How Our Keys Are Made

There is a real difference between locking wheel nut keys, and it isn't obvious from a photograph. Two keys can look identical on a listing page and behave completely differently the moment you put a breaker bar on them.

This page explains what that difference is, because if you're comparing us against a cheaper listing somewhere else, you're entitled to know exactly what you're comparing.

A key is a tool, not a trinket

People think of a locking wheel key as a small accessory. It isn't. It's a hardened tool that has to transmit somewhere in the region of 110 to 140 Nm of torque through a set of fine splines just a few millimetres deep — often on a nut that's been sitting on a wheel for six years, and quite often on one that's been over-tightened by an air gun at a tyre place.

That is a demanding job for a small piece of steel. It's the reason the cheap ones fail.

What goes wrong with a soft key

Under load, an under-hardened key doesn't snap cleanly. It deforms. The splines round off a fraction, the key climbs, and it slips.

The problem is what that slip does to your car. Each time a soft key rounds out, it takes a little of the pattern on your locking nut with it. Do it two or three times and the nut itself is chewed past the point where any key will grip it — and at that stage you're no longer buying a key at all. You're paying a specialist to cut the nut off.

UK removal runs £40 to £85 depending on how many wheels and whether a van has to come to you, and afterwards you still need a full new set of locking nuts. So a key that saved you a few pounds and then failed hasn't saved you anything. It has cost you three or four times the price of doing it properly the first time.

That is the entire argument, and it's why we won't compete on being the cheapest.

How ours are made

• Hardened steel. Not cast, not plated pot metal. The splines hold their edge under torque instead of deforming into it.
• Machined to fit precisely. A key that's a fraction loose in the pattern concentrates all the load onto two or three splines instead of spreading it across every one. Fit tolerance is most of what separates a key that works from a key that rounds.
• UK manufactured and stocked. Everything ships from our own UK stock, which is also why we can post same or next working day rather than waiting on a container.

What we guarantee

• We confirm the match before you pay. Send a photo, we identify the pattern, and you only order once we've told you which key fits.
• If it doesn't fit, we replace it free or refund you. No argument.
• 12 month manufacturing warranty on every key.
• We turn work away. If your nut is already rounded, or the outer sleeve is spinning free, a key won't fix it — and we'll tell you that rather than sell you one anyway.

How to use it so it lasts

Two things kill keys that would otherwise last for years:

Impact guns. Never use one on a locking nut, with our key or anyone's. The hammering action is what shears splines. Locking nuts should be hand-torqued, and any tyre fitter who tells you otherwise is costing you a key.

Going in crooked. Seat the key square and fully home before you apply any force. A key held at an angle is loading a couple of splines instead of all of them.

Follow those two and a key will outlast the car.

Not sure which one you need?

You don't need to know. Send us a photo of the locking nut on your wheel and we'll identify the exact key that fits — free, and before you pay anything.

Browse by make: BMW, Mercedes, Vauxhall, Skoda, Audi, Volkswagen, Seat, Ford, or see every key we stock.