Hub Caps / Wheel Covers on Winters Y or N?

[Strider]

So in my neck of the woods, most cars with their winter tires on are running bare steel wheels with no covers. It seems to be the norm. On all my past vehicles that is what I have done because I bought the steels for them. With my Yaris the I bought alloys and have put my winters on the factory rims and therefore have the factor wheel covers. Question is, do I use them and why don't others? Only reason I can think of is snow getting under the cover and causing a wheel imbalance.

[TheEgg]

Yeah, just leave them off. You guessed right that snow and ice can get back there and cause a tire vibration. Also any snow or ice that is loose behind the cover will rattle around while your driving, very annoying when your going through a drive through!

[refotsirk]

My first 4 hub cap covers for the winter tire steelies soddered on with rust, so when the tire guys pulled them off for the summer tires, the cheap China made plastic cracked. Took 3 years to do it but they did crack.
For less than $40 you can get new ones. I wondered too wether or not to put them on, but I think they make the car look a bit more....stylish. And less like a NY cab. The wife
seems to think they need to be on there too.
Any real need though? Well, I wonder if the lug nut rust may be lessoned a bit?
Never found them to pull in debris or snow/ice in last 4 winters.
Rust never sleeps.......especially in winter up here....

[thepartsmancometh]

I run hubcaps over stock steelies in the winter. I have them, so I may as well use them. If I had to buy new ones I probably would go without.

I have corolla 15" caps instead of Yaris ones (look better IMO). We broke a stock one from a small impact, so I traded a used hubcap place 3 good yaris caps and 10 bucks for 4 new take off corolla ones.

look like these (http://i.ebayimg.com/07/!BfVS%28SwBGk~$%28KGrHqQOKkIErzLU3MPjBL!0TpF0Vg~~_ 35.JPG)

[thebarber]

i never run hubcaps because it makes the wheels look tiny...

[SailDesign]

Don't use 'em. Sand and grit get behind them and scritch the wheels up much worse than just leaving them bare. Also, I'm lazy.... :biggrin:

[Kaykogi]

I'm running YAR1S style, with chrome trim rings and center caps on my stock steelies. My center caps are painted black, though.

[Thirty-Nine]

I don't run 'em. I did, however, paint my black steelies silver.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v225/Tekka_Maki/Yaris/WinterMode.jpg

[ROCKLAND TOYOTA]

previous years ive used the stock hubcaps painted black on my under 40 degree tires. This year im just leaving them off......

[33OH]

This year I'm rocking 09-10 hubcaps, previous years I had them painted silver like mentioned above.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v80/poisonherlungs/IMG_20110803_175931.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v80/poisonherlungs/IMAG0068-1.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v80/poisonherlungs/snow1.jpg

[Strider]

Seeing I have them I think I will use them. I was thinking of painting them Blue or Black just for fun. If they break, then I wouldn't replace them, but no point in throwing away a good set of covers. My wife too thinks it look better (Happy Wife = ...) and seeing most people don't, I will. I will have to be careful with snow and the imbalance issue and if it becomes a pain, well they will just get recycled.

[thebarber]

americans usually have 15's though....but you also have a 2010 which has standard 15's, iirc

14's with caps look TINY

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b339/dabarber/yaris/lowering/yarisspring2009008.jpg

or 14" alloys
http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b339/dabarber/yaris/echo%20and%20barber%20widescreen/_DSC5221.jpg