Porsche 911 Center caps

[por86]

There seems to be a couple of choices for colored center caps. Has anyone purchased the permanent ones with the screws? I am concerned that this type would make it difficult to level the wheels when tires are replaced. I like the idea that no one can remove them once they are installed. I also noticed some being sold that are hand painted. They also sell ones similar to my black ones with a thin metal inside ring. I personally like the permanent ones, but have done concerns. Thoughts from the forum are appreciated.

[GH85Carrera]

Do you have Fuchs wheels?

In over 100,000 miles of driving I have never lost a standard center cap on my Fuchs. They are in there pretty well.

Hand painted logos are nice if you have some show car and don't care about total originality. My 911 came with 15 inch Fuchs that were color matched to the car. When I put the 15in in the attic and replaced them with 17 inch Euromeisters I bought new Porsche center caps and had the wheels painted to match.

[darrin]

my take here is that if somebody REALLY wants something on your car, they're going to get it. Tying to your concern/issue "I like the idea that no one can remove them once they are installed" -- think you need to balance the additional damage a person determined to remove your center caps would cause your wheels/etc. by making the center caps harder to remove (ie. a determined drunk could well hit your wheels / caps with a pry bar -- and damage your wheels -- if deterred by screw-on center caps). Similarly, since I've seen tire installers routinely remove center caps during tire swaps, I'd be concerned that changing how the center caps are retained could cause unanticipated damage during the tire change process.

Further, consistent with GH85Carrera's comment above, in the over 180k miles I've driven my Carrera and having used several sets of wheels (some with rather poorly affixed center caps), I've never lost a center cap (knock on wood) and besides tweaking the inner rims of some particularly loose center caps, have not been concerned that one would fall off as desgned/delivered.

Kinda an analogous situation with wheel locks -- no matter how good you think your wheel locks are, a determined thief will separate your wheels from your car if they want them -- conversely, wheel locks may well prevent you from switching out a flat on the roadside during a midnight blizzard --

Since thieves generally look to steal parts from "popular" cars, I removed my wheel locks after balancing the minimal risk of theft against the probability of the wheel locks preventing me from repairing my car in an emergency.

FWIW

[por86]

Glen and Darren, thanks for the reply. I agree that having permanent center caps can cause problems during a tire change. Was wondering if anyone has made there permanent caps fit with silicone instead of fastening them down with screws and how hard were they to remove.

[HaroldMHedge]

I've used electrical tape on the ring cap style to tighten them up. It has worked fairly well.

[por86]

Harold, I will try that and see if it works. Appreciate the idea!

[WPOZZZ]

I have the Boothe caps. They are a PITA to install. 3 set screws on each cap that you have to tighten with a wrench because a socket won't fit. AFAIK, they are NLA.

[por86]

Bryan, Have you had any problems replacing tires with permanent caps? I have the same caps and installed them yesterday with electrical tape. I noticed that it only took a one inch piece of tape on some of the caps to provide a tight fit.

[darrin]

por86 - here's the thread i followed when i had a few loose-ish center caps -- used the punch method to push the dimples out a bit -- super tight now w/o silicone or tape -- Rattling Fuchs Center Caps--how to fix? (take a look at posts 5-6)