Plastic wheel cover

Nope, wheel covers on alloys. My best guess as to why: some senior exec at Toyota must have made a suggestion to do that. How else to explain?

Found this:

One option would be to upgrade to 5, which I believe has a nicer, coverless rim.

That's the route we went with 2010 Prius, bought a Canadian model that comes with nice coverless 17" rims.

With the 2016 Prius even the 17" rims have plastic bits, 5 of 'em, one at each spoke.

 

Mainly for a small effect on airflow over the wheels/wheelwells. The effect is negligible.

Take the covers off and get some center caps to cover the open hole in the center.

I took my covers off the hatchback within a week. They've been sitting in the garage since.

 

Besides aero they tend to protect the alloys from curb scratching

 

Plastic caps off eBay. Unsprung weight versus aero.

 

I had a try at "quelling" our front rust.

Before:



After various wire brush on methods:



And after application of wax/oil rust inhibetor, very lightly btw:



The solvents evaporate, leave a waxy costing. Hopefully will help, through the winter.

 

what the stuff name for cover on the center wheel

 

If you're referring to the wax/oil stuff I applied, I used: Lloyds corrosion Inhibitor & Lubricant. There are a lot of options; you want something that goes on oily, but a week or two later there is a waxy skin still there.

Going from memory, the back wheels have a kind of chrome/gold colored cap in the center hub. I might spray that with black Plasti-Dip in a day or two. I could spray flat (or gloss) black enamel, but I'd prefer something more reversible.

 

Did a trial install of my steel rim, to see how the hub will look. I need to touch up the rim too:



Well, cleaned up a bit.