Wheel locks

[pgwoosley]

Tesla Motors does have a record of the particular wheel bolt lock for each Tesla and will sell the owner a new "key" for about $50 including shipping.

Good tire and wheel stores will tell you that they can get a wheel bolt off until they actually see the lock on a Tesla wheel.

It has been reported that some Lotus owners have replaced the wheel bolt lock with a normal Lotus/Tesla bolt for about $4 each. By the way, the adapter for the normal bolts is $10-$15 from a lotus dealer

Other Lotus owners have replaced all of their bolts with wheel bolts with a 17 mm head. They are normally used on some Mercedes and other European cars. They can be purchased on Ebay, among other places.

[pgwoosley]

Here is a link to one discussion of replacing Lotus lug bolts with BMW bolts. It has pictures and specifications.

http://www.sandsmuseum.com/cars/elis...s/lugnuts.html

[vfx]

I removed all four wheel locks. The problem is that you only get one very careful opportunity to get them off and they are often stripped. It's not worth it if they are wrecked and have to be forcibly removed.

[AndrewBissell]

Could someone please explain the problem?

Thanks

[TEG]

In case anyone is wondering, they are talking about the special bolt/lug (one per wheel) as seen with a green mark here:

It takes a special adapter ("key") to remove the wheel.

[AndrewBissell]

Indeed. And my Tesla Roadster has this special key in the toolkit.

What I am failing to grasp is: this thread seems to start assuming you know that there is a problem with these keys. But ... What is the problem?

I would like to know so that I can work around it for my own car.

Thanks!

[vfx]

What I got from the Lotus guys is that the special key and special lug are inherently fragile/difficult to manipulate. Your inexperienced mechanic is much more likely to strip the hex than to get the bolt off.

You can imagine how that could be a problem in less than ideal road circumstances.

Since we have a pretty unique bolt pattern that is different than Lotus even, I figured that wheel theft is a minor concern.

[Tdave]

Seems it would be easier for a thief to break into the trunk to get the wheel lock key.

[pgwoosley]

What I am failing to grasp is: this thread seems to start assuming you know that there is a problem with these keys. But ... What is the problem?
!

Some wheel lock keys simply get lost, some times the tool kit containing the the key is stolen, and sometimes the key breaks. I found out that someone had applied 140 ft. lb. of torque to my wheel bolts when the specification is 77 lbs. It was very hard to unscrew the over-torqued locking bolt with the key without tearing up the key.

[AndrewBissell]

Thanks one and all for the clarification!