One of the tasks which we always carry out during an annual service, is the removal of the wheels. This is done for two reasons. The first is to have a good look at the brakes and the second is to ensure that the wheel will actually come off. This is something which is not regularly done by many main dealers now.

It is very common for the alloy wheels to stick firmly to the hub and not shift, even after the wheel nuts are removed. It is also common for the brakes to be visually checked through the large gaps in the alloys, which means that the wheels are rarely removed.

This 2009 Ford Focus had been regularly looked after, but I suspect that it had been a while since the wheels had been removed. The wheel nuts were extremely tight and the owner struggled to remove them with his longest breaker bar. The locking nuts would not budge at all, and when he had applied more torque, he broke the wheel nut key.

I have in the past managed to remove this type of locking nut by first drilling two holes at either edge of the nut, breaking off the spinning ring around the edge and then splitting the nut.

These came off a little easier by simply drilling one hole in the locking nut and then using a reverse thread socket. The hole drilled had released enough pressure to then allow the nuts to be removed.

Thankfully this process could be completed at a convenient time and not because the Focus had a puncture.

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