Shear-type locking wheel nuts

[V8S]

Citroen Picasso 2004 with shear-type locking wheel nuts.

I can't find the key, so having whacked a socket on and discovered they shear off I spent an hour looking through several hundred keys at a local scrapyard and nothing quite fitted. I modified one so that three pins would engage, but the nut outer is made of cheese and the pins are wrecking it.

So I've found mentions of:

• drilling out the centre and using a screw extractor, but you need hardened drill bits which are expensive

• using a Irwin bolt extractor but I can't find any sets over 19mm that aren't ££££££££ and the locking head is at least 20mm

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Irwin-Bolt-Grip-Remover-E...

• quik steel to weld a socket onto the locking nut, but only vague mentions and no follow-up as to whether it works and certainly no mention on Youtube anywhere
• whacking edge with a chisel to turn the bolt which seems easy to bugger up
• dynomec kit, but it's way too expensive

Any cheap ways to remove these stupid things?

[E-bmw]

Go to your local tyre place, most good ones have extractors for exactly this eventuality.

[Robb F]

Do you know anyone that can weld?

[227bhp]

V8S said:

Any cheap ways to remove these stupid things?

Sorry, had to smile at the irony of that.

[Peanut Gallery]

As above, cover the area around the nut in grease or something that protects against weld splatter / sparks, weld a bolt onto it, unscrew and bin.

[rash_decision]

I have had success in the past with one of these multi pin, 'one size fits all' type sockets. Especially on the locking bolts with the 3 pin holes.



Rather than the pins retracting to fit round a bolt/nut hex, they drop in to the locking wheel key holes.