how to use an impact driver

Agreed, unfortunately not many other people do this. Most of mine are now missing or have been ground flush as I had to drill them out, its just a fiddle aligning the hub, disk and wheels when trying to get the wheel bolts back in! :-)

BMW have a handy little tool for this in the toolkit - it's a plastic covered mandrill that you just push into one of the holes. Makes wheel changing a dawdle. You could do something simlair by sawing the head off a bolt.

Dave Plowman (News) ( snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Or buying a car with wheel studs or a locating pin.

You only use a breaker bar to undo tight wheel nuts. To tighten them either use a torque wrench or simply the maker's supplied brace and your full body weight. Unless you're Giant Hayseeds.

Having got two cars both with five bolt/stud fixing, and wheels of approximately the same weight, I can report that replacing a wheel using the BMW bolts/ mandrill is easier than the one with the studs. Because the BMW tool is much longer than the studs, so makes location easier. You simply have to get the mandrill into one hole then swing the wheel into place. With five equal length studs you have to get the wheel lined up far more accurately.

I get the impression you've never actually tried it.

I would suggest not using a baboon to help you locate wheels. Mind you Kwik Fit seem to make a good living like that.

-- Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines

I've found them more than ok - on the odd occasion I've used them. But then it's only been things like punctures where I leave the wheel with them. And they sometimes don't charge. Try that with a BMW dealer.

Have you ever changed a BMW wheel using the supplied tool to locate it?

I have. And it's far easier than trying to locate a similar wheel onto studs.

Try it sometime before rubbishing it.

Common German trick, there's one in the Audis tool kit, & it's easier in the dark than studs.

I think you miss my drift. A mandrill is a baboon native to central west Africa. A mandrel on the other hand.......

-- Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines

Dave Plowman (News) ( snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Whoosh.

Well whooshed. ;-)

Ah... ;-)

Dave Plowman (News) ( snipped-for-privacy@davenoise.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

"Oi, Ladeeez! Look at my willy! Big, innit!"

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