Wheel nut casings slight movement

[regl7]

I've seen a few posts on the S Type forum regarding wheel nut and locking wheel nut failures.

So in 6 months or so I've had front wheels off 1.5 times and tightened back up with a torque wrench. First time to sort a bit of corrosion on the anti rattle caliper clips and second time for FRS wheel to investigate a a bit of contact on full steering lock between what I think is a part worn 355mm disc and the stone guard (metallic tink/tink/tinking sound when parking), there was a bit of corrosion on the inner unworn ridge of the disc that has been rubbed down a bit.

3 1/2 year old car and had new tyres at 28k at dealers before I bought it.

On retightening the FDS wheel nuts and then wiping down wheels I noticed a bit of movement on one wheel nut and also on two on RDS wheel and another one of each of PSF and PSR wheels. Taking one off and it was securely fastened but the casing has a slight movement from the underlying nut.

So looking at replacing all the nuts, (as assume a nut breakage/separation after a puncture is a possiblity) is this a warranty issue or known issue?

May also get the metallic contact noise at low speed full left hand lock turning from DSF investigated.

[J44EAG]

Under the chrome nut finisher there is an 18mm nut. The chrome nut finisher is easily damaged by hammer gun use which flattens the case and then causes a standard 19mm wheel socket to slip. One then has to chisel off a damaged cap to access the nut below and remove with an 18mm socket. As if that wasn`t bad enough, the lockers are even worse! Break the locker removal socket and then sourcing a new removal socket at a fair price can be a costly nightmare.Around £26 for a new coded socket if you are lucky enough to find one for your car with the correct letter stamped on it. Otherwise a locking wheel nut removal kit can be found on ebay for around £19. The scenario when it happens is a nause.

The answer is new wheel nuts. I`ve just bought eight for £18.95 delivered from a seller on ebay. Worth having a few around for replacement should the need arise. I suppose I`ve had to junk half a dozen over eight years due to tyre bay gorillas ineptitude.

The nuts themselves are composed of the outer chrome thin wall case, the nut and a rotatable thrust washer located under the nut which prevents torque damage to a wheel rim as the nut is tightened up. The chrome nut finisher can move slightly on the nut. That really doesn`t matter. The important part is the nut beneath.

I recently mentioned I had a failed locking nut removal tool. This split due to having been used only once with a hammer gun and then some five years of manual use. I predicted the failure. So I`ve had the socket welded up and will be removing all locking wheel nuts and throwing the lot of them in the yard skip. Good riddance to bad rubbish. The end to a most loathed and hated set of parts. Ordinary nuts, not lockers will now be fitted to my car.

Mike