Locking Nuts

It was flat.

Completely. The tyre wasn’t on the rim but it was obvious there wasn’t much air left in it. So down to the nearest garage armed with my twenty-p’s I went. Another garage – another air and water machine. Took the top off the valve, put it away safe, put the twenty-p in the slot. The air wasn’t even going in.

Forgot the ‘completely flat tyre’ button – so I pressed that, put in another 20p. It still wasn’t going in. Have to change the wheel. Got out the jack, the little lever for removing the wheel nuts, (oh and by the way it is pouring with rain again and I’m in my suit. So sacrificing two road atlases to kneel on, I set to, searching for the groove for the jack (doesn’t seem to be one on my car) then jacking up the car and remembering to stop just short of lifting the wheel off the floor so it’s possible to loosen the nuts.

Except they’re alloy wheels. Meaning - they have locking nuts (to stop people nicking them). So a special 'key' is required to undo the locking nuts. It’s very pretty, with a star pattern that just matches the pattern on the nuts and is apparently unique to my car. And it’s useless! As soon as any pressure is put on the spannery thing the key falls off. Who invented these locking nuts? They want dealing with.

So when the RAC man came and loosened the nut in 10 seconds, he suggested I replace them with ordinary nuts – ‘Alloy wheels are 10 a penny – who wants to steal them nowadays?’
So here is my big decision – do I go to the dealer and ask if they can supply me with a new set of locking nuts and a new key, or risk it and put ordinary nuts on the wheels?