Air tools and locking wheel bolts

[daves16v 1]

I've heard you should NOT remove or install locking wheel bolts with an air driver.

 

Is this correct?

[Henny 0]

yup, you run the risk of damaging or snapping off the locking keys lugs with an air gun... only ever torque 'em up/ undo 'em by hand... 8)

[daves16v 1]

Cheers mate

[dinkus 10]

You shouldn't really do wheel nuts up with an air gun anyway cos you'll never get the feckers off again if you should get a puncture and only have the toolkit wheel brace...

[Supercharged 2]

I think they make the wheel brace that long so you can do them up by hand and get roughly the correct torque which is 110Nm :wink:

[coolrado 0]

demon tweeks use the airgun for undoing normal bolts they use a spider wheel brace for the locking bolts and use an air ratchet set on a very low torque just to spin the bolts up then use a torque wrench to finnish them off thats how they should be done.

i had to call the AA out once because some cowboy garage who did my tyres tightened the wheels up so much with the air gun, that i snapped the standard wheelbrace trying to undo them :mad:

[dinkus 10]

I think they make the wheel brace that long so you can do them up by hand and get roughly the correct torque which is 110Nm :wink:

 

Yup, I did mine up with a torque wrench to the right setting and then undid them with the wheel brace with no problems. If you haven't got a torque wrench, then just use the brace. If you do them up with the brace, then you know you can get them off again :D

 

Edit: I'd make sure you get a nice load of copper slip on the back of the wheel too, it'll make getting the wheel off again easier, if a little messy.

[kvwloon 0]

Yep, three things I always look for to decide whether it's a good tyre fitters/garage or a bad one....

 

1- Do they fully tighten up your wheel bolts using an air tool only, not using a torque wrench for the final tighten?

2- Do they plonk your wheels on ther garage floor 'face' down?

3- Do they leave dirty brake dust prints all over your wheels and not wipe them off?

 

Any of these and they don't get my money again.

[Geo 0]

I always do them up with the airgun then check them with the brace. Sometimes the air gun can actually leave them too loose, especially with alloys.

 

As for the locking wheel bolts question. As long as you make sure that the attachment is on the right way then it should be ok. If it isn't and you use the air gun then you could be fcuked though :lol:

[andihaz 0]

Dont think airguns are good for the locking wheel bolt because of the high force of the impacts, it stresses the shape of the key, and they always give a little bit of play in the key so you can get it on easy which will be making the impact even worse. I wasnt impressed when the national tyres guy used it on mine, and then left the key on the nut for me to drive off in, until i asked where he'd put the key. Learnt a lesson to always check the work of the tyre fitter monkey.