VW Golf Locking Wheel Bolt Key
Lost the locking wheel bolt key for your Volkswagen Golf? Send us a photo of the locking bolt on your wheel and we'll identify exactly which key fits. No security code needed.
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Bolts, not nuts
Worth saying first, because it catches people out: a Golf uses locking wheel bolts, not nuts. There's no stud sticking out of the hub — the bolt passes through the wheel into the hub. Most people search for "locking wheel nut key" anyway, and that's fine, but when you're looking at your wheel you're looking for a bolt head, usually with a plastic cap over it.
Which Golf you have
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Golf Mk5 (2004–2008) — including the Mk5 GTI. Old enough now that the caps are usually long gone and the bolt heads are weathered.
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Golf Mk6 (2008–2012) — very common, and the caps break easily on these.
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Golf Mk7 / 7.5 (2012–2020) — the biggest seller of the four and the one we're asked about most.
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Golf Mk8 (2020 on) — current pattern range.
Get the cap off before you photograph it
VW covers the bolt heads with a chrome-effect plastic cap, pulled off with a little plastic puller clip that lives in the toolkit under the boot floor. That clip is usually missing too. A loop of strong thread, or long-nose pliers with cloth over the jaws, will do it — go gently, because the caps snap.
Under the cap is the pattern we need. Photograph it face-on. If it's full of road grit, blow it out or wipe it, because the depth of the spline is exactly what distinguishes one number from the next.
The whole VW group shares a range
Golf, Polo, Audi A3, Seat Leon and Skoda Octavia draw from the same overlapping range of locking bolt patterns. That means two things. Good: we see these constantly and stock them deep. Bad: guessing from a picture on a forum is a genuinely poor idea, because several numbers in that range look near-identical at a glance and differ only in spline depth.
Get it wrong and the key seats, feels like it's biting, then rounds the bolt when you lean on the bar. That's a £40–£60 removal job at a garage plus a new bolt set.
How the matching works
- Photograph the locking bolt — cap off, wiped clean, straight on, daylight, no flash.
- Send it with your Mk and year. We confirm the exact key before you pay.
- Free UK delivery, Royal Mail Tracked 24, out within one working day.
Cost
Identification is free. Use the Volkswagen matching service, or the combined VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda service if you're not certain which badge the wheels came from. Free UK delivery either way.
Our keys are cut from hardened steel to the original pattern — how our keys are made.
Related: VW Polo · Audi A3 · All Volkswagen keys
