how well do wheel locks work ?

[atobe]

Well today i went to the junk yard and i came out... i didn't even noticed till i came home and began working on my car to noticed 1 lug was missing from each wheel.. first i thought it fell off but all 4 of the same one?? impossible... the ones that's missing where bull locks wheel locks..
http://www.evasivemotorsports.com/me...tegory_Code=L1 i got from here locally.... the rest i had was muteki lug nuts.. http://www.evasivemotorsports.com/me...ode=Muteki-Blk these.. i bought them because they match .. but the muteki remained on the car

well from the site it said it's impossible to take those bull locks off w/o the key.. but apparrenty it's not.. and i know muteki are pretty popular my friend even has a set and i can use my key on his.. so it's just a universal key..for all of them. I only bought the bull locks because i thought it'd be hard to take off but that's not the case... i'm just glad i keep my car in the garage all the time..

so the question is which wheel locks do you use? i prefer some black ones that matches the rest... now i'm all paranoid

[timebuilder]

I decided about 20 years ago that I needed wheel locks.

I had parked my three year old Supra outside a friend's townhouse, and I heard a car pull up outside. My friend was certain it was her younger sister trading saliva with her boyfriend before coming inside. The vehicle pulled away, and no sister. A half hour later I went out to my car to go home and found the whole thing sitting on some wood that had been stacked nearby. I had nice Dunlop D-4 tires on the nice Supra wide mags. At least, I used to. Now, someone else had them.

$1,987 later I had a new set from the dealer, with wheel locks in place.

[atobe]

^^^ how does that help me ?

[timebuilder]

Fair question.

Clearly, these guys were not just driving by. They had seen my car there the night before, and noted the lack of wheel locks. Had I had the set of locks on the wheels, they could have served as a deterrent.

In the shop, I had a set of tools used to remove wheel locks when a key was lost. Using those tools required a heavy hammer that would wake the dead. It was a lot of time and work just to remove one lock.

So, how well do wheel locks work?

Well enough that those new wheels stayed on my car until the day I sold it.

[ghettosled]

thats weird they arent different. when ive been in stores and when comparing wheel locks by the same manufacturer, they had different keys. i was curious to compare 4 together, and none of them matched. maybe check out other companies? i would be worried to have the same lock as everyone else with that brand lugs. but its better than having no locks at all!

[Eye8Pussies]

there's got to be some overlap in keys...that, and they do make tools just for removing wheel locks

in the case of oem wheel locks, there are only so many types as well- hell, you can buy the entire set of something like, 20 or 30 off of ebay

in short, they work as well as an alarm does- acts as a deterrant, but if somebody REALLY wants your wheels, you better have your car parked inside

[atobe]

may be i should resphase my title... i had wheel locks on my car... http://www.evasivemotorsports.com/me...tegory_Code=L1 these to be exact.. but today someone took them all.. w/o the key.. i'm wondering how are the rest... should i get a different kind the ones with the groves cut onto the face ?

[88 LE]

^ Looks like they have a hex shaped section on the end. So someone most likely just used a normal socket and wrench on your wheel locks.

I used Gorilla wheel locks. They came in a 20 pack, guess they worked cos no one ever tried to jack my wheels. That along with a alarm and a .45 ACP with jacketed hollow points is all I need.


http://gorilla-auto.com

http://www.mcgard.com/automotive

[timebuilder]

Originally Posted by atobe

may be i should resphase my title... i had wheel locks on my car... http://www.evasivemotorsports.com/me...tegory_Code=L1 these to be exact.. but today someone took them all.. w/o the key.. i'm wondering how are the rest... should i get a different kind the ones with the groves cut onto the face ?

That's what I bought: the ones with the grooves on the face.

[Epsilon]

May I recommend these:

[atobe]

^^^^ too expensive

[JMSinMD]

I use McGard wheel locks. On my 18's I had a set of 4 McGards and the other 16 were splinedrive lugnuts. They weren't going anywhere.

[thanatos808]

what are those epsilon?

[Epsilon]

Originally Posted by thanatos808

what are those epsilon?

They are Rays Engineering lug nuts. They are extremely light weight and strong.

If you're interested in baller status, get these:

[TRDGen5.5camry]

Originally Posted by Epsilon

May I recommend these:

guilty