ChitChat

Just curious if anyone has ever had the Lexus emblem fall off the center cap of their wheels?

I just noticed one was missing and the other one was hanging loose. The one that was hanging, had three of the tiny spring clips on the back broken off. The quality of the emblem seems rather flimsy so I'm not sure if they just happened to pop off or if someone was trying to steal them. I did look closely at the wheels and they both have tiny indents near the center as if someone was trying to pry it off with a screwdriver. I don't recall hitting a bad pothole so I can't image how they would fall off or are they known to get loose over time. The car is a 2010, so it's not that old. Not happy about this!

Would something like this be covered under the warranty if it did happened to fall off by itself due to poor craftsmanship? Can anyone recommend a place to buy OEM replacements at a reasonable price?

RX330inFL

Do you park your vehicle outside or in a shared garage? Wondering if the kids did not try to pull them off.

kitlz

That's what I was thinking. Just today I was looking at a Cayenne in the garage at work. I see it every day. Beautiful rims but it looks like his center caps are missing. It sucks. ChitChat, you can try one of the CL vendors like Sewell or your dealership. We get a discount with Sewell but maybe your dealer will give you a break on replacements when they hear your story. Good luck.

ChitChat

I park in a commuter parking lot while I travel into the city for work so my car is sitting there all day and anything is possible. I just wasn't sure if I was jumping to conclusions about theft or if its common for them to fall off. I've always felt safe parking in the lot because they have patrol cars driving around all day issuing tickets for various reasons, but recently there's been overcrowding in my usual parking lot and I've been forced to park in the only other available lot that is in a quiet area where there's not many people passing by, which gives thieves plenty of privacy to do things such as steal my emblems!

Before this happened I was already feeling like a target because my car was broken into in front of my own house in December. Luckily no damage, but they took my portable GPS from the storage box under the armrest and some wrapped Christmas gifts I had hidden in a black garbage bag. Nothing was visible so I wasn't targeted because those items were displayed. I live in the suburbs in a town with very low crime and it's something we usually don't have to worry about, but from reading my town's Facebook page, I was shocked to see a post about others having their cars broken into in front of their house or in their driveway recently, so it is a new problem we have to worry about.

I heard people have been seen walking up and down the streets lifting door handles to see if they're open. It figures the one time I didn't lock my car because I thought I would be going out in a few minutes, but never did, it happened to me! Now I'm constantly going to the window and pressing my fob to lock the doors from inside my house, even though they're already locked. It's become an obsession. LOL

RX330inFL

Am going to guess this is trophy taking by the kids, much like what happened decades ago with the taking of Mercedes, and other, hood ornaments. Idle hands... The center caps are very well made and should not come off on their own.

ChitChat

It's not the actual center caps that are missing, it's just the chrome Lexus emblems attached to them that are missing. There's little plastic clips in the back of the emblems that snap into tiny holes on the caps. The one emblem that was hanging had some of the clips snapped off so I don't know if they broke when someone tried to take them off or if they snapped off while driving which caused them to fall off.

JDR76

The chrome Toyota emblem, just like you describe here on your RX, came loose on my 4Runner. One came off completely, and others came loose. I ended up putting additional adhesive on them to ensure they stayed on. It was a cheap and easy fix.

corradoMR2

I honestly doubt they fell off under normal use since the clips keep the cap on really tight and to safely remove them you need to push them out from the inside (wheel off).

ChitChat

I found out the Lexus emblems that are missing from my wheels' center caps are not available to buy separately, so I had to buy the whole center cap. Now I can't figure out how to remove the old center caps without damaging my wheels. I tried prying it off with a very thin screw driver, but as I applied pressure I noticed an indent in the wheel so I stopped before I did any more damage. After closer inspection I noticed a few more indents which the "thief" probably did when trying to remove it. I guess they couldn't get the whole center cap off so they just snapped off the emblems. I now realize they probably didn't just fall off.

Any idea how I can get the caps off? Can it be done from the front or will the wheel need to be removed and push the cap off from inside the wheel?