locking wheel nut sheared (citroen c3)

A centre drill is just a thick drill with a thin point sticking out the end, it's a lot stiffer than a thin drill the same length but can't drill in very far. The advantage is that it doesn't drift sideways if you don't get it square on in the 1st place & it's harder to snap. That's a link to a left handed centre drill

BTDT, own many different varieties of dremel etc. If you snap it off it does make life worse, but you can normally get it out.

Starting with the biggest one you can get central works best, the problem is that the bigger the bit the easier it is to get it to float sideways whilst it's starting and the greateer the chance you'll hit the threads.

That's a good excuse to buy a bigger drill :-)

Personally the only ones of those that I've ever found worth using are the Dormer ones. Those look similar but I've no desire to grind another screw extractor out.

They're not bad, but the 1st set only fit AF bolt heads and the 3rd set are really for getting screws out.

The reason the Dormer ones are marginally better is because they are properly heat treated and they recommend drill sizes for different base materials although this is on an easily lost slip of paper. I still prefer the parallel splined ones though

The Irwin bolt grips fit metric ones too depending on the level of corrosion of the nut, the sizes are not rigidly set in stone no matter what it says on the marketing blurb, the box or the side of the tool.

I expanded my set with the infill set of another five extractors a long time ago so there is lots of choice in the 10 - 16mm range if the prime extractor doesn't work first time. I like them a lot especially when it's not really practical to get a welding torch to the right spot. They recently saved me about 20 hours of work and potentially 300+ quids worth of parts on one job on an exhaust downpipe.

Thanks. I think drill bits are the way to go. Those Irwin sockets are only any good if you have the same size socket as the bolt you are trying to remove and sod's law says no matter how many you have, you won't have the right one. A drill bit on the other hand can be used on any bolt that's bigger than the bit, so it is more versatile.

You said centre drills can't drill far. Does the bolt become loose before you've got far or do you have to switch bits to a non-centre LH bit after a certain depth to finish the job?

Thanks, Stephen.

Both points agreed with, but I've found the infill set more use than the original set.

The centre is only about 3 times the diameter so you have to switch to a non centre drill, but at that point you have a nice hole to start the next drill off without it wandering.

The impact does have very little effect on the bolt, & walloping the bolt with a 41b lump hammer will have far less effect on the suspension than a ton of cardriving round an even slightly bumpy corner. Hitting a kerb will apply far more force than Geoff Capes weiding a sedgehammer.

Ha Ha, agreed.

Not entirely convinced.

Tyres absorb a large amount of the impact of bumps in the road rendering them to an applied force rather than an impact lasting a much shorter time frame. I believe many blows, hard enough, will possibly alter toe-in / camber settings.

I would still rather drill them out.

David

Be really careful using tools designed to clamp/screw onto the centre of the locking wheel nut as my mate who works at the main dealer reliably informs me that they are deliberately designed to sheer off to stop a potential thief doing the same thing .

Get one of these guys out to help you, they came out to my Mercedes and got the locking wheel bolts off in 15 minutes https://www.lockingwheelnutremov ers.co.uk/

Steven, two things. No one likes spammers, and it's pointless answering a 7 year old post.

Both domains (wfrecoverygroup.co.uk and lockingwheelnutremovers.co.uk) are owned by yourself and I am aware that marketing yourself is no easy task.

By all means provide helpful advice to people here and use a signature incorporating a chosen domain, but don't make it quite so obvious that most would associate the help with spam.

HTH

Well, as the original question was posted 7 years ago, the car may no longer exist!

We can hope.