jmaw

Thanks for the help...wheels sorted now with the help of a small cold chisel and a hammer...came off much easier than expected

The comment about Green Flag was purely sarcasm,,,I will remove the covers when it stops (if ever it does) raining

I have just returned from the main Toyota Dealership and having spoken to the Service Manager he confirms what gjnorthall states in his post above in that it is not a wheel lock nut as I have wrongly stated but purely just a device to hold that cover on. He went on to say that originally the car was supplied with the key in a black box and kept in the tool bag and there would have been a wheel lock nut fitted to the wheel behind the cover as standard equipment,,,,,no keys are now available and the way they get them off is to try to drive them with a hammer and chisel .....he said they are not normally too tight but the centre of the device is very hard to drill out which if you could remove it would make it a lot easier to get something to grip onto the splined interior of the device to unscrew it.....best I keep my Green Flag membership up to date!

Thanks for your replies guys which I will respond to in order. IanField....no Phillips screw unfortunately and spare wheel gives no useful info either,,,,normal steel wheel and all wheel studs showing... "wtf would happen if you had a blow out on the motorway??" well in normal circumstances you would have the wheel lock nut key in the car that removes the alloy plate so you could get access to wheel studs...my problem is I do not have the key or know the manufacturer to order a replacement key,,, gjnorthall...the "object" in the six o' clock position is the wheel lock nut to which I do not have the key for to remove Big Kev ...I am new to this type of vehicle so not really qualified to give an intelligent answer to your question about road noise because I can only compare the tyre noise to normal tyre's on normal saloon type vehicles but I would have thought the noise was not excessive Update ...I have just received a reply from an owner of a Rav4 with the same type of wheels from another source who advises me that the plate does not prise off and something like a Torx bit might remove his wheel lock nut whereas mine requires a "female" type of key... manufacturer not known. Previous owner of 4 years standing can not help either... which beggars belief .

Hi, Can anybody who is familiar with my type of OEM alloy wheels where the wheel nuts are covered by an alloy plate please advise me if the plate is actually secured in place by the lock nut or can it be levered off to get access to the wheel studs.....vehicle is a 1996 GX 3 door automatic Regards Jim Maw