Ok so I’m told by a couple people that hubcaps are totally aesthetic. Is this true? And if it is, then why does everyone have them? I mean, sure they look nice, but if they’re only aesthetic, why does everyone (or a lot of people at least) feel they HAVE to replace them when they fall off? And people have different ideas of what looks aesthetically nice, so what’s up with that?
Is it maybe that the car companies just want to charge a bundle to replace them so they sell all the cars with them so everyone thinks…well if it came with the car, it must be necessary…?
They are not purely aesthetic. On cars that use hubcaps, the lugnuts are usualy open at both ends, the hubcaps keep the elements (salt slush) off. With out that protection it becomes harder to remove them, the lugnuts.
Eh, sorry, we don’t have salt on the road in Hawaii. We do have salty air near the beaches, but a dollop of anti-seize on the stud before torquing them down prevents them from freezing on most of the time.
Most car owners have never heard of “anti-seize” and don’t own any. I have to agree with Booker that hubcaps protect the lugnuts from the elements, even in Hawaii. I have a car that just happens to be missing a hupcap right now and the nuts on that wheel are rusted while the other ones under hubcaps are not.
That’s true, Doctordec…you have to forgive me, I am speaking from a techie’s point of view. My hubcaps (although my truck has none) could fall off and I could feel safe.
I disagree. How do they keep salt and slush off of the wheels when they usually have fairly large holes all around them. Sure the hubcaps may keep some water off the wheel’s they don’t keep a lot of it. Next time it rains go driving then take off a hubcap and tell me if the wheels are dry or not. One other point. Most sports cars don’t have hubcaps. Just solid wheels. Often aluminum alloy but occasionally steel. The lug nuts don’t rust closed. I’ve driven these cars through many a Midwestern winter. I’ve never had a lug nut rust so that I could not remove it.
Granted, a lot of wheel covers do have holes in them. If you think about water going in those holes while the wheel is turning, then centrifugal force is going to throw the water towards the outside of the wheel, not back towards the hub. Most carmakers that put alloy wheels on their new cars have handled the corrosion problem but we were talking about cars with wheel covers and I don’t think they plate the lug nuts (bolts) as well in this case. Lug nuts can freeze and I’ve had 2 cars where it took a trip to the gas station to use the impact wrench to free them and neither time did they have covers. Next time it rains here I’ll take the old Dodge Colt out for a spin and compare the covered and uncovered wheel. Deal ?
A history of hubcaps: Originally they covered and protected the greasy nut that held the wheel on at the hub, and were no bigger than that. In the 20’s, when most manufactureres went to 5-lug wheels, they continued to cover and protect the nuts. When manufacturers began to go to steel wheel discs in the 30’s, hubcaps continued to protect the nuts, but began to become more and more decorative. Full hubcaps didn’t really come into common use until after the second world war, primarily on more expensive cars like Cadillacs and Packards. Today they are purely decorative, and offer little or no protection. Most of todays plain steel wheels are pretty ugly and with disc brakes tend to become covered with unsightly brake dust.
In short, you don’t need hubcaps unless you don’t want your car to look like a piece of crap.
By the way, the correct term is “Wheelcover”, not hubcap, unless it covers only the hub and nuts.
