Aero hub caps

[cfg83]

Weather Spotter -

Originally Posted by Weather Spotter

with out the tubing on the edges they do act like cymbals. with it I do not hear them.

I will have to look into the farings, I need to see a pic to understand what to make.

This sounds like a similar version of the snap-in racing disk problem. The little teeth would scritch-scritch-scritch against the flexing steel wheel. If you let it get to you it could drive you nuts.

CarloSW2

[Weather Spotter]

Originally Posted by cfg83

Weather Spotter -

This sounds like a similar version of the snap-in racng disk problem. The little teeth would scritch-scritch-scritch against the flexing steel wheel. If you let it get to you it could drive you nuts.

CarloSW2

that is why I put the tubing on (only one wheel so far, I ran out of tubing). with tubing it goes away!

[Weather Spotter]

Update:

I got the tubing on all the other wheels, I will test it out tomorrow.

The tubing cost $1.25 a wheel (to go around the whole edge) total cost per wheel: $4.50 counting paint and clear coat.

not bad for a 1.5 MPG gain!

[Weather Spotter]

I did some driving today, no pizza pan noise!

[Weather Spotter]

Tubing update:

They stayed on for about 200 miles before the hot glue started loosing adhesion. One back tube came off going over the Mackinaw Bridge (made a thump thump...) I took it off and the pan did not make much noise, some but not bad. I lost 2 more tubes from the edges of the pans yesterday. So they lasted about 1000 miles.

I took the pans off and washed them and the tubes, let them dry and reassembled. I used epoxy this time; at the tubing joint, on the whole front edge (in the indent), and on most of the back side. Once the epoxy set up they do not move

Over all I notice a smaller side wake (when it rains no wide plume of mist). As for mods it is a very simple 1MPG gain!

[cfg83]

Weather Spotter -

That's been in the back of my mind too. I have a pizza pan project that doesn't make any sound, but it does leave a gap. I keep thinking that if I do a tube gasket to seal it, the tube will eventually come off. After all, it's constanty being "pulled" out by the spinning. I may just leave the gap and call it a "brake heat vent", .

CarloSW2

[Weather Spotter]

the tube stayed on without any glue for 150+ miles. I was planning a trip so did a quick hot glue job which helped. I also used the pizza pan to hold the tube snug to the rim. it only seemed to want to come off during breaking or speeding up while going over bumps.

[gone-ot]

WX_Spotter -- what do you do about the valve-stems and checking air-pressure?

...those of us with the Tire Pressure (warning) System (TPS) have metal valve-stems which make checking air-pressure a PITA.

[Weather Spotter]

I have thought about making a hole in the pan to access the valve stem, not sure I want to do that. For now I just take the pans off to check tire pressure. This makes it a hassle to check -so I do it less (still about every 3 weeks). My car is one year older than TPS systems so I have the plastic valve stem

What are your ideas for a 1 to 1.5" hole for valve stem access?
Looks?
degradation of function?
will a hole mess up the balance of the wheel?

[Rokeby]

Cleanest way to cut the holes would be to punch them w/one of these, ~$25USD:



from here.

Sort of like a heavy duty paper punch. You drill a small hole, ~1/4 in. dia.
One piece of the punch goes on either side of the panel.
Then draw the two pieces of the punch together on the threaded shaft.
Bingo! Very clean hole that needs little/no clean-up.