Locking wheel nut thing

[miss notax]

I need your help chaps...

Having finally got around to replacing my almost completely bald rear tyres, the mobile fitter turned up today only to find that I don't have the wheel nut thing to take the wheels off. It's not in the tool kit in the boot, is there anywhere else it could be? And if I definitely don't have it, where can I get one?

I urgently need new tyres (and i've paid for them!) and it's getting a little dicey driving around in the rain....

Thanks!!

[foolycooly]

Are they the type with the locking pattern on the head of the nut (and perfectly round otherwise) or the sort with indentations on the outside?

If its the outside - get a wheel spider and a hammer (and some replacement lockers) and get them off that way (hammer on the wheel spider)

I had to do this with mine when I found that the locking nut had vanished as well....

[subaqua]

Have a chat with a main dealer. IIRC the vehicle records should include a note of the locking wheel nut/bolt pattern on your car, assuming a previous owner hadn't changed them.

[Loudman]

If its like mine ('03 S2 111S) the tool is a slim shaft which should live in the toolkit which has a nut section at one end (which you put into the socket of your wrench) and a shaped 'male' pattern which keys into a 'female' cutout in the centre of one of the nuts on each wheel. As such I would have thought it would be very difficult to get the nut off unless you've got the right tool. I haven't checked but I think the outer periphery of the locking nut is plain round and so would need grinding to put some faces onto.

[miss notax]

Oh dear... Mines a 2002 S2. I'll have a look tonight and see what's what, and then grovel to the lotus dealers tomorrow I guess.

They're not usually kept in some bizarre place are they? It's not in the tool kit and just wondering (not that there are many places you can hide anything in an Elise)....

[noodleman]

Is it in a different place on the S2 from the S1????

[jamesc_1729]

I have more or less exactly the same problem, but I have an S1 - whereabouts is the removal tool etc kept on a series 1 - have looked under the bonnet and can't see it anywhere???

[noodleman]

Under the bonnet.
Drivers side, right near the windscreen and front wing. You'll see a red circular plug. Pull it. That's the locking wheel nut cover removal tool with the socket inside it.

[jamesc_1729]

thanks - ahhh. got it now. I was panicking that the woman who sold me the car hadn't given me the key to the locking wheelnuts. (key????)

Can you tell that this is:
a) my first car with locking wheelnuts
b) my first Elise.

in fact given the stupidity displayed here you'd think it was my first car!

[noodleman]

naa. I had to ask too!

[TIPPER]

After my break down last week my brother in law kindly trailered the car home for me whilst I went off on a business appointment in the missus car.
He told me later that he would have put the battery on charge but couldn't find it - and he's built a car or two!

[miss notax]

noodleman said:

Under the bonnet.
Drivers side, right near the windscreen and front wing. You'll see a red circular plug. Pull it. That's the locking wheel nut cover removal tool with the socket inside it.

I take it this is on a S1 only (and not my 2002 S2)?