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Old 05-12-2017, 11:17 AM   #3394
Cbonilla
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Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: MD
Posts: 268
Garage
After breaking my wheel lock key, which itself was a replacement for a lost one ($80 to Porsche for the two!), as soon as I got the new key I replaced all the keyed lug bolts with regular bolts. Life is too short, I'm insured, and I have been told that the wheel locks don't really slow down a dedicated thief. First I cleaned off the old lug bolts with a wire brush, replaced the ones that were aging (peeling and corrosion on the shoulders) after first giving them a blast of primer, gloss black and clear coat. Yes I know that the black will chip off the bolts with every tightening, but for now they look better.

The wheel lock key broke when I went to loosen a tire that had been over-tightened by a shop that was repairing a slow leak. Now finally having been pointed to the section in my manual that specifies anti-seize on the threads and between the bolt head and the spherical cap (page 206 in my 2003 986S manual) I hope to never have this problem again. That was definitely a hubris moment -- read the manual on how to change a tire? I've been doing that for 40 years!

FYI = The other place where I use anti-seize is on the mating surfaces between the wheel and hub. Last year I was taking my tires off for a brake job and the wheels would not come off. Finally a friend suggested loosening the lugs just a bit and driving the car in a circle. Now those mating surfaces always get a thin coating of anti-seize after first going over those surfaces with a wire brush.
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