"Buyer beware" - the story of Keithatport's VR4

[chrisvr4]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2001-MITSUBISH...item4156ff2e74

[Beastlee]

Already disappeared from eBay Chris

[elnevio]

Wow! That was quick!

It was a 2001 facelift in Trigger Mauve that actually looked quite nice, with a buy it now price of £2,750. Registration was on an NI plate, starting ICZ. Seller was kingfaisir (sp?), AKA Zee/Torque of the Devil.

[peter thomson]

listed on pistonheads as well

[Humpty's Revenge]

Been sold...........

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2525471.htm

[chrisvr4]

There was 6 offers and a deposit taken on the eBay advert.

Sounds well cheap for a 2001 plate hmmm?

He seems to be still active on here aswell.

[jayp]

with regards to the NI registered FL it was nearly bought by myself. I have only just found this post. All I can say is I'm very glad i didn't bother to make the trek from Germany to Bradford for this one. He assured me everything was legal and MOT'd and UK registered over the phone but couldn't provide me with a UK registration for me to check, also i he told me he had sold loads of these to Germany recently? so I walked away. In the end I bought Bowz's virtually immaculate Ralliart FL which got me across the continent without missing a beat.

All i can say about this is 'BUYER BEWARE' if doesn't feel right walk away!!!!

and many thanks to Chris for allowing me to buy the car from him on short notice!!

[peter thomson]

Gald to hear you walked away from it

with regards to the NI registered FL it was nearly bought by myself. I have only just found this post. All I can say is I'm very glad i didn't bother to make the trek from Germany to Bradford for this one. He assured me everything was legal and MOT'd and UK registered over the phone but couldn't provide me with a UK registration for me to check, also i he told me he had sold loads of these to Germany recently? so I walked away. In the end I bought Bowz's virtually immaculate Ralliart FL which got me across the continent without missing a beat.

All i can say about this is 'BUYER BEWARE' if doesn't feel right walk away!!!!

and many thanks to Chris for allowing me to buy the car from him on short notice!!

[peter thomson]

He seems to be still active on here aswell.

Is he and should he still be allowed to be?

[Humpty's Revenge]

And there of...............again

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MITSUBISHI-LEG...item41577f2969

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2001-MITSUBISH...item4156ff2e74

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2581858.htm

[martin1981]

Hi, I'm new to the forum, and purchased a VR4 from Zee (which was before I saw this thread). This is my first post here. I've just read through this whole thread...

I purchased the white Legnum through Ebay which was one of the two Steve-vr-4ish posted here. Before I go into any detail on anything else I urgently need to find out if the previous owner of the Legnum is on here, because the locking wheel nut key for the Schneider alloys is missing. And I urgently need to replace the front brakes (I have new front discs/pads here already, waiting to be fitted). I tried to do it at Mitsubishi Brighton, who have the tool which should allow the nut to be taken off, but they were unable to do it because they said the Schneider alloy nuts were such a specific size/shape that the tool would not work.

Zee told me that the previous owner of the car was a member of the VR4 forums? I've been trying to find out whether the wheel nut key still exists, but at the moment Zee is completely ignoring me for some reason. I've given him quite a long time (about 3 weeks) to respond before I considered posting on here, so he has had a lot of chances to let me know what's going on. He also knows the front brakes need replacing urgently, but as I said he is now completely ignoring all correspondence from me. Zee told me (about 3 weeks ago when I last spoke to him), that he was having trouble getting through to the previous owner, he'd left text messages and a voicemail but didn't hear anything back. I thought this was strange because he didn't seem to have any problems getting through to the owner prior to purchasing the car, when I had a question about the mileage.

I should've checked when I bought the car if the key was there, however I just assumed it would be because there is even a toolkit pouch, jack and a spare wheel in the boot (which are obviously useless if the key isn't there!). I haven't tried any other garages yet, in case perhaps they have a different tool which could get the wheels off(?), but one place I phoned told me my only option was to have the nuts welded. I'm assuming this is not going to be particularly cheap? Also I've never had to do this before, so not sure what the deal is, if I have to do that would it mean that anybody could come along and remove the wheels? So I'm quite desperate to at least find out what has happened to the key before I have anything like that done.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance.

And there of...............again

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/MITSUBISHI-LEG...item41577f2969

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2001-MITSUBISH...item4156ff2e74

http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/2581858.htm

[martin1981]

Message for the moderators, please could you disregard my previous post for now, Zee has finally got in touch with me and I understand the previous owner lost the wheel nut key.

[elnevio]

Fixed now Martin.

It had been automatically moderated, but it isn't obvious to mods when posts have been.

[martin1981]

Thank you, I will be posting back soon with more info. For now, does anybody know (given the wheel nut key for the Schneider wheels on the white Legnum is lost), what my options are in terms of getting the wheels off and the new brakes fitted? I've been told my only option is welding, but (as mentioned in the original post) I'm not experienced with this so not sure if this is the case or not. Also how much should I expect this to cost me? And will it mean that the wheels will be easily stolen after the welding is done, or will there be a new locking nut to prevent that? (all raised in the original post, sorry to repeat myself).

Fixed now Martin.

It had been automatically moderated, but it isn't obvious to mods when posts have been.

[Atik]

My understanding is that a bolt is welded to your existing locking nut, allowing for removal. Once it is off the car, it is up to you to either replace the four locking nuts with either standard ones, new locking nuts, or even re-use the welded ones! Not sure how much this would cost though.

My personal preference would be to get them off the car with any means necessary and buy a new set of locking nuts that will have a key.

[miller]

any tyre place worth their salt will be able to remove them in no time at all. just replace with fresh locking nuts or original ones

[martin1981]

Thanks for the advice, I've just found a friendly local repair shop who is working on it now (thinks he'll be able to do it with a tool rather than welding), sounds like it's not going to be too expensive either and he recommended exactly what you guys said, i.e. putting fresh nuts on once it's done. So it should be sorted now. Sorry if this is basic info but I've never had to do it before, and was told by a couple of places that they couldn't get them off, so wasn't sure how it worked. I'll be posting back shortly regarding my overall experience with this vehicle, thanks again.

[ianturbo]

Try smacking on a old socket on them with a hammer then undoing that worked when i had no key with mine ,
ian

[jayp]

Its amazing how insecure these 'locking wheel nuts' are, you can buy removal tools from halfrauds!!! or use an old 12 point socket hammered on like Ian said!!!

[martin1981]

It's all sorted now, and I've got the new brakes on, apparently it wasn't too difficult to remove them! Will be posting back again soon, thanks for all the advice here.