Owners with steel wheels, help!

I have a 2017 platinum with 20” alloys that I want to keep nice. Picked up a set of steel wheels that came off a 2016 SR.. they are the stock steel wheels on that model.. wagon wheel look with plastic center caps. He also gave me what he said were the lug nuts off of it...they are just a closed end acorn style.

thing is, the hub caps just barely seem to hold on to the wheels...they have 5 claw like things that fit into the center of the wheels. The lug nuts fit inside the holes of the caps but don’t touch the caps. Is this right, or are the lug nuts supposed to have a rubber ring or something to hold the caps in place?

it just doesn’t seem as it the hubs will stay there going down the road...they pull off very easy.

I’m getting some snow tires installed on them tomorrow and want to make sure I have the right setup and not have the hub caps rolling down the road on their own. To be clear, I’m certain that these are the OEM steel wheels, identical to the ones in my 2017 brochure for the SR model. The hub caps have the Toyota logo all over them, inside and out.

it almost seems I have the wrong lug nuts...I see several others advertised that look like there is a washer built in... but no idea which size or part number.

I appreciate any help! thank you!

 

Same wheels. My center caps would. It stay on once I removed the lights. They are just acorn style. I guess they pinch just enough.

 

I have the same set of steel wheels for my '08, and use them for a winter set. I also noticed the fairly ineffective mounting method for the center caps. I read some where on this site that it was a known issue, and also had a dealer parts rep tell me the same thing. Last year, when mounting the wheels for winter, I had some issues getting the center caps to stay in place while trying to place the wheel on the hub. I tried bending the metal clips to get some additional tension, but it didn't help much. You need to get the center hole on the wheel on the center hub with no side play to keep the cap clips to stay in place. Once the wheel is tightened, the cap usually stays in place. But this year, I had a lot more trouble getting the caps to stay on, so I finally bent one of the tab ends, on each of the five, out at ninety degree angle so it would seat behind the lip on the wheel center hole. This allowed me to finally get all 4 wheels mounted with the center caps in place. And, FYI, the lug nuts have no part in holding the caps in place.

 

this is very helpful... knowing that I’m not missing something or alone in questioning the effectiveness of the mount. The next time I take them off in the spring, I’ll do the same.

thank you!