locking wheelnuts

[majcd213]

Hi Y'all, well I haven't had to remove any of the wheel on my basket case car yet... However the rapidly deflating rear reminds me that this time cannot be far off, However, as I'm sure you will have guessed... The car did NOT come with a special socket! The locking nuts are of a type I've not seen before ... Covered with a strange rubber bubble, they have a central thread as well as the peripheral hollows... I wondered if these are original Lotus... And also how sophisticated was security back then?... Will any Lotus key work? If not has anyone any recommendations as to how to shift them. I once spent the best part of a week trying to shift them on an escort!!
Cheers all
Mike

[amarshall]

Aftermarket, I'm sorry to say. The factory offered no security options, so everything was either dealer or customer fitted.

Best I can suggest is to get one of locking nut removal tools.

[Hawaiis0]

Can you post a piccy of the nuts?

[Hawaiis0]

Just seen your car piccy in another post. Those are Toyota wheels I think so try them

[majcd213]

Ahah!! Brute force and ignorance- NOW you are talking! Where's my breaker bar....

[tonypoll]

I bought a wheel nut remover - didn't work!
Rather than risk damaging the wheel I drove the car to my local garage who removed the nut in a few minutes, for a donation to their Christmas fund.

[majcd213]

Ahhh well you had a car that was mobile...! Do you know how they removed them?

I am Thinking I may be able to knock up an adapter. Fr.on son hex bar and small bolts to act as pegs... Anyone tried?

[majcd213]

Checked the Lotus parts list- seems these 8 spoke wheels were a factory option fitted porior to 1986.
So original Lotus although maybe from the Toyota parts bin- now all I have to do is source a new set of tyres!

[majcd213]

Just an update for anyone interested I don't like to leave my posts 'hanging'. Anyway I made an adapter by grinding teeth to match the indentations on the hubnuts into a suitably sized socket. This of course destroyed the socket but did eventually release the nuts. More on my blog if interested.

[Lotus-e-Clan]

I lost the adapter to the locking wheel nuts (the good chrome ones from Halfords with the funny flower shaped groves on the face) and at last (today) I managed to get them off using the wheel nut removal socket set (left-hand-threaded in two sizes) again from Halfords.

But it wasn't straight forward! The small socket is too small and the larger socket is too fat to fit the TAPERING (!) wheel nut holes of the later (post 88) OZ 15 inch wheels.

So i ground down the outside of the larger socket to a similar taper (quite a lot to grind off! ) and used an IMPACT DRIVER (Halfords again) on the left (undo) setting and hit it with a lump hammer! This gets the thread gripping on the outside of the locking nut. Then used a ratchet handle (or breaker bar) to undo each locking nut.

What a relief!

Won't be buying locking wheel nuts ever again ... this little problem effectively stopped me using the the Excel for the past year since when the MOT expired, the rear tyres needed changing and I needed to do brake maintenance !

[alanmoss]

Sorry to come late to this party but I have a set of Lotus locking wheel nuts for the 15" OZ wheels.
I have had them for years but have never got round to fitting them - only just remembered to check. Needless to say the box has no prt number on it.