ChapelHillMBFan

I am wondering how to remove the wheel center caps. I want to swap out the regular three-pointed star center caps on my 2007 CLS550 with the blue/laurel three-pointed star center caps, but it is not obvious to me how to take the center caps off. Can I do this without removing the wheel, or does the wheel need to come off so that the center caps can be tapped out from behind? Any help would be most appreciated. Thanks.

J J

I would just take the wheel off and tap it out.

lkchris

You have to take the wheel off and push the cap out from behind.

ChapelHillMBFan

Thanks for the response. And, yes, all indications are that the wheels have to come off. I was just wondering if it is something I could do myself without taking the wheels off. I stopped by my local MB shop today, and they said they need to be tapped out from behind. I'll take it by later this week to let them do it on a lift. Should only take 30 minutes or so.

butthead713

id do it myself if i were you there is nothing to it

B R

If you are too lazy to take the wheel off, & don't mind trashing the old CCs, you can probably drill a hole in the middle of it, screw a good size self tapping screw into it, & grab that with a vicegrips & pull it out.

erose7

I did mine and I didn't have to remove the tires. I used an extremely small flat head screwdriver and very carefully put it between the rim and the cap. It popped right out and didn't damage my AMG rims or the cap, just in case I ever wanted to re-use them.

wadgras44

a strong suction cup and yank should do the trick

davidbijan

Did the same works well no damage

Stoofpilot

Go heels!!

ChapelHillMBFan

Indeed! Harrison Barnes is coming back, and we are a likely pre-season #1 pick. Repeat of '09?

As to the wheel caps, I had the tires balanced (for $40), and they swapped out the caps gratis.

jbm37379

My 2004 e500 is going through tires in less than 15,000 miles. We live on a mountain but don't drive like we're autocrossing or anything. As a result, wheels are coming off of car quite frequently and center caps are constantly getting damaged by "tire store idiots". Is there some trick to removing them that I could pass along to the morons at the various tire stores? I saw that they have to come off after removing wheels from car(preferred method) by tapping them from behind-any other tricks? Also, they are having difficulty aligning passenger side rear tire-toe is slightly out of spec and they can't get it within tolerances-the slot where the adjustment bolt is is at end of adjustment. Checking parts-see no damage. Anyone else having this problem? I am using Falken Ziex 912's and like the tires but am only getting 13-15K miles with them. I refuse to pay three times the price for "better " tires if they are only going to last less than twice the mileage.

BlankProc

You definitely do not need to remove the wheels to accomplish this.

Just using a tiny, flat screwdriver I popped each one out in seconds yesterday. The key was to make sure it was very small, small enough to fit into that groove between the cap and the wheel. Then I applied pressure to the cap itself with the screwdriver and pulled it out. If you do it carefully and don't put pressure on the wheel itself is easy and quick - no damage to any of my wheels.

GregHudson

I used a couple of steak knives. Inserted the point, and a small part of the blade and levered slightly. Inserted the 2nd kinfe for added leverage, and it popped out no problem. I replaced the cap with a carbon fiber look with bright chrome 3 pointed star. Looks much better than the blue edged version I had on there.
Regards, Greg.