Alloy Wheel Thefts Manchester and Wales

[CandyFR]

Morning Everyone,

Just a quick work of warning that alloy wheels have been going missing around manchester and Wales.

My brother woke up horrified this morning as his Focus ST3 was sat on bricks!!

Apparently the word is around the ST forum that 5 sets went missing around wales last week and a couple in manchester this week, they seem to be working there way up here.

Has anybody had any Leon FR 18" alloys taken and are they hard to get off?

I am thinking of getting sum McGuards fitted to mine and have 2 locking nuts per wheel.

Any other suggestions would be great??

Cheers Nick

 

[Imran]

how do locking wheel nuts works?

 

[Deleted member 7729]

How are they getting them off? Are they drilling them out?

Thankfully I'm not driving to work anymore and the car is on the drive behind a locked gate. soon to be non see through, which will piss the neighbour off.

 

[Donnyboy]

The last time I had a knackered locking nut I had to hammer a single hex socket onto it. It took a few hits and was pretty noisy though.

Wonder how they do it???

 

[adamj]

Maybe they use something like this http://www.lockingwheelnutremover.co.uk/indexEnglish.html

 

[Deleted member 7729]

WTF!! License to steal wheels and print money!

 

[Rampage]

There are various ways (I only know because I have lost several keys!)
Out of the ones I've used McGard are by far the easiest. It would cost me £8-10 to remove McGard locking wheel nuts from each wheel if I lost the key (which I did on my Vectra). It's actually quicker to remove them this way than to use the key!
You can buy a purpose made tool for removing locking wheel nuts, although I've never used one.
Two locking wheel nuts on each wheel would obviously take longer to remove and they might not risk it. But I would be worried about safely to be honest, as you don't tend to tighten locking wheel nuts as tight.

The best ones I've used are the cheap ones with the rotating metal shim around the outside. The first time I did one of these it took about an hour!

I'm not a wheel thief! Just very good at loosing locking keys (normally when I'm in the middle of taking a gearbox out!)

 

[Rampage]

LoL, about 10 posts in the time it took me to type my reply.
All the methods I know make a lot of noise (even the link above) so I guess there is another way....

 

[ste-lfc]

the reason they are going missing is cos they are FORDS.my old st wheels got stolen a few years ago,same as now there were loads of sets going missing.When speaking to the recovery man he said ford only had 8 different wheel keys and all were easily available......Also the ford alarm didnt have a switch that detects the car is being raised......DOES SEAT ALARM HAVE THIS??????

 

[Rampage]

Try jacking it up?

 

[CandyFR]

they must have been quiet, it was in the carpark of about 10 flats and the guy on the ground floor where my bro parks leaves his window open all night.

They left all the nuts on the floor after stealing the wheels, including the locking nuts (in tact i may add)

Ford say that you need the masterset to be abled to remove ford locking nuts.

And yes it would be good to know if the Leon has a motion sensor when moved and if seats locking nuts are decent?

Also i have heard Mcguards are the Dogs Bo*ll*ks but must be wrong?

 

[Poverty]

lol they must have the full set of locking wheel nuts, not hard to come by if you are in the trade.

 

[lasbazrre]

Is the Cupra alarm the same as a S3? the S3 alarm goes off when you jack it up/down

leon

 

[ste-lfc]

Try jacking it up?

Was gonna do that b4 when i posted but had no time,will do it in the mornin and post the result

 

[neilandbob]

after some 18's myself lol

 

[H8T WP]

Was gonna do that b4 when i posted but had no time,will do it in the mornin and post the result

did u try it mate?

 

[flakmunky]

The locking wheel nut on my Leon was identical to that on my Golf MkV.

The first thing I did was buy some McGuards. £35 for the top ones which have a collar which rotates freely. McGuards consistantly win best product in AutoCar etc as they are resitant to drilling and hammering and although they can be removed the wheel is often damaged in the process.

There must be a lot of people blissfully unaware how easy it is to get a key for their nuts...

Does anyone know how many different keys VW / Audi / SEAT / Skoda use?

If I were you, as its pay day, get down to Halfrauds and spend £35 this weeekend...

RE alarm going off when jacking the car - I believe I read this in the manual. My Golf had a little button low down behind the drivers seat belt on the door pillar to switch this off but I believe its a remote key press with the Layon.

 

[ste-lfc]

Ok just tried it,DID NOT TRIGGER ALARM,jacked up higher than needed,dropped it quick no joy.I can remember talkin to an alarm place after my ST (shite)wheels got robbed,and a switch can usually be added to the exiting alarm,i will check this out 4 the LEON later.....

 

[flakmunky]

I think the McGards would be cheaper! Visual deterrent as well - once they see them they will prolly go elsewhere.

 

[H8T WP]

ill get the manual out !