Typically, just one lug nut on a wheel will be locking, and the rest will be standard. Each set of locking nuts usually comes with a key, or a socket, to fit its specific pattern.

There are universal DIY tools available to remove locking wheel nuts without a key, but using a locking wheel nut remover requires a certain amount of confidence and they don’t always work.

Quentin says: There must be a mountain of locking nut keys somewhere, because everybody seems to lose them. Halfords do a special tool called the Laser Locking Wheel Nut Remover for £16.99.

If a would-be thief really wants your rims, he will acquire the same universal wheel lock-remover tool that we use in our repair shop and you will be in the exact same situation – which is ...

Lug nuts hold your wheel to your car, so you'll need to take them off to change a tire or work on your suspension. That's easy unless one of your lug nuts is a special "locking type." Oh, yours is?