Every autumn the same question comes up: should you take your hubcaps off for winter? The short answer is no — and winter is arguably the best season to have them.
What salt actually damages
Road salt is corrosive to metal. The polypropylene of a hubcap is indifferent to it: it doesn't rust, pit or break down. What salt attacks is the steel wheel behind it, and any metal clips.
In other words, a hubcap acts as a partial shield: it limits direct brine spray onto the visible face of the wheel. It isn't a seal, but it isn't nothing either.
The winter set is ideal ground
Plenty of drivers fit their snow tyres to a second set of steel wheels, precisely to keep their alloys away from salt. Those workhorse wheels are grey, bare, and usually pitted with rust after two seasons.
That's exactly what a hubcap is for: cheap, replaceable, and it turns a purely functional winter set into something that looks cared for.
Fitting in the cold
Plastic gets stiffer and slightly more brittle below freezing. Two precautions are enough:
- Fit them somewhere warm if you can, or at least in the middle of the day rather than at dawn.
- If the hubcap has come out of a freezing boot, give it ten minutes at room temperature before clipping. Very cold plastic is less forgiving of misplaced pressure.
The method is the same as any other time of year: valve aligned, palm pressure, check all round — details in the fitting article.
The upkeep that matters
A simple rinse with clean water after a salted-road journey is enough. It isn't for the hubcap, it's for what's behind it: the clips and the rim edge. A rim edge eaten by rust eventually stops holding the hubcap, and that's where the real problems start.
Do avoid acidic wheel cleaners, very common in winter: they dull the plastic irreversibly. Details in the cleaning method.
Want a winter set that doesn't look like a winter set? Create your hubcaps — and check your size on the tyre, it may differ from your summer set.