Photo: Secrets of choosing car security bolts (Getty Images) Author: Konstantin Shirokun
Unkind people can steal wheels from a car living on the street any night. We tell you the details about the most accessible way to protect yourself from wheel thieves.
Read about how to choose non-standard wheel bolts to protect your wheels in the RBC-Ukraine article.
Such is the reality of life, and not only ours, Ukrainian, but also European: wheels with their light-alloy disks and sometimes with no less expensive tires (for example, high-speed winter tires) are a weakly protected element of the car. Often, even modern security systems do not protect the car from wheel theft – if the thief is skilled enough, he can remove the wheels so that the impact and tilt sensors will not raise an alarm.
Therefore, many drivers resort to such protection as secret bolts – or nuts, depending on the design of the car hubs.
How do secret bolts work?
Such bolts are mechanical protection in the format of a standard wheel mount, but which can only be unscrewed with a special tool. Actually, the secret is in the shape of the bolt head (nut), which does not fit a standard wheel wrench. Therefore, together with a set of four or five bolts, the driver receives that very special key.
Not everyone knows that in addition to purely mechanical protection, secret bolts create another barrier for the criminal – a psychological one. Actually, this applies to every mechanical anti-theft protection. When an intruder sees a device on a car aimed against him, he realizes that for him this means additional time to bypass this barrier. This means that the risk of being caught red-handed increases – and therefore the thief often refuses to “work” with this car – in favor of another, where there are no such additional obstacles.
Of course, criminals have their own methods for combating secret bolts, but the designers' thoughts do not stand still either. In addition, let us repeat, it is often not so much the technical complexity of a non-standard head and a master key that works, but the time factor, which is fundamental for a thief, which must be spent to overcome the barrier.
Which wheel lock to choose
Since the hubs and wheels differ from model to model, when choosing a non-standard mount for a wheel, you need to consider not only the anti-theft resistance, but also the geometry. And the price is also important – after all, a set of secret bolts/nuts cannot cost more than the wheels themselves.
- Dimensions . The length of the bolt, its diameter and thread pitch are of fundamental importance. Secondly, the type of connection of the bolt (nut) with the disk: cone, sphere or flat surface. And do not forget that your winter and summer disks may use bolts with different geometry.
- Reliability of the secret part . It is necessary that the non-standard head of the bolt, firstly, cannot be grasped and turned by any tool – an adjustable wrench, pliers, a pipe wrench, a head of a larger nominal value, and the like. The contours of the edges should not be similar to a standard bolt, the figured cutouts of the secret part should not be deep, so that it is not possible to hammer a strong screwdriver into them to turn it with a good key.
- Two keys . One key is not only inconvenient, but also dangerous. And what will you do if you lose your only key somewhere? If there are two in the set, you will keep one at home, the second – in a secret place in the car.
Short
Concerned about the vandal-proof qualities of secret bolts, motorists often forget that they should be more or less convenient to use. And also – strong enough to serve the owner not for a year or two, but at least five to eight. Meanwhile, the use of low-quality steel is the easiest way for the manufacturer to save on the cost of this product. And if you come across some extremely budget option, you risk getting into trouble one day when you cannot change, for example, a punctured tire somewhere on the road, far from home and a service station.
The driver tests his secret bolts at least twice a year – when changing tires seasonally. And this does not include possible tire punctures on the road and chassis repairs, when mechanics have to dismantle the wheels. That is, if you can save money on purchasing secret bolts, then do so with great caution.
Materials from Autocentre and Motor were used in preparing this article .
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