Center caps are the part that disappears without anyone noticing until the car is parked. They pop off over a pothole, they get left behind at a tire shop, and once one is gone the wheel looks unfinished from every angle. They are also inexpensive to replace, which is why this is one of the busiest categories on the site.

Center Cap or Wheel Cover: Not the Same Part

This is the single most common mix-up in this category, and the catalog carries both in similar numbers. A center cap is the small disc that covers the hub in the middle of an alloy wheel, like part 40343-5Y700, described as a disc wheel ornament for an aluminum road wheel. A wheel cover is the full-face piece that covers an entire steel wheel. If your wheel is alloy, you need a cap. If it is a steel wheel with a plastic cover over the whole face, you need a cover. Ordering one when you meant the other is the most frequent return here.

Matching the Right Cap

Caps are specific to the wheel, not just to the vehicle, and a single model year can have several wheel options across trims. The safest route is the VIN, which resolves to the wheel your car actually left the factory with. If the wheels have been changed at some point, match the cap to the wheel rather than to the car.

While You Are Here

The page also carries wheel bearing dust caps, steering wheel plugs and spare tire compartment covers. The dust caps in particular are worth a look during a brake job, since they are usually deformed on removal and replacing one costs very little compared to the work of getting back to it later.

A Note on Fit

A cap that is slightly the wrong diameter will seem to seat and then leave at the first speed bump. Genuine caps clip into the retention design the wheel was built around, which is the whole reason they stay on. Add your vehicle or enter your VIN before ordering.

Why They Come Off

Three reasons, and two are avoidable. Potholes shock the wheel hard enough to release a cap that has lost its grip, which is a fact of life on Midwest roads in spring. Tire shops remove caps to get at the lugs and do not always put them back, so check all four before you leave. And the retention clips go brittle with age and heat cycles, which is why a cap that has come off once tends to come off again. Replacing the cap rather than pushing the old one back in is usually the end of the problem. If you are replacing all four, order them together rather than one at a time. Caps age in sunlight and the finish shifts, so a single new cap on a ten year old set of wheels stands out in a way that four matching ones do not. The cost difference is small and the result looks intentional.

Related: exterior accessories and roof racks.

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