H.H.Chinn

I just returned from a business trip and took the car out for a drive today only to notice that I am missing one of the color crests from my center caps. I thought maybe someone had "lifted" it but upon closer inspection two out of the remaining three were so loose, that a very minimal effort was required for them to drop into my hand.

The adhesive that they used at the factory is like a thick rubber cement and all I needed to do is to rub it around and it turned into that ubiquitous rubber ball. I've attached a photograph of the ones that I've removed so please look in your parts bin and let me know if you have one you could spare.

These things do fade in time so I will accept a slightly faded shield.

aron in toronto

Same happened to mine.
I scored the back side of them and glued them back on with JB Weld.

I also used some plastic polish to restore the faded crests.

Three years later they're still on tight.

Canyon56

There's nothing like JB Weld

1pcarnut

Curious, is this on a metal or plastic center cap?

pcarhombre

I knew I couldn't be the only one!!! On the day of my son's HS graduation, I let him drive the pcar. We did a salesman's walk-around and he pointed out that the crest was missing on one wheel. WTF? I had just had quite a time with the vendor that sold me a new set b/c one has a cloudy finish, and one was white and not silver and here, less than two months later, the crest was missing again.
I am now on my third set and the car is not tracked or abused afaik! (Thanks to the sales mgr that compted me a replacement). I have had to replace center covers (not all of them) because of the exact same thing! Whatever the factory uses, they need to upgrade the adhesives at the very least. I thought maybe it was b/c my suspension was beat that the wheels were hopping around too much, but I had just replace the suspension with new shocks and springs and here, another one bites the dust!! I am now running with three intact centers and need to pick up the fourth. I wouldn't care but this is, as I said, the third time I have had a crest jump ship! My solution is going to be to go with the non-dished ones that are metal with a rivet through the crest. I thought to run a bead of clear silicon around the existing ones, but then, I would have to buy four of a different style as I haven't been able to find just one of the plastic dished ones with the crest.
Does this sound right to the gallery? Looking back, I remember I even posted about this problem. The current OP made me remember how pissed I am about having to constantly replace this part. I would love to hear what folks think and say!

911PERVY

These plastic hubcaps have $hyte adhesive on them from the factory

I suspect the ones in the pic have been re-glued before at some point as normally there is a "Z" shaped application of very hard white/grey adhesive on the cap. You cant remove it easily like the OP managed too. Its to hard and the badge vibrates or in the cold freezes and falls off. A softer glue, contact adhesive, is a better bet IMHO

H.H.Chinn

The center cap badge is metal on a plastic cap.
In my photograph above, is the back of one of the badges before I took the 3M adhesive remover to it. The factory used a industrial strength double stick foam emblem adhesive that eventually breaks down and dries up. I have a brand new one in the box but when held next to the others really shows how much the gold portion fades over the years. I will score the back of the badges and re-adhere them with JB Weld as Aron in Toronto has done. I've done this exact thing to the little badge that is on the lighted key head. No one has an extra one laying around?

911PERVY

As I said in my earlier post, the factory use a hard adhesive, they do not use double sided tape, someone has re-attached that badge with the tape after it fell off!

DocRobin

Hmmmm. The advantage of just having decals? Good luck with your search!

JPP

Losing one of these at speed can't be good. With my luck, it would damage the paint and hit a pedestrian with great eyesight and a penchant for litigation ....

pcarhombre

Harlan, so where are you going to source the replacement?

H.H.Chinn

I just found a guy on EBay that was selling a used center cap for $17 bucks postage included, so I did the "Buy It Now" deal and should have it in a few days. I have a new one in the box but when placed next to the ones that have been on the car, looked odd because the gold tone is brand new. So I opted to get a used one since I only lost one.

If you examine closely the center cap is concaved and the shield is flat. At the factory when they glued these together, they placed a portion of spongy double stick like substance to make up for the void when you place a flat object over a concaved surface. Over time the adhesive softens where you can push on the shield and it'll move from side to side. This is when you need to remove it and glue it back so you don't fling it into the forehead of some pedestrian.

Now it's off to the hardware store to get some JBWeld.

kjr914

For future reference, here's Suncoast's online order page, for pricing comparison.
http://www.suncoastparts.com/category/POTE993.html
http://www.suncoastparts.com/product...34S_centercaps