Smooth wheel covers

[3dplane]

I don't have any proof or even real evidence that they do anything. I am going on what I have read on sites like Daox mentioned. Mitsubishi somewhere wrote that the mirage gets better gas mileage with the steel wheels & hubcaps than with the aluminum mag wheels because of a higher aerodynamic drag on the aluminum wheel.

I am trying to get the best gas mileage that I can, without doing expensive modifications. These hubcaps cost me $35.

If they work, it may take a year or so to get that money back. After that, it's like getting free money every time I drive.

They should be just as good as the smooth hubcaps I got. Looking good!

my car was from the stock and came with alloy wheels (Mitsubishi incentive), unfortunately. Steel wheels would make the fixation of wheel caps easier.

Any ideas on how to fix wheel covers on the alloy mounts?
Otherwise I will smooth the wheels with duct tape.

I had to fix mine on the alloy wheels with LONG zip ties! They are still on and they held up to 90 MPH speed one time.

I say LONG zip ties because it was hard to loop the zip ties around the spokes, (I do have large hands though)

[fifteenwindow]

Sorry, I was wrong about what Mitsubishi wrote. It was what Metro wrote in this thread entitled How wheel & tire size and style affect Mirage fuel economy/mileage:

http://mirageforum.com/forum/showthr...conomy-mileage

•that flat plastic 14 inch wheel cover is probably more aerodynamic than the open spoke alloy wheel

Thanks to the good folks on this forum for the sharing of ideas.

[fifteenwindow]

I've learned some things about hubcaps the last few days. One is that parts may be interchangeable between hubcaps by different makers. The stronger steel ring in my Mitsubishi hubcaps fit well in my Hella hubcaps.

The second thing is that 1/4 inch gap on the Mitsubishi hubcap (between the hubcap and outer rim of the wheel) may be there for good reason. It leaves room for wheel weights on the rim.

The Hella caps I bought snuggle right up to the wheel, or try to. Where there's a wheel weight, there's a gap, and the hubcap doesn't attach securely. The hubcap that fell off my car yesterday was on the one wheel that has 2 wheel weights attached, 90 degrees apart.

Today I made small cutouts in the hubcaps to accomodate the clamps of the wheel weights. The hubcaps now fit snug to the wheel all the way around.



Now my hubcaps are wheel specific. I'll need to make new cutouts when I replace the tires, as the new weights will likely be in different places on the wheel. I hope all this work was worth it, but it was fun to do anyway.

Sorry, I'll stop talking about hubcaps now.

[RedDE5Spd]

I was going to order a set, but I don't want to do it just to have one come off. I like that the ring can be swapped for the Mirage ones. I found some solid covers in stainless steel, but they were twice as much as these; however they were for racing, so maybe they'd stay on really well. Now I'm stuck and can't make a decision.......

[RedDE5Spd]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360342369177...84.m1423.l2649

These are the solid covers made from stainless I was able to find, just not excited for the price; also no valve cap access. This may be remedied by drilling a hole and longer valve stems. If these actually stay on in day to day driving, at $84 they may not be a bad option to consider for most people. I saw the pizza pan hubcap covers, cannot remember exactly where; possibly over on the ecomodder site. I showed them to my wife, she seemed less than enthused that I even considered it lmao.

[MetroMPG]

Here's a thought:

Mitsu's plastic wheelcovers are pretty darn flat/smooth (currently one of the smoothest OEM ones I know of). Replacing those with perfectly smooth covers probably isn't going to make a significant MPG difference -- too small to easily measure. So if your goal is saving money, you'll have a veeeeeeery long payback time if you spend much money at all on replacements.

On the other hand, the cars with alloy wheels are going to see the bigger improvement, so could afford to spend a little more. Bang for your buck, in both cases DIY is the way to go of course.

Aesthetics are usually the issue with DIY.

[Dumpchook]

posted this over in the wheels/tyres/suspension section, possible cheap junkyard alloys, have a set from my old car which i'm going to throw on for the next tank.

http://mirageforum.com/forum/showthr...-eco-quot-mags

may as well wear down the tread on the old wheels anyway and save the tyres on my stock alloys.

edit: disregard, my logic was flawed, hub centre of mirage is too large

[strawboss]

Here's a thought:

Mitsu's plastic wheelcovers are pretty darn flat/smooth (currently one of the smoothest OEM ones I know of). Replacing those with perfectly smooth covers probably isn't going to make a significant MPG difference -- too small to easily measure. So if your goal is saving money, you'll have a veeeeeeery long payback time if you spend much money at all on replacements.

On the other hand, the cars with alloy wheels are going to see the bigger improvement, so could afford to spend a little more. Bang for your buck, in both cases DIY is the way to go of course.

Aesthetics are usually the issue with DIY.

I used to think that alloy wheels were lighter as well but have found that steel rims are lighter....alloys became popular for looks,most people (including me) bought into the weight reduction story...

[Tinker1980]

I saw a DIY somewhere on making smooth wheel covers out of hubcaps, old T-shirts, and epoxy resin. The T-shirts were stretched across the face of the hubcap, and secured behind it with a zip tie. Then resin was painted on across the face of the t-shirt, where it was stretched across the hubcap. Let the resin dry, cut the shirt off where it goes over the back of the hubcap. Smooth wheel covers are the result.

[Cani Lupine]

I'm finding myself debating as to whether or not to keep my coroplast wheel covers on. It looks better with the VX rims open, and just going to work and back it doesn't affect the fuel economy much at all, but it's definitely noticeable on the freeway. Taking them off and putting them back on frequently is a bit of a pain, especially since it's 32 zip ties to attach them.