Locking Wheel Nuts

[SilverT4]

Today I had a puncture. When I tried to take the wheel off, using the Toyota supplied wheelbrace, the locking wheel nut (Toyota supplied) would not budge. A kind motorist parked nearby saw my plight and loaned me a spider wheel brace, but the nut still refused to move.

In desperation I called out the RAC. When the engineer arrived, he produced a quite long wheel brace. "this will move it" he said. Half an hour later he had to admit defeat. The nut would not move. As I was not too far from home he jacked up the wheel, located the puncture and plugged it. He advised me the best thing to do would be to take it into my Toyota dealer.

I have two concerns:-

1. The contact depth between the nut and the key is very shallow - about 2 or 3 miliimetres which is much less than a standard wheel nut. Because the nut was so tight, the key kept slipping off. The RAC engineer commented that this type of locking wheel nut was very poor and he advised me to change them all.

2. I have never had any reason to remove the wheel, and it has only been removed when the car has been serviced. I assume then that the nut must have been overtightened at the last service.

Whatever my dealer does to free off the nut, they will no doubt want to charge me.

Do you think it would be reasonable to expect them to bear the cost, as it was they who overtightened the nut and they who supplied poor quality locking nuts?

[Trafficman]

I had the same problem with my Avensis TSpirit, it has the same nuts!

Eventually the breakdown guy got it undone by hime straining on the wrench and me hitting the nut at right angles to the wheel. This broke/jarred the corrosion between the steel nut and the alloty wheel (bi-metal corrosion)

My Toyouta garage replaced all the locking nuts and the key FOC.

I also was not ompressed by the bite between the key and nut!

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[SilverT4]

My Toyota dealer managed to free off the nut - not sure how they did it, and they did it free of charge.

However as my tyre was damaged beyond repair, they 'offered' to fit a replacement for £120. However I politely refused as I had already priced a replacement at £86.

After first advising me that they could not match that price, they did a u turn and reduced the price to £85.