thetoddjohnson

A few months ago I bough a set of winter wheels/tires from Tire Rack. They are: 18X8 ENKEI TUNING RAIJIN HYPER SIL

I was real happy with them until today. It turns out that the diameter of the lug holes in the Enkei wheels are smaller than the holes in the OEM Audi wheels, so the little plastic-tweezer-cap-remover tool will not fit into the holes far enough to grab the caps. So far I've been at it for about a half hour and I've only successfully removed 3 caps using bent up paper clips, and I've got a nice scratch in the wheel. I'm beyond pissed.

This is my first Audi, and my first car that ever had plastic lug caps. I'm looking for advise. I think that I'm going to need to use super glue to attach a dowel or something to each cap so I can pull. Before I start doing that I figured I'd ask if there are other tricks.

TJ

TJ

userbbc

Floss, fishing line, single core wire might work.
Or worst case, drill a hole in the center of each and hook it out with a right angle pick.

2PUTT

needle nose pliers??

Imola wagon

thetoddjohnson

Awesome idea. I knew you guys would come up with something.
Nope. I can barely get an o-ring extractor hook in there.
I plan to ceremoniously do this as soon as I get those buggers out.

thetoddjohnson

Fishing line proved to be a challenge. I ended up using a drill. With a small bit (1/8") I drilled into the center of the cap. As soon as the bit catches, I can stop the drill then just pull and the cap stays with the bit.

Badger56

thetoddjohnson

I thought of the suction cup idea, but I didn't have one small enough. I actually put "suction cup" on my "things to look for next time I'm at Harbor Freight" list. Now that I've trashed the cups I guess I can remove that from my list. Hahahahahah

leolarry

I took 2 long cotter pins and bent the end of each 90 degrees. I got pretty good at popping the caps off. I think next time I have to remove them I'll leave them off.