You can avoid wheel theft

The victims of thieves are not only aluminum, but also steel wheels from SUVs. To prevent this, it is enough to purchase special mounting screws.

Wheel theft is much less common now than it was a few years ago, but unfortunately it is still a problem for car owners.

The loss of four rims with tires is serious, because in a middle-class car or SUV, the purchase of such a set often costs even PLN 8. To avoid such waste, you can install screws that make it difficult or even impossible for a thief to unscrew the wheels.

Don't skimp on security. Cheaper ones provide only a small amount of protection against theft, since they do not have a rotating ring on the screw head. So little effective, because such a bolt can be unscrewed with pliers or even punched with an ordinary key. On the other hand, a screw with a rotating ring cannot be unscrewed in this way.

If we have two sets of rims, such as steel and aluminum, you may find that you need two types of mounting bolts, because for some alloy rims you need to use bolts with a different head or length.

The choice of bolts or locknuts is great and we can buy them from most auto shops and any authorized service center. The difference in price is significant, but so is the quality. And unfortunately, the higher the price, the better the screws. Although this rule does not always work, because in the Nissan store you can buy nuts without a swivel ring for 150 PLN, and in Seat you can buy quality bolts for 80 PLN.

Locking screws are expensive because the head must be made from quality materials and have an unusual shape. And the more complex and less geometric the shape, the more difficult it is to forge such a key. When buying the cheapest bolts, we will only protect the wheels from ordinary amateurs. In addition, the workmanship of such screws leaves much to be desired. The service life will be very short and the first unscrewing may cause problems.

 

The fixing bolts must not be tightened or loosened with a pneumatic wrench, because the harsh nature of the work of this wrench will quickly destroy the head. Ideally, all wheel bolts should be hand-tight. Pneumatic wheels are mostly stiff, and if we need to change a wheel on the road, we might have trouble turning it off with only a factory wrench with a not too long handle.

When you have a set of mounting bolts, you should always carry a special nut in the car, thanks to which you can unscrew the bolt. This must be monitored, especially if the car is on the site. If you lose it, in most cases you have to purchase a new set of screws, and unscrewing the screws is an even bigger problem.  

Security Prices

Seat	PLN 80
Opel	PLN 160
Nissan	PLN 150
Honda	PLN 190
ATT	PLN 75

Too much bad and too expensive

Due to the convenience and speed of assembly, the sites use pneumatic wrenches, which means that the wheels are screwed on too tight. As a rule, we find out about this when changing the wheel on the road. Having only a factory key, we will have serious problems unscrewing it. The bolt may come off, and even if it is unscrewed, the threads of the hub may be damaged.

This, in turn, makes it necessary to replace the bearing, disassemble the steering knuckle, and later also adjust the geometry of the suspension. Costs are high and guilt is difficult to prove. In most passenger cars, the torque required to tighten a wheel is approximately 110 Nm. It is best to tighten the wheel with a torque wrench, because then we can do it right. This is what websites are supposed to do. The driver needs only a factory key to tighten. You don't need to put any tube on it to lengthen it and tighten it with even more force.

Proper wheel tightening

Before installing the wheel, clean the hub and rim, preferably with a wire brush, so that the rim lies flat against the hub. When having problems removing the rim, it is worth lubricating the hub with a copper-based lubricant. Then it is best to screw in all the bolts by hand, making sure that the rim rests on the hub with its entire circumference, and before lowering the wheel to the ground, tighten the bolts with a wrench. The next step is to lower the car, but not completely, and this is the next tightening step. The bolts must be tightened diagonally so that the rim is screwed evenly.