Renault tried this with a five sided bolt. Most mechanics replaced them with a normal hex after removing them .

We have speed sign brackets in our village on which to mount Movable Vehicle Activated Signs where the bracket clamping to the posts uses jubilee clips tightened with a 7 sided Socket Head screw.

It’s no bother, the 7 sided toolbits are available.

https://www.reidbrothersuk.com/tamtorque-tool-bit

I first came across Torx headed fastener on BMW motorcycles, then they seemed to appear everywhere I looked!

The way they carry the tightening/undoing torque better than an “Allen” type socket, supposedly.  The problem is that, in the smaller sizes, is that a one size too small key (wrench) will engage the splines, just.  One may get away with it but the usual result was to damage the screw socket.

A BMW mechanic told me one job they frequently did was to remove damaged screws because of the above, he hated the the b****y things.

I can see the same happening with the new fastener head?

Perhaps it could be a way of invalidating a guarantee…

He could have said that lot in two minutes, but he doesn’t suggest a practical solution or ask if the appropriate screw-drivers will be available in Halfords and the like.

What encourages the like of BMW of course is that expensive cars like theirs are affordable mainly only to those who can buy new and have all the servicing and repairs done by the “approved” garages – and would likely barely know which end of a spanner to hold anyway.

Looking at the photo, it might not be too difficult for the likes of us with workshops to make our own screw-drivers for the things. The walls of the sockets appear vertical. It might be feasible even to use a cutting-disc to make a slot in the end of an old screw-driver to clear the central web with enough room to engage the flats.

I have noted the irony in the assorted fancy socket-bits and screwdrivers now being sold in many shops, labelled for “security” screws!

Just occurred to me… are the threads on these money-grabbing fasteners ISO-Standard pitches or specials known only unto BMW, to hinder or prevent replacing them with proper ones?

At one point in the video the speaker referred to BMW wanting tighter laws on DIY car maintenance. Some years ago the big European manufacturers were lobbying for even worse: a law that all repairs and servicing must be done only by their main or their “approved” garages.

Hi, but not all BMW technicians are that good. In my last day job, one of the office chaps had a sensor which snapped off his catalytic converter, the technician at the local BMW service centre said that the converter had to be replaced with a new one, so he brought it into the workshop and asked me if I could get the offending bit out of the threaded hole, so a new sensor could be fitted, which I did, but it was a tricky job, and it saved him a tidy bit of money for a replacement converter. Needless to say the BMW technician hadn’t got a clue as to how to save the convertor from the scrappy.

Regards Nick.

Who in their right mind would put the aluminium bodied high pressure fuel pump in a foam rubber  band,in a steel bracket and site it just ahead of the rear wheel, open to the elements. YEP ! BMW.

I didn’t need 3 months in Bavaria or be a Meistertechniker to see the puddle of petrol or understand WHY it had corroded through .

The spark eroder would take less than 10 mins to make a key in good steel.  Noel.

Has anyone else considered that this whole thing could be a AI generated hoax or a publicity stunt by BMW?
I can’t find any reference to an actual patent or similar.

Robert.

Typical BMW.  Trying to encourage/enforce dealership repairs.

I see the problem with using special fasteners and similar tricks is not in preventing well-meaning owners causing more damage than the original failure. That was likely always a fairly minor one anyway.

Rather, it is making it harder and costlier for repairing breakdowns, perhaps far from home, even by professional garages let alone at the roadside.

The manufacturers’ own garages or so-called “approved” dealers are likely to be few and far between – and I would not trust them to ask a fair fee, notwithstanding that I do know the nature of  “labour charges” or “overheads” before any profit element. I cost my employers’ customers a lot more than even my gross pay!

Though I do know there are bad as well as good independent garages……

My sister took her preserved motor-caravan to a local garage our family had used for decades under its original, very reliable ownership.. The new garage owners managed to put a huge scratch along the side, and lose the dipstick and its tube. They tried to fob her off with a second-hand dipstick from an unknown car! She told then firmly that would not read correctly, but she still had to order a new one through an Owners’ Club.

Then last week I needed new suspension-rubbers for my car’s silencer. In theory I ought be able to fit them myself, but not safely or easily at the kerbside in a narrow street. It’s a former ‘Motability’ car so is modified… so Kwikfit said NO. Not “standard”, and Head Office does not allow branch mechanics the skill and initiative to solve such problems.  However, the manager referred me to a small garage nearby.

The chap there said he could tack-weld the exhaust to the chassis!

“I don’t like to tell you your profession,” I said, “but is that wise, with the engine mounted so it can rock?”

Fortunately he saw my point, and though I had to await their delivery it did not take long for someone else to fit the new rubber mounts.

On 29 December 2025 at 08:48 Nicholas Farr Said:

Needless to say the BMW technician hadn’t got a clue as to how to save the convertor from the scrappy.

Regards Nick.

could be management would not allow him/her to repair it