I didn't watch Sherif put the wheel caps on my Volk GT30's and had a flat recently and need to know how to remove them. Are they threaded on? It would seem they just pop off since they were able to turn them but they didn't loosen. I wanted to check for sure before we took a hammer to their backside.

 

yep, the tire shop i was at was confused too. i told them just take like a rubberized punch to the back end and it'll pop out. it worked.

 

it is not threaded for sure.. it is like a pop in rubber seal.. juz pop it out from the back!

 

haha, i've never seen a threaded center cap in my life. most of these aftermarket wheels center caps are pop on and of course you gotta go from behind to pop it back out lol's

 

It's not threaded. Just tap it off from behind. Tap around the edges, NOT in the center so as not to poke through it with anything. Best to use a rubber mallet.

 

You can really just pull it off from the front. If you do knock it out from the back, do not do it in the center of the cap.

 

How do you pry them out from the front without scratching finish on the face of the wheel?

 

I would prefer not to advertise this to the general public. It's not easy to do, but it is easy enough that I will pull all 4 off if I am going to a part of town that I would worry about my **** getting jacked.... I can get all 4 off in a couple of minutes with no tools. If you really want to know, PM me....

 

Thanks, good to know. Next question... I ran for about 5 miles on the flat didn't even realize it was flat until I got home. Once home I was able to refill them and the hole was small enough I drove them to the shop and only lost a couple psi of air. The tire shop said the tire was destroyed however and showed me a hand full of powdered rubber that was inside the tire however both the inside and the outside of the tire look fine to me. Since we couldn't find a replacement tire I just had them patch it from the inside and mount it and it's been running fine. These are fairly new tires with at least another 25K left on them, would you replace this tire?

 

Yes, it more than likely needs to be replaced. If you drive on a low profile tire for even a short distance while flat it will compromise the integrity of the tire. The rim will dig into the outer parts of the tire (this is where the rubber particles come from), and wear grooves into the tire where the tread/sidewalls meet. You may not see the damage, but the powdered rubber you saw is a sign of this.

 

jtran76 is 100% correct, this happened to me recently as well. It sucks, but that tire is likely damaged and dangerous to ride on. You may not see it but the sidewall's integrity is damaged and it may rupture. It's just like when you can hit a curb with a tire and everything may look fine but tomorrow or a month from now it may develop a bubble. Or it may just blow out without warning, you never can tell. The worst thing is there is no way to tell by looking how much damage has been done - you may get another 20K out of it or it may pop tomorrow. That's what sucks.

 

Thanks, bit the bullet on that one and ordered a replacement, better safe then sorry.