GM wheels and center caps

rjgvt · July 10, 2024

A couple of months after I got my 2024 GMC 2500HD AT4, I removed one of the front wheels to get the GM part numbers from the back to look around for factory wheels for winter with snow tires. I went to the parts department at my dealer with the part number and found out that could have told me the part numbers from looking up my VIN. Who knew!! HA!

I looked around online and the gm parts websites all wanted a $50 per wheel core charge. I thought it was odd because it's not like I wanted to return a wheels. Dealer gave me a quote of $3314.90 that included a $200 core charge and tax. I questioned the core charge and probably looked at him like he was on crack.

After looking at FB marketplace (small market here) I saw wheels I liked but were not close like somewhere in Long Island, NY, NJ or CT.

I found a set of takeoff wheels from an offroad shop in southern VT that appear to be from a Denali that they had sent out to be powder coated. They came with Chevy center caps and the wheels have a GM part number on the back. P/N 23377034. The center caps had a wire retainer on the back that I removed to get them off. When I took my front wheel off, the center cap came off with no problems after taking the lug nuts off.

Are the wire retainers just for shipping? I'm guessing my center caps are held in with the regular clips and wonder why they don't pop off on rough roads unless the lug nuts keep them secure. I didn't pay a lot of attention when I took it off. I put a retainer on one of the center caps to show how they were. Any thoughts?

newdude · July 16, 2024

On 7/10/2024 at 7:56 PM, rjgvt said:

A couple of months after I got my 2024 GMC 2500HD AT4, I removed one of the front wheels to get the GM part numbers from the back to look around for factory wheels for winter with snow tires. I went to the parts department at my dealer with the part number and found out that could have told me the part numbers from looking up my VIN. Who knew!! HA!

I looked around online and the gm parts websites all wanted a $50 per wheel core charge. I thought it was odd because it's not like I wanted to return a wheels. Dealer gave me a quote of $3314.90 that included a $200 core charge and tax. I questioned the core charge and probably looked at him like he was on crack.

I found a set of takeoff wheels from an offroad shop in southern VT that appear to be from a Denali that they had sent out to be powder coated. They came with Chevy center caps and the wheels have a GM part number on the back. P/N 23377034. The center caps had a wire retainer on the back that I removed to get them off. When I took my front wheel off, the center cap came off with no problems after taking the lug nuts off.

Are the wire retainers just for shipping? I'm guessing my center caps are held in with the regular clips and wonder why they don't pop off on rough roads unless the lug nuts keep them secure. I didn't pay a lot of attention when I took it off. I put a retainer on one of the center caps to show how they were. Any thoughts?

Non accessory wheels always have a core charge, so factory production installed wheels. GM wants the cores back for remanufacturing. The GM accessory ones do not have cores.

DO NOT remove that metal retaining ring from the center cap. You will lose your caps. The ring keeps tension on the tabs on the cap to make sure it snaps and seats into place. Put them back in place, use a rubber mallet or press hard to make sure the caps seat in place as well. You will hear a solid and loud snap when they are in place correctly.

Edited July 16, 2024 by newdude

rjgvt · July 16, 2024

10 minutes ago, newdude said:

Non accessory wheels always have a core charge, so factory production installed wheels. GM wants the cores back for remanufacturing. The GM accessory ones do not have cores.

DO NOT remove that metal retaining ring from the center cap. You will lose your caps. The ring keeps tension on the tabs on the cap to make sure it snaps and seats into place. Put them back in place, use a rubber mallet or press hard to make sure the caps seat in place as well. You will hear a solid and loud snap when they are in place correctly.

@newdude

Thanks for the info. I thought I had to remove the retaining rings to get the caps off. When I took a front wheel off of my truck, the center cap came off with no issues and didn't remember seeing the retaining ring but was more focused on the numbers on the back of the wheel.

I'm going to leave the center caps off for now until I get new tires on the spare wheels and have them balanced.

newdude · July 16, 2024

55 minutes ago, rjgvt said:

@newdude

Thanks for the info. I thought I had to remove the retaining rings to get the caps off. When I took a front wheel off of my truck, the center cap came off with no issues and didn't remember seeing the retaining ring but was more focused on the numbers on the back of the wheel.

I'm going to leave the center caps off for now until I get new tires on the spare wheels and have them balanced.

Yea, no need to remove that ring.

A quick pop the cap out from behind once the wheel is off for doing mounting/balancing tires. Quick tap with the handle end of a mallet.

Edited July 16, 2024 by newdude

rjgvt · July 16, 2024

20 minutes ago, newdude said:

Yea, no need to remove that ring.

A quick pop the cap out from behind once the wheel is off for doing mounting/balancing tires. Quick tap with the handle end of a mallet.

@newdude

Thanks. I wish I knew that when I was taking the caps off. I put the retainers back on but will probably use the GMC caps from my truck on the winter wheels so it matches instead of the Chevy caps.

The funny thing about it was that my last truck, a GMC 1500, I had a set of Chevy wheels for winter tires/wheels that I got used. Half of the year had GMC wheels, the other half had Chevy wheels.