Dust caps needed to protect wheel bearings?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Oct 11, 2002
Messages
22,183
Location
Colorado Springs
Are dust caps/wheel covers/hub caps really needed to protect the wheel bearing/axle assembly on a modern FWD car? Reason I ask is, I just got another set of factory steel wheels for my Corolla for mounting winter tires. However, this set is used with wheel covers, but I decided to paint them so I don't have to mess with covers. Problem is, there is no dust cap for the hub opening where the axle nut/cotter pin reside. Will that be an issue with rust/corrosion? I've found some wheel covers don't fit flush and moisture can get in there anyway.

The consensus I read on some other forums is they are not needed for modern type sealed wheel bearings. In fact the factory wheels with center cover on this car have openings in the back and let water drain right in.
21.gif


Thoughts???

Thanks!
 
They're exposed on my Daihatsu.

I give them a squirt of oil every now and then, but I'm not going to worry about it.
 
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Are dust caps/wheel covers/hub caps really needed to protect the wheel bearing/axle assembly on a modern FWD car?

The wheel bearings on a FWD car are completely different from the traditional 2-piece, tapered, repackable bearings you had on your old RWD cars. FWD bearings are not exposed or protected in any way by what happens in the nut area.

Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
there is no dust cap for the hub opening where the axle nut/cotter pin reside.

That is not a problem for the shaft or the bearing, but it IS a problem for the nut and the threads on the nose of the CV joint.

See the photo below. You see this a lot in the North-East. In such cases, it will be necessary to use a needle file to re-cut the threads once the nut is off, and it can be necessary to drill out the cotter pin. But once the nut and washer are off, you will find that the area behind the nut is pristine and rust-free; even the threads that the nut actually covered will be clean. You NEVER re-use the nut in these cases.
shaft-rust_sml.jpg
 
Had an old guy with a modern IFS generation GM 4x4 think his dustcap was missing on his hub assembly as he could "see" the cotter pin and CV nut.He couldnt find one that fit right......
 
A hubcap is good to have IMO to keep rust from happening at the wheel to hub flange interface. OTOH they aren't waterproof and might just keep humidity in on a good day.

I'll put grease on my exposed CV axle threads to preserve them... not the actual nut threads but those further out. It takes a couple hundred foot pounds to get them off anyway; I've found these to be self-cleaning and not snap.
 
Originally Posted By: eljefino
A hubcap is good to have IMO to keep rust from happening at the wheel to hub flange interface. OTOH they aren't waterproof and might just keep humidity in on a good day.


If it bothers you its easy enough to improvise something. I've used polythene sheet or aluminium foil sandwiched between the wheel and hub in the past.

This was mostly to stop the wheels sticking on, but the sheet covered the axle end and the nut too.

Don't have it on the front wheels at the moment because there was some noise from that area and I wanted to eliminate it as a cause. If I re-instate it I'll probably use aluminium foil, because disk brakes can get quite hot.

I've currently got polythene on one rear wheel and aluminium on the other.
 
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Are dust caps/wheel covers/hub caps really needed to protect the wheel bearing/axle assembly on a modern FWD car? Reason I ask is, I just got another set of factory steel wheels for my Corolla for mounting winter tires. However, this set is used with wheel covers, but I decided to paint them so I don't have to mess with covers. Problem is, there is no dust cap for the hub opening where the axle nut/cotter pin reside. Will that be an issue with rust/corrosion? I've found some wheel covers don't fit flush and moisture can get in there anyway.

The consensus I read on some other forums is they are not needed for modern type sealed wheel bearings. In fact the factory wheels with center cover on this car have openings in the back and let water drain right in.
21.gif


Thoughts???

Thanks!


Depends on the car really. If the wheel bearing kit (and/or hub kit) comes with a dust cap, then you should use it.
 
A regular full faced hubcap is just a decorative cover. Salt, moisture, etc will still get in there.

depending on the Corolla (bolt pattern), you may be able to just decorative covers that only cover the axle threads/nut better.

my old 84 Corolla FWD sedan had them. later corollas, iirc switched to 5x100 (not sure about the current ones).

The 2nd gen Camry had chromed hub covers available (and they are 5x100).

s-l300.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top