Do wheel trims serve a useful purpose?

Joe_Horner

They prevent an MOT inspector from spoting your missing wheel nuts / broken studs. A bit like plastic sill covers and arch liners do with rust*

Apart from that pretty well cosmetic only





* Although properly designed and fitted arch liners (quite rare) will reduce the rust in the first place

Stooby2

AdrianC wrote:

With a side order of "Not if you don't bounce it off the kerbs"

Many years ago, outside the Oval cricket ground, a road repair was made across the road - a trench a foot wide, which was filled and left. The new tarmac sunk a few inches leaving a shallow depression, which seemed to be the exact dimensions for removing wheel trims. I can vividly remember following a Datsun which went over the trench and all four hubcaps came off together and bowled down the road.

By the time the trench was remade a few days later there was quite a pile of hubcaps on the pavement. Given the state of our roads today, I'd imagine it's quite easy to lose hubcaps without ever going near a kerb.

Ultrasonic

Westmead_Fan wrote: »

if you don't like wheel trims & just have the steel wheel showing what you can do is clean the rim up & spray silver paint just to smarten them up.

The wheels are brand new so no need for any work, which is partly why I think they look OK

Thanks for the replies everyone.

Retrogamer

They help limit the exposure to the elements, especially in winter. When i worked in a garage if 1 wheel trim was missing from a car, that was usually the wheel where it was difficult to get off because the spigot had rusted onto the hub / drum.

londonTiger

Ultrasonic wrote: »

I have some new steel wheels with winter tyres on, and am trying to decide whether to buy some wheel trims (hub caps). I don't actually mind the look of the 'naked' steel wheels, but was wondering if some plastic wheel trims would be a good idea to protect the currently exposed wheel nuts and the end of the wheel hub?

I use "naked" steel wheels. The plastics have seen better days and the paint has flaked off on some areas.

I think you have to look aty it from the original dealers POV. When wheel trims are brand new, they do look somewhat respectable. They certainly look a lot more sellable than exposed steel wheels.

I think that's ultimately why they have it at the beginning.

oldagetraveller

AdrianC wrote: »

Another vote for cosmetic only.

A little dob of copaslip on wheelnut threads

No, never do this. It will mean that the torque cannot be applied accurately and lead to overtightening of the nuts/studs.
Between the wheel and hub mounting faces, yes.

Uxb

I can remember the old chrome hub cap which just covered the centre bit where the wheel nuts were.
They were often more difficult to get off than the subsequent wheel nuts!
The car's supplied jack spanner often had a special bit on the other end to hook under the cap and then by levering it against the wheel edge to 'pop' the caps off.

GolfBravo

Joe_Horner wrote: »

Apart from that pretty well cosmetic only

No, they're not cosmetic only.

Car manufacturers make a fortune selling replacement wheel covers - they are very crucial part of their aftersales cashflow.

Every car manufacturer I have ever worked with had wheel covers close to the top of their spare part/accessory profitability list. There is one I know with a 1200% profit margin even before a dealer profit margin is applied. It's a goldmine!

For any heavy-duty driving you're better off without them. Look at these guys:

OddballJamie

Keep them naked and be proud of the winter boots.

You're making the roads a safer place.