No center caps on rear wheel winter steelies?

Hi all, proud owner of a new 23 trd offroad.

Just picked up this weekend. I had the dealership install blizzaks on winter steel rims (I live in Canada), and the front wheels have center caps, while the rear wheels don't.

I found this very strange. I went back to the dealership yesterday to inquire, thinking they might have forgotten to install the center caps on the rear wheels.

The parts manager pulled up a bunch of schematics of both axles, and explained to me that the rear wheels don't get center caps, while the front ones do. Something about solid rear axles on the back vs cv something or other on the front axles; I didnt really understand and just accepted it (I'm not really a car guy).

Long story short, the product advisor and the parts manager told me this is normal, despite looking weird.

Is this normal ? Photos below. Thanks for your help all

 

Yeah looks tougher like yours flew off on the trail or something and you don't give a shit.

 

Are there any concerns I should be worried about? Or am I just overthinking? It's a big purchase so just want to make sure everything is installed correctly. Also had to travel 800km to get it, dont want to have to come back lol

 

Welcome to the forum!

I don't think it's anything to worry about. It almost looks like the center cap on the front wheels is actually part of the hub, like a grease cap. Edit: dust cap

 

Nothing to worry about. Completely normal. If it bothers you, get some black spray paint and just spray inside the hub on the rear wheel.

What you were looking at there on inside of the rear wheel is the end of the axle shaft. This has the six wheel studs attached to it, the rotor slips over this, and the wheel bolts to the the studs. The bearings and anything important are already behind a seal on the other side of the brakes, inside the end of the rear axle housing itself.

The front is a dust cap, behind that you have the threaded end of the front cv axle shaft, with a nut on it. The dust cap keeps gunk out of the threads and the bearing.

 

Why don't you just order 2 front dust caps and carefully tap them onto rear axle portion.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/putting-front-dust-caps-on-rear-hubs.153430/

 

There is oem center caps you can get for the steel wheels

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3550655614...T6NWUX0AHTAqFkZGegXBAlgITdNj65-EaAnZCEALw_wcB

 

Thanks everyone for your replies and the info. I'm relieved to learn that it's 100% normal. I was concerned that a 6month canadian winter might damage the exposed rear axle end, or winter rim, or impact the installation of the summer rims, or a bunch of other possible situations/concerns that I dreamed up in my head without any real mechanical knowledge of how these systems work

So that little bit of exposed thread there - there's no concern with those threads rusting out? That won't affect the mounting of the alloy summer rims next spring when I switch out the winters? Mind you I would like to think that the dealership would have put rear caps on if there was a risk of damage

 

Nope! It's all good. Here's an example of a Toyota axleshaft to illustrate what you're looking at. The holes in the end are where the lug studs are inserted through, then the brake rotor over that, then the wheel. On this particular shaft it's painted, but the end you see in the center of the wheel is just part of the casting. No moving parts, nothing bolts to it. If there's threads in the center they're just to aid the manufacturing process, they're not used in the operation of the vehicle.

The bearings fit in the end of the axle housing itself, and the shaft fits through the bearing with the splined end being inserted into the differential (the round part of the rear axle in the center of the vehicle).. The vehicle weight actually is carried by that bearing, FYI.

 

I can't believe how expensive those caps are. I was thinking of selling my 4R steelies with those caps, but the caps are probably worth more than the wheels.