Semtex's Monterey Blue 370Z

semtex · 08-07-2009, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZKindaGuy

WARNING: The wheel locks being sold by Nissan for the 370Z are NOT the correct wheel locks. I had these very same locks on my 370Z Rays and after one month of driving with them the locks began to show signs of stress fractures around the locking pattern. One wheel lock completely sheared of from the pattern to a 1/4 inch down the lock shaft itself.

I took it over to the Nissan dealer and they indicated the locks that are required are shank-style and the ones being sold by Nissan as the wheel locks for a 370Z are not shanks and they need to be......and they should NOT have the beveled tips but rather instead be straight shaft shanks.

In fact they showed me that these "Nissan 370Z wheel locks" don't even screw on far enough to make contact with the wheel to create locking pressure on the wheel. These wheel locks are they said in plain words the wrong wheel locks to use on the 19" Sport Rays application.

They told me that I have been driving around for a month in essence with just 4 lug nut on and that any cornering in the past month I was doing was putting severe stress on the "Nissan 370Z wheel locks" which was what was causing the wheel locks to fracture.

They indicated the correct wheel lock for the 370Z Rays is the McGard
#21153 wheel locks as these are the correct shank length and shape in that they are straight shafts.

Fortunately no damage was done to the Rays while driving for the past month with the wrong wheel locks being sold by Nissan .

This isn't quite correct. I think there's some confusion on the part of your dealer. I recommend you review this thread, where this topic has been thoroughly covered: Broken wheel stud and lug nut.

But I'll give you the Cliff Notes real quick. When the 370Z was first released, they did not have wheel locks. Dealers started just throwing on the standard wheel locks that fit all Nissans, not realizing that the Z's wheels were different. This picture here shows one of the lug nuts from a 19" Rays Sport wheel on the left, and one of the 'standard' Nissan locks that the dealers were putting on:

This was a colossal fail on the part of the dealers, and these standard locks started fracturing, as shown on the far right of the above pic.

Since then, they have finally gotten with the program and now have locks that are correct for our wheels. This is what they look like:

These are the ones you want. Notice that they're exactly the same dimensions as the stock lug nuts. So your blanket statement that "The wheel locks being sold by Nissan for the 370Z are NOT the correct wheel locks" isn't quite accurate. It depends on which locks your dealership is selling. If a dealership is selling the 'standard' Nissan locks for the 370Z, then yes, those are the wrong ones and they need to come off asap. But if they're selling the ones pictured above, those absolutely are the correct ones and there's nothing wrong with them.

The McGard 21153s I put on my car are also compatible, but understand that I put them on my car as an interim measure. In other words, I ordered them before Nissan caught up and released the correct locks. Now that the correct ones are out, there's really no reason to go with the 21153s. Btw, just as a side note, the Nissan locks are also McGards (i.e., McGard makes them). In fact, I have since swapped out the 21153s for the 'correct' locks from Nissan.

Hope that clears things up.

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