Wheels stolen :(

yzhang12

Insurance came by today. I'm thinking about buying 5 sets of wheel locks instead of lug nuts.. but if any one had the the Nissan key they would be able to take the lugs off right? It doesn't seem like Nissan manufactures unique designs on their wheel locks.

kenchan

Damn, how long did your insurance take to officially file the claim?! I wouldve been on new wheelset by now.

The nissan locks are oem by McGuard(?). I'm sure there are few different keys for them but at the end a thief can still take those locks off without the keys...

yzhang12

Yea, but I'm looking to put 5 locking nuts on each wheel, so they better come with 20 sockets because they can't just hammer one on, and pop it out without significant effort for each one. -_- and I'm sure that will slow them down a lot.

The insurance was fast, this happened Friday morning, but I didn't notice until the evening so the earliest they could send someone out was Tuesday (Monday was a holiday). Check should be coming tomorrow

CrunchyCajun

Reading this thread had me searching for wheel locks too. During my search I found that there is a kit available to defeat almost all of them. I suspect that the professional thieves, also known as worlds biggest dbags, probably have this or something like it.

Sunex 2840 9 Piece 1/2" Drive Wheel Lock Removal Kit

Jeffblue

won't remove these Black Tops

CrunchyCajun

You are right, but these don't fit the 370z, as far as I know. Do you know otherwise?

rha600

this will.

Jet JSG-1304 4 Piece Chisel Set for Air Hammers

Jeffblue

i'm really not worried about someone coming around with a pneumatic hammer or torque wrench and taking off my wheels, its way too loud. The idea is they do it quickly but quietly. indeed, i could park my car, walk away for 1 minute, and if a formula 1 pit crew rolled up to my car with the right tools, they could steal my wheels and be off before i turned around to look back.

I understand your point, there is no fool proof lock for wheels. But theres no fool prof lock anywhere. You could have a really good set of dead bolt locks on your front door, and its not going to stop someone with a 12 guage slug or a battering ram. The fact of the matter is, there are countless videos on youtube of 'How to take off your wheel locks if you lose your key' and they all involve a method that wouldn't work with these locks because theres no room on the sides of the lock.

As far as i'm concerned, the typical wheel lock design, is equivalent to a lock that comes on a suitcase, pretty much anyone can get it off, which is why i'm not content with them. I plan to run regular wheel locks and the black top wheel locks, that way if the thief is stupid enough to not realize that the black top is a lock, maybe they wont bother trying to take off my other lug nuts first if they see the standard wheel lock.

Elia Cid

How about registering new vehicles and wheels with matching laser etched ID VIN numbers or having Nissan do it from factory , plus a stolen wheel / parts registry?

Just my two cents.

__________________

rha600

Anyone have any stories of those laser etched windows being found and returned? I've never heard of one. Because the only time someone is ever going to come across stolen etched windows is if they find them in a chop shop. It's not like the cops run the etchings anytime they pull a car over for running a redlight.

I etched the inside (inside the tire) of my wheels with "STOLEN: These wheels belong to.... please call XXX XXX XXXX if they are found". My hope is that eventually the person that received the wheels/tires will have to get the tires replaced. and HOPEFULLY the guy at the tire store putting them on will be some honest Joe and see that. Again, it's all very hopeful.

rha600

actually they don't have to. I couldn't find it online but like I said in another post, they have a spliter that looks like a socket only it has a wedge inside. one or two hits with a hammer and presto.

As for the sound, it depends on where you live and if you're at home, out on vacation or just out to dinner for the night in a different car. There's really only one way to stop them, and the cops probably wouldn't look kindly on that solution.

Jeffblue

a splitter? i understand the idea of cramming a socket with a reverse burr in it in order to dig in, get a grip, and screw the nut off, but are you talking about just cracking a lug nut in half?