Help. Wheel nut lock.

1

123Coogee

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Tadpole
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Hi I'm new here. I'm wondering if anyone can help. I have a 2011 Peugeot 207 .

I had a puncture last week, which I had repaired. When I went to put the wheel back on I discovered that the wheel lock nut had been stripped.

I went to a couple of tyre places but they could not help. I contacted Peugeot in Sydney who advised that a new lock nut would cost $300 and take approx. three months to deliver from France.

A local mechanic has said that he could drill them out charging $120 per wheel .

I’m wondering if anybody has had a similar experience and could offer alternative advice.

Thanks in advance.

John
 
Half the owners of modern Peugeots have had a similar experience. Ditto Citroen owners.

They are evil. Get them off and chuck them all out and buy 4 standard bolts to replace them. You don't need security bolts, particularly on a wet night on a narrow road with a cranky passenger.

Lucifer himself dreamed these up on a particularly malicious day. If you try hard to get them off without the tool they are likely to shear the top off deep in the hole There are many AF threads concerning these, with various difficult ways of getting them off.

Use the home page, where there is a Duckduckgo search box.

When my cars were bought I told the dealers I wouldn't take delivery while they remained. They knew. Out came 4 bolts fitted at no charge.
 
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Useful advice. Can someone suggest where to buy 4 sensible bolts?
 
Any dealer, or sometimes from one of the wreckers. Dealer parts departments are quite used to them being changed.
 
123Coogee said:
Hi I'm new here. I'm wondering if anyone can help. I have a 2011 Peugeot 207 .

I had a puncture last week, which I had repaired. When I went to put the wheel back on I discovered that the wheel lock nut had been stripped.

I went to a couple of tyre places but they could not help. I contacted Peugeot in Sydney who advised that a new lock nut would cost $300 and take approx. three months to deliver from France.

A local mechanic has said that he could drill them out charging $120 per wheel .

I’m wondering if anybody has had a similar experience and could offer alternative advice.

Thanks in advance.

John
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I presume that you are talking about the safety bolt? How badly damaged is the nut? I had a similar problem with the nut for a C5. It had lost about three of the cylindrical studs that lock onto the bolt head. One remained so I could see what the diameter was. I happened to have some galvanised nails of similar diameter. I was able to cut them down so that they sat in the holes that the previous pins had been stripped from. I cleaned everything up carefully and superglued the new studs into the holes and left the whole thing to cure. I then gave it to my mechanic who, very gingerly, and with minimum force, was able to take out all the bolts and replace them with conventional bolts. I may have been lucky but its worth a try. A Pug dealer may have a collection of the nuts but I found that it was hard to find a match.
 
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I agree to remove all the silly locking bolts and replace them with standard bolts like the other bolts. Any person who has small Peugeot for dismantling will have them for sale. Just check they are the same and the heads are the same size hex. There would be lots around Sydney.
Some tire shops do keep a set of special sockets to remove damaged screws and nuts. Ask around at different places as they will remove them in a jiffy most likely. If they ask for that silly money to remove them just go to another place till you find one with the removal sockets. Here is a set on ebay. You probably need the long(high) style.
https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1651444...Q0%2FXHwkAWXuKRlY%3D|ampid:PL_CLK|clp:4429486
Jaahn
 
Get yourself some sheet metal and cut a piece you can wrap around the nut in the wheel to fill the gap very close. A piece of tubing the right size is even better. Now get a nice punch and mark a center where you need to drill a hole in the wheel nut such that it will cut deep into the wheel nut but not touch the stud and be far enough from the rim on the other side. The sheet metal you wrapped around will protect the wheel. A new drill bit (I am guessing 6mm but you could try whatever diameter you think may fit - smaller diameters are easier to drive but easier to break and you don't want that) will drill straight and easy. Drill maybe three of these holes around the nut and the leftover will come out easily enough. If the first drill doesn't get close enough to the stud, go 1mm larger and so on until you get close enough or are getting to close to the rim on the opposite side. If three holes don't do it, just keep drilling until you go all the way around the nut and at that point there won't be much left of it to hold on to the stud. It will be way cheaper than 120 bucks per wheel.
 
That's one way to attack the top. Peugeot uses shaped bolts. There are no studs. The tool engages slots in the bolt, for which there are many variations in position..
locking bolts.png
 
Thank you, seasink.

I was mislead by the reference to wheel nuts.

Bolts are easier to destructively remove. Just drill through the centre, small at first, then enlarge until head comes off. I do acknowledge there is a small degree of risk to rims but with some care I am sure damage can be avoided. Most importantly drill slowly, let the bit do the work. A new sharp bit will cut through like butter and you have a centre marked already.

What an idiotic setup. I would have probably taken seasink's attitude if I bought a car like this but I guess most people haven't tried to remove a wheel after many kilometres of use.
 
Those bolts are one of the best examples of the Bureau de Bastarde's work.

Even our C4 in France that is an ex Paris car does not have those evil pieces of crap.

Get them off and ditch them.
 
schlitzaugen said:
Thank you, seasink.

I was mislead by the reference to wheel nuts.

Bolts are easier to destructively remove. Just drill through the centre, small at first, then enlarge until head comes off. I do acknowledge there is a small degree of risk to rims but with some care I am sure damage can be avoided. Most importantly drill slowly, let the bit do the work. A new sharp bit will cut through like butter and you have a centre marked already.

What an idiotic setup. I would have probably taken seasink's attitude if I bought a car like this but I guess most people haven't tried to remove a wheel after many kilometres of use.
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They are a beautiful bit of design work as without the coded tool they are almost impossible to remove. I have to disagree with the use of EASIER in the post. They are bloody tough metal and so designed that the wine glass waist breaks away and snaps if a non coded tool is used. Replacements were readily available off Ebay a few years ago. Otherwise a wrecker should be able to supply.
 
Had to do all four on a clients RCZ today, took about an hour with 3 sharp drills, Cold Chisel and hammer. No damage to the mag
 
PeteB said:
Had to do all four on 68a clients RCZ today, took about an hour with 3 sharp drills, Cold Chisel and hammer. No damage to the mag
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Agreed. Get your self a couple of cobalt drill bits (say 8mm assuming centre is clearly identifiable on the bolt) drill them out and use eazyouts to unscrew bolt.
Trefolex cutting compound plus a good 1/2" drill should the trick. Don't break the eazyout notwithstanding that cobalt drill bits go through them also - tough stuff cobalt.
If you to go back through previous posts, you'll find that I favoured the security bolts to retained as I lost a full set of new tyres (and wheels of course) some time back. But now days, there's plenty of special expensive tyres around so the chance of them picking on our Peugeot / Citroen is slim.
So, the 508 Wagon (and C5) had the security bolts changed before the 1st service.
 
Pete, you deserve a gong. Three hours and some tools.

Mr Coogee might be advised to go to the Central Coast (or wherever), though it gives him some idea of how time consuming this nasty job is. There are firms in the UK and Europe with a tool made for this job that make a speciality of it.
 
seasink said:
Pete, you deserve a gong. Three hours and some tools.

Mr Coogee might be advised to go to the Central Coast (or wherever), though it gives him some idea of how time consuming this nasty job is. There are firms in the UK and Europe with a tool made for this job that make a speciality of it.
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Fortunately, hadn't been over tightened, sure it could have been considerably worse. Happy to help if I can though.
 
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