I am having fits with the center cap lug nut caps on my 2000 Sierra 2500. One of my center caps fell off recently and I bought a replacement that came with the lug caps. I can only get 2 or 3 to engage the lug nuts. It appears that the relationship of the lug nuts to the chrome wheel cover is different on some than others, making the nut too deep to engage the cap. Anyone know the trick for installing these pieces of dreck?
Is that an old sheetmetal 2500 (90s style) or new sheetmetal?
2000 was a changeover year.
In reply to 93gsxturbo:
New, although I've been told that it has the old style center caps on it for some reason. They are held on by the plastic lug caps that are supposed to screw onto the lug nuts. But most of them don't even reach far enough to engage. The only thing I can think of is to shave material off the mating surface of the center cap to increase engagement depth. But since everything is stock, I'm wondering why I would have to do that. Here's a picture of my wheel and center cap. My truck can be seen in reader's rides.
is your new cap and the plastic nuts that came with it the same as the stock pieces on the other 3 wheels? i don't know how much different the actual caps are, but i do know that there are 2 different styles of the plastic nuts- one is deeper than the other.
In reply to novaderrik:
The cap and plastic nuts are the same as on the other three wheels, which I've been told are not correct for the year, but they do fit. I took an old one off of another wheel and tried to install it on the wheel that I was having trouble installing the new one on, and had the same problem. Then I looked at my other three wheels and noted the same issue - Some of the actual lug nuts are seated deeper than others, resulting in a greater distance between the flange on the center cap where the plastic nuts seat and the threads on the lug nut. I'm missing 2 or 3 plastic caps on my other three wheels also. But what can be done about it? Do they make longer plastic nuts that would provide more thread engagement? I know one thing - This is another stupid GM design.
Here's a picture of what I've been told is the correct cap for my truck. Anyone know if this is correct or not? Would it explain why mine are not fitting properly?
Those look like the same caps as the alloy 2500HD wheels -
I agree, but I was also told that the caps for the alloy wheels wouldn't fit the steel wheels. I'm getting conflicting information and at this point don't know what is correct, considering the cap you just pictured is on an alloy wheel in your pic and a steel wheel in mine. I was also told that the center caps on my truck were for the pre-2000 trucks.
I can't offer anything specific (sorry) but I do know that, lurking somewhere – usually in a dealership, sometimes a parts store – in every town, there is some guy who knows exactly what your problem is and how to fix it. Kind of like this board, but in a position to walk outside, take one look at your truck, and say something like "Oh, yeah, you got the dash-487s. You oughta have the dash-477s. I got some in the back; they came in for an order in 2003 but the guy never picked them up. Cost you ten bucks plus tax." Maybe the oldest parts guy at the oldest, non-volume GM dealer you can find?
chances are at some point some (most) of the lugnuts were replaced with incorrect ones. there are nuts with different lengths of thread for the plastic caps to screw to, i would compare the ones that hold with the ones that don't to see what is up.
and yes, those are the old style steel wheel caps, i have never seen a new body style with them. i will admit thought that i like them way better than the new style ones.
All the lug nuts are the same. I think I'm just going to take a belt sander to the center cap to move the plastic caps closer to the lug nuts. That doesn't really resolve the mystery, but it should work.
www.dormanproducts.com is the place to look up the plastic nuts. GM used a pretty vast variety of those things on different vehicles.
I had the EXACT same problem when my 2003 2500 truck with the same alloy wheels was brand new. Just ONE of the center caps wouldn't stay on and I could only get about a half thread on it if I pushed it really hard. I had the service department look at it twice and they finally figured out that the ill-fitting cap was a 4x4 cap on my two wheel drive truck. I suspect it's an incompatibility between the 2WD wheels and the 4WD cap. The ill fitting cap had a different part number than the other three. The dealer turned up a new 2WD cap and it went on just like it was designed to.
On edit, the plastic nut covers were the same between the two caps. The shoulder where the nut cover rested against the cap was different.
Not a great photo, but here's the truck and wheels I'm talking about. And yes, it looks lifted, but it's really a 2WD truck.
novaderrik wrote: www.dormanproducts.com is the place to look up the plastic nuts. GM used a pretty vast variety of those things on different vehicles.
I couldn't find where they offer a plastic nut for my truck.
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