Since 1998, I have bought more sets of center caps due to them falling off. ONLY when I have had the tires rotated or bought new tires, the people doing the work seem to break them or not install them correctly. Walmart, Discount Tire, NTB, Goodyear. At 27 bucks a pop at Ford, I finally decided I just wasn't going to do it anymore. Been without them for 1 year, but it looks pretty goofy. I am going to buy them now and just do my own rotations. Are the caps just a piece of garbage, or can you buy some caps that go behind the wheel? Surely this is a repeat post. EBay has a few, but who knows. The paulster..



97 F150XL supercab,LWB 4.6 2wd, 265/75/16 michelin A/T
238k miles and still smooth.

 

Which wheel do you have?

On mine, the cap seems to get weaker after having them removed alot. I just had to replace mine ($40-some odd from local dealer, $30 something from fordpartscheap.com), and it is much harder to put on/get off than my old ones. This one shouldnt fall off anytime soon.

This is my wheel BTW:


Or, you could just remove the caps prior to going to get the tires rotated and balanced, then put them back on yourself afterwards.

 

I've had my tires off a lot lately, and with regular 5k tire rotations the center caps are not real tight. I am a bit concerned that I'll lose one some day.

I have the Lariat steel chrome wheels. I've noticed they do come off better if I put them on one way. There are five lugs, and three lug clips. Two of the clips are closer together. I put the two clips that are closer together by the two slots for removing the center caps. This way, with each slot I remove one clip, and only have one clip left.

I've found that with a good jack and two jack stands I can rotate the tires quickly and it's a bit enjoyable. Still, I did get free rotation and ballance every 5k with my tires from Sears.

 

I have a 1998 also, and I've lost a total of 5 center caps. I was buying the cheap reproductions as replacements, but I lost a couple of those too. I finally just quit replacing them. Keep us posted if you find a solution...

Dave

 

Me too!

My '98 lost three center caps after Discount Tire put new tires on. The truck was 5.5 years old at that time and previously, never lost a single one.

I paid $35 each at the Ford dealer and bent the tabs on the remaining one. They haven't fallen off since.

 

Solution,

You know how the gas caps are attached by a piece of plastic.

If you took a bit of wire, small, maybe 20-24 guage, and glued it to the inside of the center cap. Be careful not to glue it where it will interfere with the nuts or bolts. Then take the other end and make a circle just big enough to go over the bolts. Attach the wire over the last bolt when remounting (the center cap should hang) the wheel. Then just attach the center cap as normal. The wire should be no more than 12 inches.

If the center cap becomes loose it should still be held on by the wire. At most it would make enough noise to let you know that it is dangling. But at least you could still have it to re-attach.

 

The only problem with that fix is centripital force. When you're driving at 60mph and that comes off it will start flailing around. Depending how much wire you have attached it would be smacking itself on the pavement every rotation destroying the cap so theres not much point of saving it then. The other thing is also depending how long the wire is it may try to hit the body or something else thats in reach. The last thing is that normally when it flies off its at the center of rotation, now its out more towards the perimeter creating more speed on it and would make it fly off in a new direction should the wire break. It may fly off and hit your truck or another car. One thing you may want to try is find some silicone sealant and try and use that to help stick the caps the lugs a little bit. I've tried this on the pop on center caps for my aftermarket wheels. I put a little bit around where it seats into the wheel. It seems to help hold them on ok. The only other option I've thought of for my wheels is epoxying the caps on since they don't cover the lugs nuts, but that doesn't help in this case.

 

Good point. I was thinking of only using about 6 inches of wire. That should prevent the cap fron striking anything if it were to fall off and spin with the rotation of the tire.

You might be able to use crimp-on connectors for the part that fits over the bolt. The kind that are a circle, I'm not sure what they are called. That would be better that just wrapping the wire around the bolt.

But the weakest point would be the adhesive used to secure the wire to the inside of the cap. Solve that problem and your in business.

 

centripital force , isn't that when you run so fast you trip over your own feet ?