Best wheel lug locks

I imagine a custom lug lock would be best, but does anyone have a recommendation?

JJ

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No locks. They make it hard to balance the wheels properly. They tend to break on the side of the road, in the rain, even assuming you can find the key in the dark. No one steals Miata wheels anymore--they're too small.

Reply to
Lanny Chambers

I made the mistake of adding locked lugs to my Dodge Caravan years ago. This was after first making the mistake of ordering the thing with fancy wire wheel covers. After they were stolen for the second time, I added the locks. Within a week someone had seriously "keyed" my van, no doubt because they couldn't get the wheel covers.

Reply to
Frank Berger

I don't get it. How do locking lug nuts keep somebody from steeling wheel covers? Aren't the lug nuts _under_ the wheel covers?

Reply to
Grant Edwards

I don't get that wheel cover thing either, but this is for a Mazdaspeed with stealable wheels.

JJ

Reply to
Me

Spend your money on adding a rider to your insurance policy for the wheels. Wheel locks generally don't work - you loosen three of the lugs and it doesn't take much to use the leverage of the wheel to snap the remaining stud. You will also find that, on a sensitive care like the Miata, the difference in the mass of the locking lug to the others can create an balancing problem. And there is the possibility of not having the key or having the tire shop forget to return it and by time you discover this 5K miles later for the first rotation, they have long since thrown it away. Other than the 15" BBS wheels from the 95M, there isn't a lot of demand for Miata wheels (just look on ebay for what stock wheels sell for - hardly worth the effort of the thief).

Tom

92 Red

letters wrote:

Reply to
Tom Howlin

Not always. The only vehicle I can think of offhand that puts the nuts on the outside of the wheel covers is the last-generation Chevrolet Cavalier, but I know there are others. I can't imagine who'd want to steal Cavalier hub caps, but that's how they worked.

Reply to
tooloud

Tire Rack sold a full set of splined lug nuts that need a special tool/insert to take them off.

Reply to
Randy R

The 80s Isuzu Trooper did it too, but the caps covered just the center hub.

-John

Reply to
Generic

That's a good option. I couldn't find them at Tire Rack, but look here:

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Goodwin sells McGard lugs, IIRC. Top of the line.

Reply to
Lanny Chambers

"tooloud" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@uni-berlin.de:

My dad has a Hyundai Elantra ('02 or '03) with lug-fastened wheel covers. I had never seen that done before. Have heard of shops trying to remove the fake "lugs" on wheel covers w/ a air wrench tho.. ripping the hub cap to bits.

Reply to
Scott Hughes

Honda did (does?) too.

---------- Alex

Reply to
Alex Rodriguez

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