I just took my car in to a garage to get a slow puncture looked at… and neither of us could find a toolkit for the locking wheel nut doodad. I’m now home, and shock-horror I’ve even resorted to ReadingTFM!
I can’t find a ‘wheel brace’ either. I’ve got a jack with it’s handle on the right, alongside the battery. I’ve got the space-saver wheel in the middle (unused). And on the left I’ve I’ve got a small black plastic cubby-hole, which is empty. It’s held in place by a philips headed screw, so there can’t be anything hidden under that. All the rest of the boot lining is fixed in place too… can’t see any of clips or screws that are intended to be undone by the driver.
Everything is very clean and tidy. But there doesn’t even seem to be any space for anything else.
I’m going to be making a long journey tomorrow, and I’ll be stuck if I get a puncture
That stuff is ok but it will cost you when you come to have the tyre changed.
The stuff makes one hell of a mess on the wheel rim and most tyre places will charge you extra to clean it off once the tyre is removed.
It sounds like a great idea but I would rather change the wheel than put that stuff in my tyres having seen the mess it makes.
I did say for emergencies. Also useful when you don’t have room for the spare in the boot of a Mk 1. I agree about the mess but better thet than being stranded.
As right now I can’t change the tyre, I bought a can of Tyre Weld. But I managed to get there and back without any problems. The dealer is trying to call the previous owner for me, just in case the bits are still in his possession.
Just in case anyone has a similar problem (losing a locking wheel nut key), then here’s a few hints for you:
If you need locking wheel nuts removed, then there are 4 ways to go about it:
If they’re official Mazda wheel nuts, then the dealers will have a Master key, but unfortunately (I’m told) it can take ages to get a replacement key through from Mazda (may be weeks). They’ll sell a replacement set for £30, which is cheaper than Halfords (£35).
Unfortunately my locking nuts weren’t so…
Halfords have a ‘device’. It costs £10, and basically cuts it’s own thread (reversed) onto your wheel nut, so it’s then locked on, and can be unscrewed. A friend has used one and it works, but you need a power tool rather than a wheel brace to get it on. I guess it wrecks the nuts, but at least they’re off
Ebay has lots of different keys on sale. It looks like you could probably find something for £20-£40, get the locking nuts off, then re-sell the kit on ebay?
Find another garage… I used Fast Fit in Bletchley. They had a device that was hammered on to the nuts (and wrecked 'em). Normally they charge £10 a wheel, which is a bit steep as it took about 5 minutes to do the lot, but the guy was nice and only charged me £15 for the lot.
Now the really nice thing is, if you don’t mind not having locking wheel nuts, your local dealer will have bags of plain ones, which they take off the new cars… my dealer gave me a big bag of them for free!
