Can I Drive Without Wheel Covers? (Explained)

Also called hubcaps, wheel covers are essentially what they are called, and that means that they cover your wheels.

Now, when talking about wheel covers, they do serve a purpose that may be important to some drivers.

However, what most people know is that wheel covers are more in line with cosmetics in terms of their purpose.

So, can you drive without a wheel cover on one or all of your wheels?

Driving without wheel covers?

You can absolutely drive if one, some, or all of your wheels don’t have wheel covers or hubcaps. That is because wheel covers are not necessities. In fact, while some people do like the fact that they look good and that they keep away dust and debris from the wheels, wheel covers are merely for aesthetics rather than for safety.

Car wheel cover hubcap

The most important thing to know in relation to wheel covers is that these are components that are not necessary for the car to function or are not even important when it comes to the safety features of the vehicle.

Wheel covers are simply there for aesthetic purposes because they make the car’s wheels look a lot better. That is why you can always drive without wheel covers.


Related:

Are wheel covers necessary?

Fiat 500 wheel hubcap

When it comes to our cars, we know for a fact that our vehicles come with a lot of different parts and components that are all there for a purpose. Some are necessary for the sense that the car won’t work without these parts and components.

Meanwhile, there are some that may not be necessary for the car to work but are still very much important for safety reasons, and that is why they are always recommended.

However, it is not unusual for some car parts to be there because they just are there. That means that they don’t serve a lot of purposes other than making the car look good.

And, sometimes, making the car look good can go a long way in terms of driver satisfaction or even resale value.

So, in that regard, are wheel covers necessary, or are they just there on your car for no purpose other than making the vehicle look good?

Before we talk about whether or not wheel covers are necessary for your car, let us first look at what wheel covers actually are so that it would be easier to understand what their purpose is.

When we talk about wheel covers, they are just that, and that means that they are simply cover wheels.

You can see these components covering the ugly-looking portion of the wheel to give the wheels a more cosmetically appealing look.

However, you may have also heard people calling wheel covers hubcaps, and this term has become quite synonymous with wheel covers.

But what you should know is that wheel covers and hubcaps are not entirely the same.

The difference between a wheel cover and a hubcap lies in how much of the wheel’s surface they cover. Wheel covers are supposed to enclose the entire diameter of the wheel, while hubcaps cover only the hub or the center of the wheel. Then again, there is no difference in how they work and what they do, and that is why people often interchange the two terms to the point that they have become synonymous with one another.

ford van wheel hubcap

So, going back, the purpose of the wheel cover or the hubcap is to simply cover the wheel. That’s it. There is nothing more to it other than covering the wheel.

However, as wheel covers cover the wheel, they also protect the inner portion of the wheel from mud, debris, and dirty all while covering the ugly lug nuts.

But, in essence, the wheel cover does not have to serve a purpose other than covering the wheel and making it look good.

Sure, there are people who say that the wheel cover is great at keeping dust, dirt, and mud out of the wheel, but that goes into aesthetics as well.

The inner portion of the wheels is made to withstand dirt and mud, and they can still get dirty and muddy with or without the wheel cover.

In other words, wheel covers are not necessary.

There are plenty of car parts and components that serve very important or necessary purposes, but the wheel cover does not belong to the list that includes those parts and components.

A car can work just fine and without any sort of problem regardless of whether or not you have a wheel cover.

Can I drive without wheel covers?

car plastic wheel cover

Now that you know what wheel covers are and what they do for your car, this leads us to the question of whether or not you can drive if one, some, or all of your wheels do not have wheel covers.

Going back to the point of putting a wheel cover on your car, it is easy to come to the conclusion that you can drive without wheel covers.

So, basically, there should be nothing wrong that will happen to your car if you drive without these hubcaps. In fact, the car will operate well regardless of whether or not there are wheel covers.

So, the reason why you can drive without wheel covers goes back to the very purpose of a wheel cover.

Essentially, a wheel cover is just there to cover the ugly nuts and lugs that you don’t want people to see while you are on the road.

In other words, the purpose of a wheel cover is merely for improving the car’s overall aesthetics while also aiding in minimizing the chances of dust and mud entering the inner portion of the wheels.

Aside from that, there is nothing wrong with driving without a wheel cover.

While your car will work perfectly fine and just the same with or without wheel covers, let’s be honest to ourselves when we say that we do not want to look bad whenever we are driving.

That is the very reason why we want to use shiny and aesthetically pleasing cars, in the first place.

Cars may be just a way for us to go from point A to point B, but we also want to drive in style while looking good in the process because looking good can help improve our confidence and the way we feel about our cars.

On top of that, having a good-looking car can serve a purpose when it comes to first impressions in businesses and relationships.

So, practically speaking, you can drive a car without a wheel cover.

But do we recommend it?

Not really, and that is because you should still try to look your best even when it comes to driving your car. 

Of course, a wheel cover and a good-looking car can help increase the vehicle’s overall value as well.

No one wants to buy a car with ugly wheels precisely because there is no wheel cover to hide the ugly side of the wheel.

Is driving without hubcaps illegal?

Peugeot van wheel center cap

While we did say that driving without hubcaps is perfectly okay and that there is nothing wrong that will happen to your car, what about the legality of doing so?

Is driving without hubcaps actually illegal?

The law seems to be silent in this regard, there is nothing that says that you cannot drive your car without wheel covers.

When the law is silent regarding this matter, it only means that there is nothing illegal about driving a car without hubcaps.

Of course, the reason why there is no law regarding wheel covers or hubcaps is that there are no safety risks involved when you are driving without wheel covers.

In fact, there are some instances when wheel covers can be dangerous, as they can fly off your wheel and harm other cars and people who are within the vicinity. Then again, the law seems to be silent on that matter as well.

Why do people drive without hubcaps?

Hyundai wheel cover lung nut cover

We mentioned that driving without hubcaps is perfectly fine but isn’t quite recommended because of how most stock wheels look very ugly and unappealing.

So, if that is the case, why is it that there are still people who drive without hubcaps?

The reason why some people drive without hubcaps is that they have wheels that actually look great with or without hubcaps.

In this day and age, manufacturers have become great at developing wheels that have great designs that allow them to look great regardless of whether or not they have wheel covers.

Some of the great examples of aesthetically pleasing wheels include tires with alloy rims.

These are usually present in newer cars and in the wheels that you buy from third-party retailers but are absent in some of the older cars on the road.

So, because some wheels already look good as they are, there really is no reason for car owners to drive their cars with hubcaps or wheel covers.

And it might even come to a point where wheels will already look great enough that wheel covers will become obsolete.

Sources

Can You Drive Without Wheel Covers?

Is driving without wheel hubcaps dangerous?