Wheel nut covers. Necessary?

growse · 1 Apr 2013 at 14:56

I've lost a couple of wheel nut covers from each wheel - are these just an aesthetic thing, or do they serve any function? Ford want £7 ea for new ones, and I'm concerned that if I just get ebay ones, they won't match (unless I replace the lot).

Should I worry about this now, or just when I come to sell the car?

growse · 1 Apr 2013 at 16:24

Ok, so if I ignore it, I'm not going to get a load of crap in the nuts which will then seize and require payment of millions of pounds to get off?

Marvellous.

growse · 1 Apr 2013 at 23:18

andy_mk3 said:
You say Ford, I don't recall ever seeing a Ford with wheel nut covers. Are they chrome? If so then they're actually part of the nut, but they're common to come off as they corrode inside and stretch the chrome part (meaning you have to hammer a socket on too).

It's an 07 Cmax. The nut is an 18mm, and the chrome cover fits over the top and takes a 19mm socket. I took one off with the cover still on, and it looks like it just clips into place, it's fairly easy to take off just removing the cover.

In fact, they look like this with the cover in place:

growse · 2 Apr 2013 at 09:39

andy_mk3 said:
Just as I thought, the chrome 'covers' are meant to be part of the nut, hence why Ford want £7 for a replacement, as you get the whole nut. They're not meant to come off

Oh

Why do they fall off then? Seems a bit of a silly design. Maybe I'll be better off just getting a replacement set of nuts?