replacement for the key (and presumably the bolts) as long as I send back the damaged parts, but as I won't be installing them there doesn't seem much point in that. I've asked for a refund of my 18 euro so I'll see what response I get... .. to be fair, even though their product is rubbish, their customer service is faultless.

[Clan]

brilliant , you were lucky in that your bolt wasnt tight or siezed . The ones i deal with inevitably are sized either on the cone or rusy threads .

[Sanzomat]

Update: McGard have refunded the 18 euro I paid for the replacement key and no need to return anything. Can't fault the customer service and If anyone finds themself in a similar position its certainly worth a freephone call or a couple of emails.

[Sanzomat]

Originally Posted by Clan

brilliant , you were lucky in that your bolt wasnt tight or siezed . The ones i deal with inevitably are sized either on the cone or rusy threads .

Hi Clan, Just thought I'd do an experiment with the bonded bolt/key combination (yes, I do have too much time on my hands since I was made redundant a few weeks ago!). I've ground flats either side of the bolt thread so I can grip it in the vice. I've then tried to do a test to destruction to see how much force I can give it before the bond breaks. My torque wrench only goes up to 210Nm and it takes that no trouble. I've tried using as much force as a I can with a 600mm breaker bar and I still cant break the bond between the key and the bolt head. I honestly think the bolt will break before the bond does! This araldite is strong stuff!

[Sanzomat]

Update on my mission of destruction... ..I've had another go at it with a bit of tube over the handle of the breaker bar making about 900mm of leverage. This has succeeded in pulling the slip ring off the bolt head so the slip ring is still firmly attached to the inside of the key! The bit of the bolt that is left (the centre section with the clover-leaf pattern) should take a 17mm socket hammered on so if it were still on the car at this point that would be the next step.

[Tony g6hbq]

My Volvo is now gone. (Replaced by an XFS)
But just before parting I had a similar problem.
Unable to remove the nuts (to put on the original wheels),
I phoned Volvo assist (RAC),
They came out and and the technican used a round brass piece to
hammer into the centre of the McGUARD bolts,
45 mins later and 2 tools used all bolts were out.
(Was hard work,poor lad was knackered afterwards)
Replaced with std bolts and the locking bolts and key chucked in the boot.
Sorry but I think they are poor as the key had only been used 4 times
and only with hand tools.

[grin factor]

Had the same problem when came to put winter wheels/tyres on my daughters Yaris. I've since heard these locking wheel nuts are more trouble than they are worth - they went in the bin.
I have them on my C30 and am a tad bothered about them, may buy a set of normal nuts/studs, so I don;t get caught short

[25622003]

Hi, I had the same problem on my S80 when I came to replace the rear pads a week before going to France on hols. Went through the usual get a new key from Germany only to find it did exactly what the old ones did , tried to force itself out under torque. I managed to get them loose by parking the car parallel to a good strong , flat wall and by using the scissor jack between the wall and the head of a 18" strong bar forced and held the key into the bolt enough for me to turn it enough to loosen the stud.
All the bolts and keys are now in the bin where they belong , the car is never parked where the wheels are at risk and always garaged when not in use , so its a minimal risk compared with an immovable wheel .