I don't normally like and comment on videos but when a guy goes through that much trouble to provide a video, he deserves it. Great job. Thank you.

Next video: How to refurbish your scratched wheel

I can remember removing one of these from a rim of a Hyundai that had blown a tyre on the Nullarbor Plain back in 2000. A couple were trying to remove the tyre but couldn't find the key for the wheel nut. I was a mechanical fitter at the time and was moving interstate and had all of my workshop equipment in the back of the truck. I was down a generator and I couldn't use any air tools, so I had to resort to a narrow chisel and a block hammer. I managed to split the nut and drive a square shanked screwdriver in far enough to be able to rotate it with the help of a spanner and a pipe over the end for leverage. It was 2am, pitch black and freezing and I had to work in the dust from the wash of a couple of road trains but I finally managed to rotate half of the nut off the stud and chiselled the rest around until it fell out. The couple were able to replace the tyre and were on their way about a half hour later. They saw me in Ceduna a few hours later and insisted on giving me $20. Half my luck.

I did my pal's Volvo about 15 years ago. I put a short piece of pipe (about 2 inches long) and welded the inside of the pipe to the locking nut. By welding the inside it protected the rims and then I just used a pipe wrench on the pipe to undo the nuts. Worked like a charm.

My dude out here destroying his lugs studs and wheels to teach us something. 🙏

vice grips and crescent wrenches have a little more torque if you flip them over and use in the direction of the offset angle.

Great job, Matt. Appreciate your time and expense to show us how it’s done.

kudos for a guy who has an open mind and listens to his audience/critics. I thought you gave all ideas a fair shot, and quickly noted what works and what does not work. good job!

When you weld the nut on. Plug weld it. Weld inside the middle of the nut where the threads are not on the outside of it, then you won't have welds where your socket needs to go.

Back in the day I used to live in Buffalo close to the McGard factory. When I lost my key, I went over there and the receptionist took a look at it and I got the correct replacement. Later in life I had an opportunity to work with them with their special products division. The engineers take three days to design something, then take the next two weeks trying to break it. These guys like their job.

Great video...I tried a few and found for what worked best on the MOPAR security nuts was a 1" impact(heavy duty) socket. The six side pushed the ring back and wedged really well against the nut. I got the nut to come off with a breaker bar.

Great video - thank you for sharing! I removed a set of the McGuard today from an Acura using a 13mm 12 point 1/2" socket. It pounded right over and I was able to twist them off.

13:51 How many people caught what just happened? I totally laughed at this one...

This video saved me a lot grief. I needed to remove wheels from a car in a pick-your-part salvage yard and the locks were the outside spline type shown at 7:33. I could see that others had tried to remove the wheels but weren’t successful. Thankfully, I had just watched your video the day before. In my case it took a 5/8” 12-point socket. I had to really drive it on with a lot of force but it worked. It was difficult to remove the socket from the extracted nut as I had no access to a vise in the salvage yard but I finally got all of them off. Got a great set of wheels for a ridiculously low price.

I have Mopar locking lug nuts with the outer ring. I hammered a 1 inch deep socket to lug and busted the outer ring. Then I hammered a lug removal socket that looks like a reversed pipe inside. Came off like a charm! To remove socket from lug, reinstall lug on wheel and slowly tighten till it releases. 5 mins each wheel and they are all off and no damage to sockets or wheels. Total cost including a electric impact wrench was $150. Way cheaper than a shop!

I've always used vice grips. The key to getting them to work is to tighten the lug nuts on either side of the one you're trying to remove. If you tighten those other 2 down real tight it then the one you're trying to get off comes off real easy.

you used the vice grips backwards

I laughed out loud at your chicken noodle soup bit.

Excellent video. Thanks for taking the time to film and edit it and of course for positing it for our benefit. Keep up the good work! -Migs

Been there in the past and really appreciate the time, effort and expense you put into this vid.

This is really the kind of stuff that needs to be on youtube. The kind of videos to help people that have to do things themselves and can't rely on others or paying others nor do most have the ability to pay others if watching this kind of video. Keep up the good work. The fact that you went over like 20 tips is even more amazing because normally when trying to rig something like this go work one method won't always work solid every time.

You can easily break the ring around the spinning ring. With a pointy chisel hit the front in between the lock but and ring and work it through. It will snap right off. Then you can cut it to a wrench size or with the extractor. Unless they are over torqued and rusted then welding a nut would be the better option.

Used the 7/8ths socket on my daughter’s 3/4th locked lug nuts this afternoon. She bought the car about 1 year ago and had a slow leak in 1 tire recently. Shop would not touch it without key, which previous owner did not include. 4 new lug nuts $10. All set now thanks to your video. Thank you.

Thank you brother. Ordered the large set to bust a set of McGards off. Your deliver and demeanor are great, you have a new fan.

OMG! The chicken and soup were hilarious!

Fun to watch, you consistently used wrenches backwards but good effort! You had the welder ground on the hub which is ok but you just don't know where the amps are flowing hope it didn't affect the alternator, computer, and all those expensive electrical parts in your vehicle.

I want to thank you for your video. I went to ten different shops to get a lock off and nobody was able to do the job. So when using your video I used a socket and within thirty minutes I was able to remove the lock while also saving me $100 for a job no one wanted to do for me. Thank you.

You used the Crescent wrench and the vice grips backwards. Actually the combination wrench as well. They are designed to rotate in the opposite direction. The locks with a rotating collar, you may be able to jam something in between the collar and nut to keep the collar from spinning. With a welder, maybe weld the collar to the nut, then use a tool that grabs the collar.

Nice research & huge effort. Thanks. Some further thoughts. 1. The rotating outside can be defeated with superglue or a small spot weld, or wack dents into it with a chisel till it deforms & doesn't spin. Then it is vulnerable to the same techniques you covered. 2. If your flat screwdriver isn't big enough. Push a flat piece of steel into the groove & turn it with an adjustable spanner or big vise grips. 3. You've have got more turning force by twisting the screwdriver in the center. not offset as you did. 4. Using the chisel to wack several dents into the edge, then you have something for the vise grips or other tools to grasp. Don't try to chisel at an angle as you did. The lock nut steel wasn't strong enough to handle that. 5. If you happen to have Liquid Oxygen. (like no-one does outside of University, Medical or military facilities) Protect nearby parts of the wheel with wax. Pour a small amount of LOX on the wheel nut. Then hit it with a hammer. It will shatter. Be careful not to leave it too long or the screw thread attached to the car will shatter too.

Thanks for showing all the different ideas going, save us wrecking our own wheels.

So glad you did that video. I'm sure you helped a lot of folks for years to come. Thanks!

Excellent video comparing the different techniques, very scientific and good engineering techniques, also good to know what works on Mopar, which is the type I have. In England, due to high humidity, the outer ring goes rusty, so even the correct wheel nut has to be hammered on!.In England they don't tend to nick your wheels , just the whole car, so they have the correct socket, which is kept in the car( I hide mine in an obscure place just to be awkward).

I saw couple videos so I knew how to remove them but stumbled on this one and glad I did. This one had me in tears when the Mopar one kept spinning with the socket 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂 Glad it came off after all that 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

In my experience when someone says something like “works every time” has never even tried it once.

Thanks for the video! This one helped me get my tire fixed. Not to mention it had me laughing when I was bummed I couldn't find my key or the paperwork for the locks. Spent an hour looking for both and got the McGard internal ones with threads on the outside for a cover off with a 12 point socket, EZPZ.

Well done. You covered all the things that could go wrong and all that would actually do the job.

I don’t usually leave likes on videos but this guy did spend a lot of money to help us

Have used the welded nut version for years on broken bolts. Always using a nut with ID equal to the OD of stud and weld on the inside of nut.

I have used McGuard wheel locks on most of my cars. Looks like it was a fairly good choice. Good review, video. Thanks Matt.

Thank you for an excellent how-to vid! Prob one of the best I've watched on YT. Entertaining throughout and perfectly produced!

11:02 "hope you guys like my video cause it is costing me a lot of money" lol. 🤣🤣🤣

Thanks for the help. Can’t wait to steal my neighbors forces off his Cummins

These are some great ideas, and thank you for showing us all of those and what all worked versus what different! I feel a lot more prepared for the next time this happened to me. And, for whatever it's worth, last time we tried to get tires changed and the wrench at the shop stripped the nut that was stuck, pounding a socket didn't work at ALL for us, nor did the "Emergency Lug Nut Remover" you showed at 9:10 that was appropriately sized for our nut. We wound up taking it to a local shop, who HAMMERED a socket onto it insanely, then went through two impact wrenches to get the right amount of torque, and it finally came off. Knowing some of these ideas is good for the next time we run into that!

Excellent! Thank you! This explains in part how thieves at the service center I took my car to were able to steal the front shocks when the car was left overnight. I subscribed just because of the truly great effort put into this video. Who would have thought???!!!

Cheers to the hero for the sacrifice that you made, all in the name of science! Good Stuff, thank you. Raise your glass, I will subscribe to that!

14:58 The wrench is on backwards. It is designed to have the long part side grab and the short "push". Side = one side of the two "forks/tongs"

22mm socket with McGard lock nut over 24mm socket. Duct tape holding the 2 sockets together. The sockets into bench vise. Pounded and pounded with big sledge hammer. Finally the lock nut came loose. On to second wheel where I will only hammer socket in half way. Great informative and entertaining video. Thanks.

Very informative but more funny...5 stars just for busting me up 😂😂😂

The vice grips were on backwards!

Every wheel I've worked on has the bolts recessed into a hole in the wheel. Even the socket method is only sometimes possible due to clearance between the bolt and the hole.

Thanks to Hans Grubber for this video…. 😂😂 Sorry, I couldn’t resist it, Matt…. the true is that a trouble with my McGuard locks led me to your video and channel. So helpful. Thanks and thumbs up!! 👍👍👍👍

FYI, Crescent and Vise-grip type tools are directional tools, like a pipe wrench. If you don't want spatter damage, mask w/ cardboard, spray area w/ anti-spatter or spray cooking oil, or avoid using gasless mig (flux-core) altogether. Here's a method you didn't try: Cut the slot per the video, then use a

I had the Ocelating Rings ones on my 98 TJ, after loads of searching i found a guy who drives MAC trucks who use the same lug locks, he had an extra key and sent me it and was magically the right one, one out of a couple hundred styles and i got a replacement key for free luckiest day of my life considering I melted a stud out just to get one off prior

Love the detail you go into AA+

Thank you for this video. I think you did a great job!

You sir, deserves a like. You earned every bit of it sir. Thank you!

On the Mopars we usually use a chisel to remove the spinning part, a couple well aimed hits will split the ring, then can either use 12point or the AutoZone removal tool

when you're welding the nut on next time.. weld the MIDDLE of the nut. that way it doesnt splatter as much and you dont have weld keeping you from fully seating the nut in the socket.

Those lug removers would also be good for removing some stubborn bolts that might have a rounded off head. Awesome vid!!

Great video. I have the Mopar locknut and just tried yesterday to pound the socket on and to your point it doesn’t work. I think I’ll try to borrow a friends welder and do the nut. Hopefully that will work!

Thank you greatly!! I lost my wheel key after changing a flat tire. In a frenzy I drove away with the key still on the wheel. I have the Mopar wheel locks with the spinning ring on the outside. After watching a few videos I started to panic seeing that available removal tools really don't work with the spinning rings. Then you came along and saved the day. I used a Dremel tool with cut-off disk to remove the spinning ring. The rings cut easily and I used only one cutting disk per lug nut. Then with the angle grinder I made two flat sides to fit a 3/4" open end wrench. The other end of the wrench was 7/8" and would not fit into the piece of pipe I had. The grinder quickly removed the opposite end of the wrench, slipped the pipe over and presto. All four wheel took less than an hour and only one beer. I was a little (lot) nervous attacking the first wheel however the other three were a snap. I was lucky enough that my bolts stuck out from the wheel with enough room to grind and get the wrench on. Thanks so much for your help.

I loved the chicken soup diversion, great job!

I did like the video, You did a excellent job on it It was easy to watch, to the point and clear & steady. It's been a long time since I've done one of these but I've done few in my days and what works usually depends on how tight it's on there. I had never seen one that the outside spins like those before but like I said it's been a long time since I've had to do this. My step son has this problem right now, so that was why I came here. I figured there would be some good tricks here on KZfaq and I was right. One method I've used that I didn't see here is splitting the lug nut. You had already cut a lot of the way through it if you had put the chisel in the grove and hammered it with the sludge hammer you may have been able to crack it down the middle. A few notes . . Note 1: When doing things like the vice-grips method you better off hitting the lug with a sludge hammer a few times first, that will often brakes it loose of it's sticking point. When you tried to get the socket off the spinning lug-nut, slamming that thing so many times is most likely why it came off in the end. Note 2: For the screwdriver method you could have used a standard lug wrench in stead of a screwdriver. One end of them is much like a screwdriver but there wider and they do have some leverage. (That wouldn't my preferred method though). Note 3: lug-nuts like the long ones or gorilla type you could slid the closest fitting socket over it then put a long extension on it an just push/pull it from side to side, up and/or down until the lug itself snaps. In Most cars the replacing the lugs is a relatively easy job. Just make sure the vehicle has the easy to change type first. (Most are easy but some are not so easy to change). Also, I think you would be surprised how much some nuts cost compared to a (non-brand name) socket. Even some brand name socks would be close in price with the some nuts. Personally I have cans full of old cheap sockets that I use for things like this. Then again I suppose there are many people who have cans full of nut's too so what ever works out best . Thanks for putting in all the work.

Thanks for the extensive testing, the key removers are probably the way to go with the McGard / Mopar type. Just need to find the right one now!

"honey need new wheels for the JL, I made a KZfaq video and teaching people about locking nuts I ruined the wheels" -N

This was great! I needed that laughs!!

Well that got a lot of my questions answered! Great vid. Putting my car into vw tomorrow - they say they have various master keys. So, there you go, another method. I’ll let you know how I got on.

Enjoyed the video and info, I have used my portable oxy/acet torch set with a cutting head, 30 seconds ,Nut on the ground. And pretty much No sound. Piece of cake. Later from Texas.

Great video idea and execution Matt!

Happened to me, after working on it for hours, I stood back and thought about what I was doing. I took off 5 of my lugs and couldn't get that damn lock off. Put all 5 back on tighten as tight as I could and the lock lug came right off.

Thanks to TMR for sponsoring this. I don't own an off-roader, PHEV Outlander, though their gear is really beautifully presented. I would love to have a tour of their manufacturing plant.

😂🤣 omfg I lost it at ~13:45 to 14:00 bit with the chicken, then on the tire, then eating the chicken noodle soup. BRILLIANT comedy rolled into the video there.

You did a good job showing us something useful ....AND you messed up your rim. So for that, you get a like!

You can sometimes fit a 17mm socket over those black tuner lug nuts. They usually fit perfectly and nothing gets damaged. Doesn't always work tho.

All in one video , excellent ! Thank you so much

Thanks man, I will go the way you originally suggested. Not the way of those who simply DO NOT KNOW! Thank again

your tutorial has real good intentions but.... man I believe you need a tutorial on how to use the tools correctly, the vice and the present wrench both backwards, I can't believe it may be and only maybe if they were used correctly they would not open and fail the way they did... just saying... I still liked it, practice those wrench using technics body!!! your videos will look a lot more professional

The "MOPAR" (which was probably made by McGard) is much easier to deal with if you remove that spinning ring with a small cold chisel first. Once you have that ring off, the reverse threaded sockets are the way to go. Removing the lug from the reverse threaded socket can be done by grinding two flats on the lug to hold it in a vise and so you can remove the socket with an impact wrench or a breaker bar. If you are putting the lug back on for some reason, you can just put it back on the stud, which is much faster. I keep an assortment of pawn shop 12 point sockets around for the rare case when a reverse threaded socket will not work. That is usually a problem with a tight lug well on the wheel. Definitely keep some small 6 flute tuner lug keys around. Well over half of the tuner lugs come off with one of those. Welding would be a last resort. There are too many places that welding current could go and screw things up.

Yea, I found the Mopar was the best wheel lock as well. Thanks for the video will buy sets of Mopar wheel locks for all my cars. :)

Amazing. My mind is blowing apart.

Nice that you sacrificed a wheel ,now I dont have to. Thanks for the tips

11:02 "hope you guys like my video cause it is costing me a lot of money" .... hahahaha okay~ I click the like! hahahaha Thank you for your sacrifice!

The first one is the best and quickest advice.

I love the hen, my grandma had a lot of them, God bless you.

The guy was right about the Chisel it always works for me no problem.

13:00 Always face the jaws in the direction of the pull..... You can see the jaws bending in the wrong direction.

Good video and I personally dislike wheel locks because I had a bad experience with one stripping out with the wheel lock key. I like the methods you demonstrated and it is appreciated! Thank You

Great video... Even though I don't have any of the gears or the advance equipment, it was a joy to watch the suggestions. The welding technique was hot!

Thanks for the tips, I've reverted to the "weld on your nutz" method 99% of the time. I hate these stupid locks so much. I've had the locking nut and the key, and had the key break apart where the wheel nuts have been over-torqued from the tire shop or whoever had the wheels off last. These things are strictly verboten in my shop, and if a vehicle comes in with them and i have to take the wheels off, i refuse to put them back on, i swallow the cost of a standard wheel nut replacement and promptly give the owner the key and locking nuts in a baggy labelled "garbage". I refuse to be even remotely responsible for anyone else being burdened by this horrible invention.

Try attaching a nut to the end or socket around the lug nut with epoxy like JB Weld.

i had locking wheel nuts with the slip rings which spin so i managed to grind a split into them and removed the slip rings before attempting to remove the nuts but some are recessed deep into wheel so more difficult .as a last resort i have had success welding a nut on top to remove....great video ..

Brilliant!! Many thanks will try a few of these tomorrow! 👍🏻👍🏻

Gonna go around my neighborhood with a welder and some nuts. Gonna get me some new wheels. Thank you!

The centre of the screwdriver has to be at the centre of the nut.🙄 It's a lever.

You're a fantastic doer willing to do the work to find out a way fits different individuals.

Some were silly with a screw driver, but, the 12 point socket and the set remover seems practical, Thanks Mike

When you were using the vice grips you were turning the Jaws backwards. Pliers are only made to turn One Direction

When using the cutting a slot in the middle of the lug nut method, use a drag link socket instead of a screwdriver and DONT put it off-center while turning it, like you did with the screwdriver. You GREATLY reduced your loosening torque by doing so!!

Interesting. Excellent video, awsome you r willing to teach and messup a wheel for your viewers. One suggestion: To get the best bite without spreading the jaws while breaking a faster loose, using open end, adjustable end wrench & vise-grips with the jaws positioned correctly on the fastener.

What a job it can turn out to be with some of these wheel locking (contraptions ) nuts, being polite. As I have often become highly upset at these! What a great bit of work though, to test various methods. The welding method is great, I usually pound a socket on over the lock nut. Although I have used the pound on Irwin type remover sockets to great effect. Well done Matt, I enjoyed your testing out these systems. Cheers and cheers to everyone that has to do this themselves as others have commented on.