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Wheel locks on the 21”…

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Not worrying about stealing the 21”? Just wondering.

Not really. I think most locks can be easily defeated by the thief. The wheels are on the ground so the thief would need to be prepared with a jack and if they want the wheels and come prepared, they will know how to defeat the locks. I want it as less messy as possible for the car.
 
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Not really. I think most locks can be easily defeated by the thief. The wheels are on the ground so the thief would need to be prepared with a jack and if they want the wheels and come prepared, they will know how to defeat the locks. I want it as less messy as possible for the car.
Anyone that really wants wheels will take them with or without locks. I stopped using locks years ago for this reason. If you are concerned, either self-insure, purchase insurance or don't park in places where loss is a material risk.
 
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a lot of frustration.
Great, that's what I want for the thief!

All these headaches with regard to wheel locks aren't helping any argument against them tbh. Everyone makes it sound like they're a massive undertaking for the owner and any tire shop that works on the car, yet thieves somehow just noclip their way into getting the wheels off in a couple of minutes. It's like dude... they either make wheels hard to get off, or they're no different than a normal lug nut. Which one is it?
 
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Great, that's what I want for the thief!

All these headaches with regard to wheel locks aren't helping any argument against them tbh. Everyone makes it sounds like a massive undertaking for the owner and any tire shop that works on the car, yet thieves somehow just noclip their way into getting the wheels off. It's like dude... which one is it?
I guess I should explain it better for you. If you have a flat tire with a wheel lock and it breaks by splitting you can’t remove the wheel to put on another one. You are stranded at this point. You get towed to a tire store and they won’t touch it. It is a messy ugly process to remove the wheel without damage and will cost you money and time. And yes if it does not break a thief has many ways to remove it. Do you get it now ?
 
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I guess I should explain it better for you. If you have a flat tire with a wheel lock and it breaks by splitting you can’t remove the wheel to put on another one. You are stranded at this point. You get towed to a tire store and they won’t touch it. It is a messy ugly process to remove the wheel without damage and will cost you money and time. And yes if does not break a thief has many ways to remove it. Do you get it now ?
Why wouldn't I just do whatever the thief would do if it breaks? And what would cause it to break in the first place?
 
Why wouldn't I just do whatever the thief would do if it breaks? And what would cause it to break in the first place?
If it breaks the thief won’t be able to remove it either. And they will leave you the surprise. I have had a wheel lock crack upon trying to remove it. Part of it stayed on the stud and could not be removed even with a chisel. There is no way to remove it easily by anyone without potential wheel damage which is why tire shops will pass on it. It took a few hours with a good mechanic to repair the damage.
 
If it breaks the thief won’t be able to remove it either. And they will leave you the surprise. I have had a wheel lock crack upon trying to remove it. Part of it stayed on the stud and could not be removed even with a chisel. There is no way to remove it easily by anyone without potential wheel damage which is why tire shops will pass on it. It took a few hours with a good mechanic to repair the damage.
Gotcha, I see where you're coming from.

That seems like a problem that I wouldn't want to deal with either. When I was a teenager, my friends got around a lock once by snatching the wheel off with a truck. I might still have the video. Obviously that's not an ideal solution for anyone, but that's how much of a dead end it is when the wheel is stuck on the hub like that.

That story actually brings up another point I didn't think about, which is the fact that people don't keep track of their stuff. The kid in that story lost the key to his wheel lock, so he couldn't put his new rims on his truck until the old wheels came off. The other wheel lock thread is another good example where the previous owner probably has the key in a pile of stuff somewhere. The keys to the locks end up like valet keys, security keys, owners manuals, etc... just nowhere to be found.

Sorry if I came off like a dick, it's just been confusing me for years. The other side of this argument are the folks who post their favorite impact gun, and a socket of choice, along with claims they could get it off in under a minute anyway. And I'm over here like man, what do these guys know that everyone else doesn't know?
 
So we are all talking about how the lock will break and stuff, what about the original nuts? Will those has same level of breakage as the lock nut? Or the original ones are much stronger? I see similar design as the Tesla locks.

And do ppl still steal wheels around nowadays?