Best place to buy wheelnuts from (and what to spray them with)?

[zcacogp]

Chaps,

The alloy wheel nuts on my S2 are getting old. Very old. Many of them need to be binned and replaced. I probably need 10 or so new ones.

What's the best way of buying them? They come up on eBay fairly often, but usually at around £4 each and only in sets of 16 or 20. Is there a better way of buying them?

Also, is there a good way of protecting them so that they don't go grey and dry and flaky, which seems to be their usual demise?

One last question - you can buy the open-faced steel ones for less than the alloy ones. Are these a good idea or not to be recommended? Why?

Thanks.


Oli.

 

[Lowtimer]

Buy a complete set, not 10! They are to be regarded as consumable anyway, unlike steel ones.
I bought mine from an OPC. I can't remember how much they were but I would not be surprised if they are one of those things that can be bought at better prices from the OPC rather than from eBay or various other suppliers.

 

[Diver944]

Jasmine on Ebay is about the best I have seen. £59 for a set of 20 including postage.

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Jasmine-PorschaLink-Porsche-Parts/WHEEL-NUTS-BOLTS-/_i.html?_fsub=2516606012&_sid=40511302&_trksid=p4634.c0.m322

They have an anodised black coating, but will be the dull grey yours are in about another 20 years.

Original nuts will have nowhere near the strength or safety by now with lots of them flaking badly - GET RID!

 

[zcacogp]

Hmmm. Interesting comments, thanks chaps.

I only need 16 at the most as I have locking wheel nuts on each wheel, making up four of the set of 20.

Still, that's another fifty-odd quid. Amazing how often the car gets through tens of pounds, even when doing DIY-maintenance and servicing. New floor mats (£60), new wheel nuts (£50), new handbrake shoes (£20) ... the car cost me just about nothing last year so this year was always going to be a pricey one, but it's still a shame to watch it chomp it's way through money!


Oli.

 

[Diver944]

Think how much it will chew through when one of your wheels falls off []

Luckily you only need 16, so that will be even cheaper []

 

[u63af]

I put the steel open ones on mine as I am using it on track and do t like the thought of alloy. Steel is stronger but doesn't look as nice

 

[944 man]

The Blue Book prohibits alloy.

 

[944 man]

That said, the scrutes didnt ever pick up on mine, although they were a great deal newer then.

 

[ChasR]

£50 is still not too terrible for wheel nuts. Have you seen how much Ford ones are these days (read about £10 each from the dealer!) Thankfully they do not seem to wear out, but the brass ones do, and they are around £5 each!).

However, I need some floor mats, so I do not envy your bills at all! I so wish I kept the original deluxe mats from my S2 (the Turbo also has a midnight blue coloured interior ).

 

[924nutter]

Bought a set of new nuts for my 924T in 2005 and it was about £100 so they will be that plus inflation now. Maybe a phone call to Exeter. Oli dont be a cheapskate buy the full 20. You may regret the extra outlay but you'll regret not doing it even more when the hexagon shears off and leaves the retaining chamfer in place an no means to undo it. not even using your "magic" screwdrivers, lol

 

[zcacogp]

ORIGINAL: 924nutter
... not even using your "magic" screwdrivers, lol

Cheeky bu99er! []


Oli.

 

[Paul190H]

I got mine from Jasmine, they are about £9 +VAT each IIRC from OPC when I enquired a few weeks ago!
Cheers

 

[zcacogp]

Thanks chaps. New set of 16 ordered from Jasmine. Should be with me around the weekend.


Oli.

 

[Greg James]

I owe you one Oli.

 

[zcacogp]

You most certainly don't Greg ... I owe you one for being such a fine host. Thank you for all you did on that garage day - I thoroughly enjoyed it, and am greatly looking forward to the next one.

(I was hoping you wouldn't see this thread.)


Oli.

 

[zcacogp]

Shiny new wheel nuts delivered and fitted, and the old ones are now consigned to the bin. (Well, I kept the four best ones in case of emergencies.) They were in such a dire state I didn't dare to take a photo of them and post it on here - I'd be roundly mocked!

Snag is that new shiny wheel nuts look good. And show up the alloys as being a bit scuffed. Maybe that's the next thing to consume money on this car ... alloy wheel refurbishment. []

Thanks for your help chaps.


Oli.

P.S. Out of curiosity, what is the lifespan of these wheel nuts? The old ones were on the car when I bought it, seven years ago. Are they likely to have been the original ones?

 

[Lowtimer]

It's possible yours are original, in which case you are well off rid of them.

I don't think you can put a definitive number on the life of such an item, sa too much depends on the environment and usage. If they have been stored properly then their shelf life is indefinite: in use it will depend on fatigue life and corrosion. So for fatigue life, how many times they have been on and off the car; have they ever been over-torqued; has the car been raced or heavily tracked; has it has a wheel clouted hard? For corrosion, does the car live outside on the coast, or inside in a dehumidified garage; does the car get used while the roads are salty; are they regularly kept clean; are they showing any sign of dissimilar metal corrosion when they are removed?

For corrosion, when they look shot, they are shot. For fatigue, it's hard to tell until something breaks. If mine stay looking free from corrosion, then I reckon 10 years' service will be enough. For me that will be in the region of 30,000 to 50,000 miles.

 

[Frenchy]

Buy a "soft socket" to stop from rounding them off and marking them, do not let anyone near them with a windy gunb[] as it will ruin them, i bought a "soft socket" which has a nylon insert from Frazerpart circa £20.

 

[zcacogp]

James,

What do those 'soft sockets' do that a normal socket doesn't? I use a regular 19mm (well, 3/4 inch) six-sided socket and it seems to work fine. (It seemed to do remarkably well on the old nuts, given how furred up they were.) Does the 'soft socket' have the 'soft' bit facing the inside - i.e. onto the nuts, or the outside - i.e. onto the wheel? I understand it to be the latter, and it prevents damage to the wheel.


Oli.

 

[ChasR]

I was told by my tyre fitter to torque alloy nuts low. When I queried them coming loose he seemed to think it would not be an issue. Maybe I was lucky but on the times I worked on my S2 after that the nuts never came loose.

If you think Porsche nuts are bad you should see them on Triumphs (well, Stags and Dolomite Sprints). A combination of a high torque figure (it's around 130NM!) and 7/16" nuts with a UNF thread is a recipe for disaster (amazingly, mine were all original!).