Board logo

Why did my wheel trims fall off?
morcus - 7/4/15 at 01:50 PM

I bought my current car about a month ago with three wheel trims and within the first weekend two fell off. One at low speed and one at about 60 on the motorway. I'm not really bothered about this but since then I've been curious as to what actually makes them fall off but using the internet has so far proved fruitless as anything claiming to have the answer is always the same information, "If you cable tie them on they wont fall off".

I purely want to know to satisfy my curiosity as I'm not going to replace them, I may even remove the remaining one as I don't want it to fall off an cause an injury.

The suspension isn't brilliant which could be part of the problem. I've had the most expensive service Halfords do since then and they didn't mention anything about the wheels or suspension (Except the rear brake discs which I had changed).

I've only had two other cars with wheel trims, on one of those they were bolted on and the other was a nearly new car so this is the first time I've experienced this.

stevebubs - 7/4/15 at 03:15 PM

suspension won't make much difference - the wheel trims are on the bits that move!

Aftermarket or OEM Wheeltrims? If the former, then it's probably a case of poor/loose fit in the first place....

Staple balls - 7/4/15 at 04:42 PM

They probably fell off because someone wanged the wheeltrims they had left back on before they sold it (or removed the zipties) to make it look a bit tidier.

morcus - 7/4/15 at 04:57 PM

They are (Were) OEM trims so they should have been a proper fit assuming the wheels are original.

There's a chance they were just thrown on there but they were the correct ones for the car, assuming they were the originals one they could have been on an off any number of times which may weakened them.

maccmike - 7/4/15 at 05:07 PM

They were probably trying to get back to the 'last year'

Irony - 7/4/15 at 05:07 PM

You had your car serviced at Halfords? =-O

[Edited on 7/4/15 by Irony]

gremlin1234 - 7/4/15 at 08:10 PM

they actually sell 'silver' cable ties to hold wheel trims on

whitestu - 7/4/15 at 09:15 PM

quote:

Text they actually sell 'silver' cable ties to hold wheel trims on


I particularly like it when you see cable ties on alloy wheels.

mcerd1 - 8/4/15 at 08:58 AM

quote:
Originally posted by whitestu
quote:

Text they actually sell 'silver' cable ties to hold wheel trims on


I particularly like it when you see cable ties on alloy wheels.

^ i used to wonder about that untill i realised that some of them are actually steels with fairly convincing trims...
My current tintop has 5 spoke steels with very tight fitting trims that wrap round the sides of the spokes - the really do look like boring OE alloys from a distance....


I know ford wheel trims can look the same as each other but actually fit slightly different wheel designs - so if the wheel or trim has ever been swapped for one from the scrapyard then there is a good chance it won't fit any better than Halfords cheapest nastiest aftermarket ones...

Slimy38 - 8/4/15 at 09:06 AM

quote:
Originally posted by gremlin1234
they actually sell 'silver' cable ties to hold wheel trims on


I remember my mum's boyfriend buying a set of 'wheel trim cable ties', £1 for each tie. I didn't have the heart to tell him that they can be bought far cheaper...