I’m glad this isn’t FQ as I had some incorrect guesses on how these work, but it doesn’t look that hard to defeat them. (could you dremel/angle grinder a slot and then just use a screwdriver?)
Granted, harder than normal bolts, and that is probably the point - enough bother that thieves will move on to an easier target.
Brian
For a nondestructive method – could you make an impression of the bolt with wax or clay, and use that to make the key? This is obviously slow, but if you are the owner and lost the key you could get a new one made.
Brian
Unless these where heirloom locks, it wouldn’t be worth the effort to make a key. Once you got them off, you would just replace them.
Last year I had a flat and had the socket for the locking lugnuts, but the lugwrench that came with the car didn’t fit the regular nuts!
I’d never even heard of locking lug nuts before this thread, but based on the photos, would one of those universal sockets with a bunch of spring-loaded rods work?
Heh, just last night my friend asked me if I wanted to pull my car into his building at work before he gave me a ride across town. His justification was that they’d recently had all the wheels/tires stolen off a bunch of heavy trucks left in their lot overnight. I decided nah, because we were going to be back before midnight, and my car has a relatively unusual bolt pattern. It would be a weirdly specific thief to target my car.
Though, I usually allow the dealership to install a “locking lug nut” (special wrench pattern) if they ask. Might as well give the salesman a tip if he’s dealt with me through my idiotic thought process when buying a new car.
Nah, it’d probably just bounce around without getting a grip on most of them - though I haven’t tired one. @Crafter_Man 's EZ-out equivalent is probably your best option. I’ve welded a second nut onto a rounded off lug nut in desperation. That tool would have saved some time and arc welding rods.
The torque required to remove a properly torqued lug nut / lug bolt is far beyond what you could apply with even a heavy duty screwdriver and a perfectly formed screw slot.
Now that’s funny. Although not at the time I’m sure; sorry you had that ordeal. Was this a car you got new? Seems unlikely. Some folks buy aftermarket non-locking nuts and never stop to think about whether they match the size of the emergency wrench since that’s not the tool they use to install them.
Which suggests that each of us ought to go check our nuts vs the emergency wrench. Just in case.
Back in Ye Olden Dayes of Yore garage lug wrenches came in a cross pattern with 3 different SAE nut sizes to match various sizes and makes of US cars. This was before the widespread introduction of non-US (read “metric”) cars. I wonder how many sizes of SAE & metric lug nuts are out on the road today, just on cars? 5? 8?
In one sense this problem is going away as many new cars don’t have spares anymore. So the need for the car owner / driver to ever mess with lug nuts is simply absent. Instead of a spare tire, the remedy for a flat out on the road is a 12V air compressor and a can of goop. Much cheaper, lighter, and smaller for the manufacturer, and probably adequate for a hefty fraction of road flats.
Locking nuts are generally round on the outside to prevent giving any flat surface that a pipe wrench or pliers could get purchase on. Imagine trying to use your tool to turn a smooth cylinder or a tapered rod. Not gonna work.
Of course, the former works if it has a relatively slow leak and can be pumped up. I’ve had a few that were leaking so bad they wouldn’t hold air at all.
As for the latter… I’ve heard techs who work at tire places hate that stuff.
Right.
I think some dash cams have vibe sensors/accelerometers to sense when someone is messing with your car. If so, will they detect when someone is trying to steal your wheels, and alert your cell?
I’m not that happy abut this development either. I’m just reporting on it.
A couple cars ago I had one with no spare because it had run-flat tires. Great invention. My two most recent ones have the compressor-and-goop. Haven’t had to use it yet, and not really looking forward to the experience.
We lost the key to our locking lugs a few years ago. I tried the socket trick (hammer it on). Modern quality locking lugs have a “sleeve” on the outside that just spins when you engage it with a lug remover or a pounded-on socket.
We went back to the dealership that leased us the car, they had a copy of the key and removed them, I told them to replace with regular lugs.
Thanks for the replies. For now, I’ll have to keep looking (and praying). 
Take it to a tire store. They’ll destroy the lock-nuts but will have the wheels removed in mere seconds longer than if the locks didn’t exist.
Then you’ll be done w that useless stupidity.
I agree. Do it now, when it’s convenient for you. Or else you might be stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire and no way to remove the flat.
Yep. I never ever locked my convertible, even in LA or Vegas, because there was nothing in there to be stolen that was worth as much as a new top.
I’ve gone around with that tradeoff a few times over the years.
Yes, if there was a thief determined to get into your specific car for whatever specific reason, leaving the top or windows down or doors unlocked reduces the damage they’ll do.
OTOH, you’ll increase your exposure to the theft or vandalism of opportunity, where some miscreant is just wandering by and, because of how you left the car configured, it just looks especially vulnerable all open like that. Too tempting a target of opportunity to bypass, the bad guy hops in. Maybe he (good bet it’s “he”) finds something to steal; if not maybe he just vandalizes because it’s fun.
I generally figure there’s more risk of the second sort. So I tend to be top up & locked while parked for anything other than a brief stop.
Which shows just how stupid that style of locking nuts are. The last time I checked pipe wrenches exist for the sole purpose of getting purchase on smooth round cylinders.
Round, but usually tapered. Which leaves very little “meat” for a pipe wrench to bite into. The dished nature of wheels also means it’s hard to get any wrench- or pliers-like tool square on the nut body.
I’m no fan of locking nuts and haven’t owned a set since the early 1980s. But they are darn hard to remove using conventional tools. They work well enough.
In other silly misguided anti-theft news …
The other day I was parked in a small strip center in the expensive part of town. Whole lotta nice cars there. Some guy rolls up in a 20 year old F-150. I see him get out, go into a lock box in the truck bed, grab a Club® steering wheel lock, apply that to his steering wheel, then lock the truck doors and walk away. Paranoid much?
My dad always put the locknut key in a big ziploc bag and kept in the trunk. It stayed there until it was time to buy new tires.
He gave the tire shop the key. Then put it back in the trunk.
I do the same.
The glove box is another option. It’s not as theft proof.
Yeah, I watched so much LockPickingLawyer, BosnianBill, and Deviant Ollam I’ve just become to accustomed to suckurity being so venerable to skilled attacks that unskilled attacks don’t even need to be mentioned.