Hubcaps must be mounted firmly to your rims, with full contact around the entire perimeter of the steel wheel. He should be able to remove them with his bare hands with great difficulty, or not be able to remove them at all. This is the case with over 99% of standard wheels. However, there is a small variation in diameter between wheels made by different manufacturers. If your wheels are ‘tight’ you may have a hard time mounting the hubcaps all the way. If the wheels are “loose,” they may make noise or come off when hitting potholes.
If your wheels are loose or slightly oversized, your hubcaps may not mount firmly enough to stay over bumps at highway speeds. Here are some tips to remedy this situation. These tips apply to standard modern push-on style hubcaps.
1. Make sure you have not applied any “lubricant” product to the surface of the steel wheel where the hubcaps are mounted, especially in the recess around the tire bead.
Products like ArmorAll or Tire Shine contain silicone and other lubricants that can increase the smoothness of the surfaces they are applied to. If this is the case, thoroughly clean any debris from the mounting surface where the hubcap struts contact the wheel with rubbing alcohol or paint thinner. Also clean any debris from the hubcap mounting struts. Reassemble and test.
2. If your hubcaps have a second notch for the spring retainer ring, to position it closer to the outside face of the hubcap, you can try moving the ring into that slot.
Note: The normal position for the snap ring is at the END of the mounting strut, moving its position closer to the outer face of the hub cap will MUCH increase mounting pressure on a normal wheel, to the point that the snap ring will hubcap can break before it breaks. ride all the way. But if your wheel is too big it will increase the setting to ‘tight’.
3. If your hubcaps have spring-loaded metal mounting clips on the ends of the struts, you can try bending one in the middle out 1/4 inch, remount, and test. If that’s still not enough to hold the pressure, fold the rest of them out. That usually does.
4. If the above didn’t work for you, you can try this: Wrap the outer contact point of every other strut with black electrician’s tape. The goal is to get 3-4 turns of extra thickness on the strut or mounting clip, which will increase its holding power. Reassemble and test. If this still isn’t enough, go ahead and wrap the rest of them.
5. In some rare cases, the paint on steel wheels is shiny and slippery, especially when they are painted to match the car. This can result in the loss of hubcaps, even when the hubcaps seem to fit tight. In this case, you can use 80-grit coarse sandpaper to abrade the paint in the area where the hubcap struts make contact with the wheel. Make the scratches parallel to the circumference of the wheel. This can give the mounting struts just enough extra grip to keep them in place. Don’t sand hard enough to remove all the paint, the hubcap mounting struts will grab the paint better than bare steel.
6. If your wheels have been deformed by impact with curbs or road hazards, you may never be able to fit your hubcaps. This condition will also cause the tire wear pattern to be uneven and may cause a wobble while driving. One way to diagnose this problem is to have a friend follow you in another car to see if any of your wheels wobble. This would also appear on a spin balancing machine. The only real solution to the problem is to replace the wheel.
7. If all else fails, you can try this trick, which is often used by police departments to reduce hubcap loss in high-speed chases. Get a dozen nylon ties, the kind with one flat end that goes through the square hole on the other end and tighten. They should be 6-8 inches long, at least 2 per hubcap, 3 is better. Go through a couple of holes in the wheel and the corresponding holes in the hubcap, and tighten them firmly. It’s not that pretty, but it works.
