Lug Nut Key/Wheel Lock

powerfool

Veteran Member
Joined
May 25, 2012
Location
Indianapolis Metro Area
TDI
None anymore
OMFG, nevermind. I cannot believe it is a completely false cover and it is a normal lug nut underneath. Seriously, this was a terrible endeavor and it was as simple as using this little "pick" tool to pull them off.


So, I have a real quick question before I rip my dealer a new one.

Do these cars (I have a 2014 Passat TDI SE) come with a wheel lock located with the spare?

If they do, I am going to be pretty upset, but we had an incident last year where three of our tires were damaged by a pothole (my daughter was driving, this time). We had it towed and got all news tires, because why have one old tire. Anyhow, we had another pothole incident last evening... and I went to put on the spare... and no wheel lock. Dealerships around were all closed, so I couldn't get one.

I had the car towed home last night and it is in the garage. Anyone know where I can get one of these 9-star keys? And should I be calling out my dealer on this?

The really bad part... they had the car for 5 weeks and one day working on the coolant system. We had been having problems for two years with the heat and the air conditioning. They had previously flushed the system and replaced our heater core. This time, they did that again, then replaced our EGR cooler, radiator, and a 2nd time during the same service replaced the heater core (seriously, two heater cores while they had it). So, we got the car back the day before this latest incident. And the worst part about the entire 5-weeks situation was all of the BS they were giving me for two years. I threatened them with a lemon law claim.

Funny part to this whole situation... when the pothole incident occurred, I was driving to test drive a Tesla Model S. This whole situation has seriously turned me off of basically all cars and I just want something that has as few moving parts and the least number of explosions happening. I am tired of maintaining cars.
 
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tactdi

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 21, 2010
Location
North Carolina
TDI
2005.5 Jetta
You will have to look in tool/jack kit located under the floor of the trunk with the spare tire to see if the Wheel Lock key is there.

The used Jetta I purchased, had wheel locks on the four wheels, but no key. When I went to the dealer to purchase a key, they were not willing to sell me a key that matched (or they did not sell just the key, they sold the kits with the wheel locks and the matching key). Since there are many different patterns of wheel locks, and the the wheel lock is an internal pattern with the outside of the lug bolt being smooth, I could not beat a socket onto the lug to extract them.

I don't use wheel locks, and my intention was to remove the locks, and replace them with regular lug bolts. The dealer service department has all the different keys, so, for a set price, they removed the locks, and replaced them with regular lug bolts.
 

Fixmy59bug

Veteran Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2009
Location
Las Vegas, NV
TDI
2015 Passat TDI SE
OMFG, nevermind. I cannot believe it is a completely false cover and it is a normal lug nut underneath. Seriously, this was a terrible endeavor and it was as simple as using this little "pick" tool to pull them off.
Imagine how bad you would have felt if you ripped them a new one then they showed you what you discovered...

I have customers do that to us quite a bit.

They accuse us of losing their wheel lock key and we take them into the shop and show them that our technicians have master sets that they use. We don't go digging for the customers wheel lock key (unless it is a non-OEM set of wheel lock screen).

5 times out of 10 we hear "well, you are the only ones who work on my car" and the other 5 times we hear "oh, it must have been the other shop then" without ever apologizing.
 

BroncoAZ

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2009
Location
Flagstaff, AZ
TDI
2015 Touareg Lux, 2015 Passat 6MT, 2009 Jetta (long gone), 2011 Touareg (bought back 02/18)
My local dealer advocated ditching the wheel lock and just running 5 normal lug bolts, they offered to give me the 4 lug bolts for free. I tend to agree with them, who steals the stock 17” wheels off a family sedan?
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
If you have the security lug bolt kit up sold on many owners, the car from they factory comes with 20 normal bolts, when the dealer installs the security bolts, they should put the original 4 bolts back in the kit with the key and a spare cap puller.

At least thats what happened with our '15 Passat,

FYI I have a security lug bolt kit for sale, you should buy it.

http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=480206
 

BroncoAZ

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2009
Location
Flagstaff, AZ
TDI
2015 Touareg Lux, 2015 Passat 6MT, 2009 Jetta (long gone), 2011 Touareg (bought back 02/18)
I got the little black box for the kit, but there aren’t and lug bolts inside.
 

tdiatlast

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Jan 21, 2009
Location
Fort Worth, Texas
TDI
2009 Sportwagen (boughtback); 2014 Passat TDI SEL (boughtback)
My local dealer advocated ditching the wheel lock and just running 5 normal lug bolts, they offered to give me the 4 lug bolts for free. I tend to agree with them, who steals the stock 17” wheels off a family sedan?
Wheel/car theft is obviously a regional issue. I've never had the need for wheel locks.
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
I got the little black box for the kit, but there aren’t and lug bolts inside.

You buy the car new from the dealer? Go back and ask for them. (you'll also need 4 regular bolt covers as the security bolts use round covers.

Or ask here, I think i have 4 that I could toss your way if you pay shipping.
 

BroncoAZ

Veteran Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2009
Location
Flagstaff, AZ
TDI
2015 Touareg Lux, 2015 Passat 6MT, 2009 Jetta (long gone), 2011 Touareg (bought back 02/18)
Car came CPO from VW, it was a buyback that I purchased in November 2017. I’ll see if the dealer will hook me up with some, otherwise thanks for the offer.
 

Lex Tdi

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 4, 2016
Location
Lexington ky
TDI
2013 Passat
First thing i have done with my past three vw, remove covers and discard. Remover wheel locks and discard, buy four lugs from dealer for $5 bucks each. Never worry again about digging for or losing lock.
 

jrm

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Location
Oregon
TDI
2013 Passat SE with nav (totaled)
first thing i have done with my past three vw, remove covers and discard. Remover wheel locks and discard, buy four lugs from dealer for $5 bucks each. Never worry again about digging for or losing lock.
+1 on this
 

740GLE

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 19, 2009
Location
NH
TDI
2015 Passat SEL, 2017 Alltrack SE; BB 2010 Sedan Man; 2012 Passat,
Car came CPO from VW, it was a buyback that I purchased in November 2017. I’ll see if the dealer will hook me up with some, otherwise thanks for the offer.
I bought a set if of rims a while ago that came with 15 lug bolts, and then my Mk5 went back to VW with winter tires and no covers. The hoarder in me pays off every now and then.
 
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