Stuck Nuts!

[Twinkle666]

Hi Folks, A question for you S3 owners out there!

A friend of mine is running a 2000 model S3 and has somehow managed to allow the two front locking wheel nuts to seize onto the hubs. God knows when she last took the wheels off but its not looking good. The locking wheel nut key is as good as scrap and the car has been into a decent tyre place and even they scrapped about £60 of their kit trying to get the nuts off. They tried the basic one of banging on a compact socket over the locking wheel nut and they split 2 in the process then the specialist kit was used with no joy.
Anyone got any other ideas? The Tyre place said that she may have to get both front driveshafts etc unbolted and then taken to a specialist to get then drilled out!! Sounds expensive............
She lives in Kingswinford in the West Mids so if anyone can recommend anywhere 'local' to do the job or offer an alternative please drop us a line, cheers..........

 

[s3ollie]

how about welding a socket or similar to the nut?

 

[Jamesh]

I've helped a few people out with this problem before, I got some sockets which have coarse threads cut into the internal wall. You wind them on to the locking nut by using a windy gun, it then cuts its own thread into the locking nut, hopefully when its fully wound on it will lock and remove the nuts. This may work depending on the type of locking nut/bolt, if not you'll have to try welding a socket on as mentioned above.

 

[A3-frankie]

I did one for a friend the other week. problem was the locking nut /key design was crap because you couldnt give it brute force as the key would come off the nut

So we put car in garage, got scissor jack out. we wound the scissor jack between the wall and the wheel brace to apply extreme pressure so the brace couldnt come off the nut. then jumped on the brace, it gave it the fraction of a turn it needed to then take the jack out and finnish the job by hand.

failing that you could try the weld a socket on method, didnt work for us as we couldnt get it to stick (im no welder)

A method i also used which may or may not work depending on the wheels and whether you can get a chisel in or not. A big hammer and a stone chisel. Beata flat spot into the nut or a little dink to get a grip with the chisel and try hammering it anti-clockwise, tedious but can work.

You may also find that the shocking of the hammer will losen the thread.

Another idea is use a blowtorch, dont be a fanny withit though. you will need to get some serious heat onto it to losen it.

Heres a new idea, i ay have it all wrong and it wil never work but. If it is seized on thenyou need to relieve the pressure. For example when you have to drill the head off a boltthat wont come undone it then unscrews withyour fingers because theres no pressure on it. I dont think you can do that given the size but is itpossible to.....take a say 7mm drill bit ( a very very good toughened number) and bore a hole straight through the middle of the bolt and out the other side. I dont know wouold this relieve pressure and with morepersuassion let it work loosebest of luck withit anyway,

let us know how u do it.

 

[s3ollie]

i persoanally wouldn't try heating the bolt as it will expand in the thread and make it harder to get out. you would need to heat the hub (and cool the bolt in a ideal world) but its next to impossible with the wheel on.

 

[simch]

you can do exactly that by going out and nuking the brakes up, so they are litterally red hot and fading, the heat transfers to the hub assembly, the bolt will gett hot too but as the heat radiates in from the disc, it will usually be a lower temp that the threads/hub.
It is certainly easier to undo the bolts when the hub is hot.

oh, btw, audi dealers have some tools that will remove most locking bolts if the key is damaged or missing.

 

[Ryore]

IMO Welding a nut onto the damaged locking nut is the best bet for this type of problem if you have the space, the heat helps, even though its heating the stud, the expansion and contraction helps to break to corrosion that caused it to bind..Clearly though after welding allow to fully cool otherwise the heat will work against you.

Few other methods..

Shock heat...heat the hub localised around the bolt to red hot (get the heat on it aggressively to keep the heat as localised as possible..then rapidly cool the housing, the rapid expansion / contraction often breaks the threads of the bind...would not recommend this is this case.

Easy outs..- these are the hardened left hand thread tap types tools, basically you drill a hold, put the easy out into it and it cuts its own left hand thread, which in theory eventually winds out the bolt.
These are quite effective but often brake in heavy applications due to their hardness (making then brittle) leaving you with an easy out to also remove.

Impact- a good solid whack on the end of the bolt with a lump hammer will often free things off, but I think you will have already tried this.

Cutting gear- As a last resort, I've used a oxy acetylene torch to cut away the bolt head, you can then remove the wheel and use a pair of stilsons to remove the rest of the bolt. You do need some one good with a burning torch though, it’s not that difficult but its easy to damage the alloys if you don’t have a steady hand. I've also seen it done by an experienced welder with a manual metal arc gauging rod.. this seemed to be more precise.

good luck.

 

[S3 Jock]

drill the head off, safer and easier