What sort of locking wheel nut?

[zcacogp]

Chaps,

Further to a couple of threads recently, I have discovered that the locking wheel nuts I have on the front of my S2 are too heavy and are interfering with the balance of the wheel. One option would be to have the wheels balanced on the car, but with prices for this being not dissimilar to that for new tyres, and the idea that wheels need rebalancing every now and again, I'll look at the type of wheelnut issue first.

Currently I have the lightweight alloy wheelnuts with one locking nut per wheel. They look like this;

(apologies for the terrible photos).

I haven't weighed them, but they are steel which means they are probably quite a lot heavier than the (very light) alloy nuts. What sort of locking wheelnut do other people use for their wheels, if they are using the alloy nuts elsewhere? There must be lighter alternatives. What does anyone suggest?

An alternative would be to swap the alloy nuts for steel ones, making the whole assembly heavier but balancing out the weights better. However I'd rather keep things lighter if I can - I can't see any reason to downgrade the setup unless there is good call to.


Oli.

 

[Waylander]

These are the right ones

eBay item number 151676533815

If the are from that bunch of robbers up north check your OPC first, east London for you, the 944/968 guy there is Steve Mathiot

 

[white944]

I would just get rid of them and fit standard nuts. No-one nicks wheels any more and the things are a pain in the a$$.

 

[chrisg]

Several years ago, I lost the locking wheel adapter for a similar set of wheel nuts. I simply bought a brand new set from OPC which are alloy and a very similar shape & size to the alloy wheel nuts.

ISTR they cost me about £30.....

Chris

 

[944 man]

McGard

 

[gothatway]

I'm with White944. Just hope he's right !

 

[Frenchy]

They weigh 18 grammes each as do the Porsche alloy locking wheel bolts, personally as someone has already said they are a pain in the derriere ! and if you lose the unlocking sockett you are for a headache as the originals have a shear point machined into them ie the snap off when you knock a socket over them.............................ask me how i know [&o]

 

[944Scott]

ORIGINAL: Frenchy

They weigh 18 grammes each as do the Porsche alloy locking wheel bolts, personally as someone has already said they are a pain in the derriere ! and if you lose the unlocking sockett you are for a headache as the originals have a shear point machined into them ie the snap off when you knock a socket over them.............................ask me how i know [&o]

Thats why I have the other type I pictured on the other thread, if I loose the key I can drill the tumbler out and remove the cover to get to the nut,

 

[zcacogp]

Chaps,

Thanks for the answers on this and the other thread. My OPC sells the Porsche locking nuts for £39.27p a set (plus VAT), so that's the cheapest way of getting them (thanks for the eBay link though Waylander).

I take on board all the points about locking wheel nuts being a pain and doing without them being easier. You are, of course, right, but it would be a lot more of a pain if someone nicked the wheels overnight - not to mention more expensive. I live in East London and some kind soul saw fit to kick the wing mirror off my car last weekend. On that basis, I'm happy to buy the locking nuts.

Thanks again for your help.


Oli.

 

[Waylander]

your welcome the link was to show you the right shape and size not to buy them


glad you got it sorted

 

[zcacogp]

Thanks - it was very helpful for that. I think I have seen a set on a car somewhere but can't remember where.

East London OPC have them in stock so I'll trundle down to their new fancy-dancy showroom at Gallions Reach and buy some one day next week.

Thanks again for your help.


Oli.

 

[Waylander]

Was in there last week picking up a pile of bits nice place, and I have a set of those locking nuts on my car

 

[zcacogp]

Bit of an update: I bought some of those locking wheel nuts today and will fit them tomorrow.

Martin, yes, the new place for OPC East London is impressive enough and clearly much bigger than the old one. It's a pain to get to though (1/2 hour in the car, whereas I could cycle to the last one in 10 minutes) and the postcode doesn't show up on Android navigation! The chap in the spares section who served me didn't seem terribly impressed with it and I think they'll lose out massively on passing trade. I hope they don't regret the move ....


Oli.

 

[Waylander]

yup its a real pain in the ass, and the traffic is horrid after 4pm.

for me its down the M11 then the A406, not the best place to be in rush hour.

Steve Mathiot the parts guy is really into his 944/968 cars gets me lots of silly little bits and bobs.

 

[zcacogp]

Final update on this; just done a couple of hundred miles on the car with the new wheelnuts. And the difference is quite surprising - it is smooth at all speeds! It never was entirely smooth before, something I put down to the fact that the car is old, parts are generally worn, the wheels not being 100% balanced, etc etc etc. Now that the wheel nuts are no longer causing an imbalance I can see that the condition of the rest of the components is fine, and it's lovely! Previously, Mrs zcacogp always claimed that the 'whole of the car shakes at 100mph' and she got most nervous whenever we went that fast. Now it seems that she is happy to remain asleep in the passenger seat at speeds some way in excess of that! (We were in Germany, of course. [])

Incidentally, putting equally-balanced nuts on the rear of the car has helped too; previously I had the heavy locking nuts on the back and five regular nuts on each front wheel. The new arrangement (properly-weighted nuts all 'round) has made it smoother again.

I'm consequently very happy. It's the best £40 I've spent on the car for a while. Thanks for your help chaps.


Oli.