Locking wheel bolt......key sheered.

[ALFAitalia]

Ok....so here's todays problem!!

I went to paint my brake calipers and hubs. I've taken ta couple of the wheels off before and they came off easily and three of the wheel have no locking nuts....and none of them were overtightened....except this one....I had to use a breaker bar to get the normal bolts moving (not sure why one wheel would be so tight while the rest where correctly torqued).....but on this wheel there was one locking bolt. I have the key in the boot.....but it sheered off before any real force had been used on it....darn it. I bet its been over stressed before. I can of course order a new key for about £17 ....but I'm loath to for two reasons....firstly it could just sheer off again and secondly I have no intention of replacing them so I'll never use it again.. I'm pretty sure its a number 312 lock bolt looking at the pics online.
Any ideas or how to remove it. I saw online a guy have success hammering a 22mm socket on.....but on my AMG alloys the holes around the bolts are pretty small and even my thinnest walled socket wont fit between the wheel and the bolt. We have some locking bolt removers at work.....but I think that they are going to be too thick walled as well.
Any help gratefully received!!

 

[carat 3.6]

Order the new key, £17 is much cheaper than damaging the finish on the wheel.

 

[Jonesy161]

Hi, Same happened to me a few years ago, as you say, there’s no room for sockets. I took mine to a local garage to take them all off as I tried with a strong arm plus scaff pole and non moved, then the key snapped.
The best way in the end was to weld an approx 17mm hexagon onto the bolt and windy gun it off, amazingly there was absolutely no splatter on the wheel.
The second way was with a tool which had sacrificial teeth which they hammered into the bolt, this wasn’t as successful (it got one off ) but they did say it works quite well on most jobs.

Good luck

 

[ALFAitalia]

Neither of those could work on my 212 I'm afraid. There is nothing to hammer a.tool into...see pics.......and because it's in a deep recess welding would be impossible.

 

[Petrol Pete]

Before you do have a go at it again put all of the other wheel bolts in and (dare I say it ?) overtourque them a bit.

Not a fan of locking wheel bolts either....

 

[Trickythemerc]

Drill and easy out, but if it is that tight you would probably snap the easy out.

 

[colinallcars]

Ok....so here's todays problem!!

I went to paint my brake calipers and hubs. I've taken ta couple of the wheels off before and they came off easily and three of the wheel have no locking nuts....and none of them were overtightened....except this one....I had to use a breaker bar to get the normal bolts moving (not sure why one wheel would be so tight while the rest where correctly torqued).....but on this wheel there was one locking bolt. I have the key in the boot.....but it sheered off before any real force had been used on it....darn it. I bet its been over stressed before. I can of course order a new key for about £17 ....but I'm loath to for two reasons....firstly it could just sheer off again and secondly I have no intention of replacing them so I'll never use it again.. I'm pretty sure its a number 312 lock bolt looking at the pics online.
Any ideas or how to remove it. I saw online a guy have success hammering a 22mm socket on.....but on my AMG alloys the holes around the bolts are pretty small and even my thinnest walled socket wont fit between the wheel and the bolt. We have some locking bolt removers at work.....but I think that they are going to be too thick walled as well.
Any help gratefully received!!
View attachment 171401

There are companies that offer a mobile service for this. The one I used was appropriately called’Nuts Off’.

 

[Bigdrew]

Ok....so here's todays problem!!

I went to paint my brake calipers and hubs. I've taken ta couple of the wheels off before and they came off easily and three of the wheel have no locking nuts....and none of them were overtightened....except this one....I had to use a breaker bar to get the normal bolts moving (not sure why one wheel would be so tight while the rest where correctly torqued).....but on this wheel there was one locking bolt. I have the key in the boot.....but it sheered off before any real force had been used on it....darn it. I bet its been over stressed before. I can of course order a new key for about £17 ....but I'm loath to for two reasons....firstly it could just sheer off again and secondly I have no intention of replacing them so I'll never use it again.. I'm pretty sure its a number 312 lock bolt looking at the pics online.
Any ideas or how to remove it. I saw online a guy have success hammering a 22mm socket on.....but on my AMG alloys the holes around the bolts are pretty small and even my thinnest walled socket wont fit between the wheel and the bolt. We have some locking bolt removers at work.....but I think that they are going to be too thick walled as well.
Any help gratefully received!!
View attachment 171401

Hi i have a couple of locking nuts laying around I will see if they are the same if they are you can have it

 

[W1ghty]

Does your garage have one of those induction heat thingys that could work on the bolt followed by a new 312 key ?

 

[Bigdrew]

Hi i have a couple of locking nuts laying around I will see if they are the same if they are you can have it

Just had a Quick Look unfortunately not the same but it was worth a look

 

[WilliamMaldivess211]

Ok....so here's todays problem!!

I went to paint my brake calipers and hubs. I've taken ta couple of the wheels off before and they came off easily and three of the wheel have no locking nuts....and none of them were overtightened....except this one....I had to use a breaker bar to get the normal bolts moving (not sure why one wheel would be so tight while the rest where correctly torqued).....but on this wheel there was one locking bolt. I have the key in the boot.....but it sheered off before any real force had been used on it....darn it. I bet its been over stressed before. I can of course order a new key for about £17 ....but I'm loath to for two reasons....firstly it could just sheer off again and secondly I have no intention of replacing them so I'll never use it again.. I'm pretty sure its a number 312 lock bolt looking at the pics online.
Any ideas or how to remove it. I saw online a guy have success hammering a 22mm socket on.....but on my AMG alloys the holes around the bolts are pretty small and even my thinnest walled socket wont fit between the wheel and the bolt. We have some locking bolt removers at work.....but I think that they are going to be too thick walled as well.
Any help gratefully received!!
View attachment 171401

Are you sure they are 312? I have a few sets laying around from my s211 including the following. There is a high likelihood though the codes and bolts may have been muddled around.

 

[WilliamMaldivess211]

If you still have the black plastic box it came in there should be a leaflet with the number for the code on a sticker if that has been removed it may be in the owners manual.

 

[WilliamMaldivess211]

319 would be my best guess for the code

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Search for a local specialist in removing broken locking wheel bolts. When you’ve done a few then they’re really easy to deal with, but an absolute nightmare first time.

A professional will repeatedly pound a lump of soft metal into the damaged locking bolt so that it fills the voids in and around the bolt, and grip it like the key would.

They then use a long bar to very gently and slowly turn the lump of soft metal with high torque rather than impact force, and the locking bolt comes out easily.

A tyre fitter was reluctant to attempt to remove an over torque locking bolt, so I took it to my main dealer and asked them to try even if the key sheared in the process.

They tried their best not to shear the key but eventually it sheared. I then found a specialist who does nothing but remove them and it was the work of a few moments.

 

[ALFAitalia]

Are you sure they are 312? I have a few sets laying around from my s211 including the following. There is a high likelihood though the codes and bolts may have been muddled around.

Thanks for looking.....but I think that your 312 ...first pic.. (even though it has the wrong label) is close....but I think, upon close inspection it's a 319.

319 would be my best guess for the code

I think you are right....iif you look at it as looking a bit like an angel then the 312 wings curve in a little.... whereas the 319 wings curve out a little... like in my photo in post 1

 

[ALFAitalia]

Sorted!
I bought home the locking wheel nut removal kit from work. I hoped that the left hand threaded tools would bite hard enough the crush the rotating ring on the bolt hard enough to be able to remove the bolt....no go...its just kept spinning. Luckily I tried it first on one of the previously removed locking bolts I found in the boot....or I might never have been able to get the tool back off!

The set I tried...

Just about thin walled enough to fit down the bolt recesses in the wheels.
Note left hand thread.


Plan B!
I used a small drill...perhaps 3 or 4 mm to drill down into the bolt between the spinning ring and the main centre part. I did this both sides and hammered a slightly bigger piece of old broken drill into those holes until the ring split it two. Again a tried this on the bench first...see pics....where I could remove the ring after drilling just one side....but I could not remove the ring with the bolt in situ on the wheel...not enough room...so I had to drill both sides which allowed me JUST enough room to wiggle the two half's of the ring out. The metal is surprisingly soft with only an HSS drill bit required...no need to dig out the cobalts! But you cant drill past the hardened curclip that holds the ring on....so you cant drill them completely in half....hence the need for the broken drill bits to split them completely in two. From there I could hammer on an 18mm 12 point socket to remove the bolt with my rattle gun. I suspect that there may be an imperial size that may be slightly tighter than the 18mm....as it moved slightly when I first tried removing it with a breaker bar. But the rattle gun found enough grip. Jobs a goodun'!

 

[SpikyMikey]

Now bin the effin' things and fit proper bolts!!

 

[W1ghty]

Excellent work buddy , way out of the box thinking !

 

[ALFAitalia]

I should have mentioned that the reason hammered on a socket and did not use the extractors after I had removed the spinning ring is than none of them were small enough!

I had no plan to refit locking bolts... that was the only wheel with one anyway! I already had a spare nut in the old locking bolt plastic box So I'm sorted.

 

[slade1]

Now bin the effin' things and fit proper bolts!!

Did this years ago