So I was going to take my wheels off for the first time today, to paint my wheels and calipers, but I was stopped short and am now back to square one. I just noticed I have locking lug nuts on my wheels and no lug key to remove them with. I'm going to contact the dealership I bought the car from to see if they will break the lugs and replace the posts for me, unless anyone has another route I could take. Also in the process of trying to remove the wheels, I noticed my lug wrench barely fits on the lug nuts, it doesnt go all the way on, and when turning it to break the lugs off, it just comes loose and slides down. Anyone else have this problem with the OEM Enkei wheels?

 

re: the lug wrench not fitting fully onto the lug nuts. I had the exact same issue years ago. I had to use a socket wrench to remove the lug nuts- and even then I had to lightly hit them with a hammer. As it was (later) explained to me by the Nissan tech, some impact guns have a tendency to distort the lug nuts especially when they overtighten them. I ended up buying new ones off eBay and replaced them. Wrench works fine now.

The dealership will be able to handle the issue with the key for the locking lug nuts.

Good luck!
Alex

 

Have you checked the glove box for the lug key?

 

Definitely see what the dealer can do. They may have the master keys. I had a similar issue where I lost my key. I think I accidentally left it on the lug nut and I flew off while driving. Anyway, I brought it to the dealer cause they put them on for me. Although I didn't go to the same dealer where I got the car but they had master keys. They were nice enough to take all four off and replace with regular lug nuts they had laying around at no cost. I then knew which key I needed and called the manufacturer to order two keys. There are other alternatives like having someone weld on a regular lug nut and use that to remove it.

 

Dealer removed mine for free when my key broke. I also had the same problem with the lugs almost swelling not allowing me to remove them. I first replaced them with a set of ebay lugs but those began to rust shortly after installing. I've since replaced those now with a set from z1 which are much better quality. I highly recommend them if you're looking to replace and you can purchase them in black as well if you'd like.

https://www.z1motorsports.com/wheels...ts-p-7418.html

 

When I purchased my G the locking lug key was not included. However, there was the OEM registration card from McGard that had the lug S/N on it. With that I was able to purchase a duplicate key. Took about five days to have it shipped. Look through your owners manual or with the paperwork that came with the car. You might get lucky

 

smash a socket on them and you can get them off. they really dont offer any protection against theft. just use regular lug nuts.

 

That's true. It's more of a deterrent against a theft of random opportunity. But if someone is planning on stealing your wheels, yours specifically, then they're going to succeed.

One solution is to use spline-drive lug nuts instead of the traditional hex style. Pretty sure few thieves will go through the effort to destroy 20 lug nuts. One per wheel, maybe, but not 20. Then again, an experienced wheel thief probably has a spline drive lug nut key in his bag of tricks.

To counter that, you could take it up a notch (pun! LOL) and look at McGard lug nuts, which use a 8-point spline drive design, rather than the industry standard 6-point. Of course, all you need is the McGard key to get past that hurdle.