Can you remove the centre caps...

[amwebby]

.. without removing the wheel? Does anyone know the trick? I have four blue laurel centre caps that have been sitting here for weeks but have not had the time to take each wheel off and pop the centres. Anybody know if there is a tricky way to do this? PM me if you don't want to encourage Star theft.

 

[Howard]

There isn't really , you always risk damaging the finish of the wheel if you use the screwdriver approach ...

Always better to pop the wheels of and pop the centres out i'm afraid ...

If you must do it , use a small electrical screwdriver .... but you'll end up with dents and scratches ...

 

[Tony T]

If you have the silver centres with the chrome star you might just get your finger nails under the star or rim and pull them off. A spray of WD40 first may help. I managed to change mine this way.

 

[Howard]

The chrome star on the silver centres is detachable by the way ... it will come off so you can paint the centre if you wish ...

 

[andy27168]

Hi,
If you don,t want to keep the original centre caps, you could drill each one and screw a self tapping screw into them and then use pliers to pull them out of each wheel.

 

[Will]

I'm still amazed at the lengths people will go to, to AVOID taking a wheel off!

Surely the time it takes to turn on your PC, log into the forum, create a new post, wait for the replys, get a drill out, find some screws, a screwdriver, pliers etc.

Can't understand the logic in that - just whip the wheel off to do the centre cap - 5 minutes a wheel - jacked up, off, cap changed and remounted. 10 minutes a wheel if you decide to clean the wheel inside and out, apply some tyre dressing and maybe an extra minute to copper grease the hub for future ease of removal

Not to mention the risk of slipping and damaging a wheel permanently, plus the fact you've ruined a perfectly good set of centre caps by drilling them...

Will

 

[amwebby]

Having changed a wheel several times before I swapped out the cheap Korean tyres for decent ones I can attest it is more like 30 minutes a wheel, including jacking time.

I've just done the drilling out trick, which I had figured out before to be fair, but just wanted to see if there was some trick I hadn't thought of that would save the caps. All four wheels took me five minutes.

On balance I decided why go through the hassle of changing each wheel for £40 worth of wheel caps I will never use again.

 

[Shude]

Last time I swapped some centrecaps they were really damaged with almost no paint on so to remove I stabbed them with a screwdriver and levered them off. That took a lot less time than removing the wheels etc but if you want to do the job properly, wheels-off is the way to go.

 

[Leemc2008]

Take the wheels off.. and whilst there off you can clean the backs of the wheels, wheel arches and the brakes at the same time...

 

[Dieselman]

Not forgetting changing the brake fluid and painting the calipers..

 

[NW_Merc]

Forget painting them, get the calipers powder coated

 

[crockers]

All in 10 minutes a wheel........