George,

For situation 2, it is quite noraml for the wheel nuts to heat up after
driving for a while. Part of the heat comes from braking and part from the
transmission. As a result, the front wheels' nuts are hotter the rear. I
once owned an Accord and now a Civic, and both of their front wheels' nuts
are hotter after some driving. The reason I first noticed that they are hot
is that I saw some smoke coming out from the inside of the front wheels
when I once washed the car immediately after a 20 minutes highway driving.


"George Earl" > ???
???...
> I have a 2001 Accord LX-V6 with standard wheel covers.
>
> Situation 1:
>
> About 2 months ago I noticed that the surface of the right front wheel
> cover was peeling and losing its silver and clear coat coating in
> spots outside the lug nut area. At first I thought I might have
> scraped up against something, but I didn't remember having done so and
> the flaking is happening as circles, not scrapes. The flaking
> continues to get worse.
>
> Now I have noticed that the flaking is starting to happen with the
> remaining three wheel covers as well, although in this case the
> flaking is happening right around the lug nuts and inside the H logo
> at the center of the wheel covers.
>
> This got me to thinking that this summer I started to use one of those
> soft-cloth car washes that pulls the car through on a track and maybe
> that is what is causing this flaking problem with the wheel covers.
> (But why wouldn't I see a ton of other cars around with this same
> flaking problem?)
>
> What do you think?
>
> Situation 2:
>
> Yesterday I stopped by a hubcap shop to buy a replacement for the
> right front. In the process of checking things out on my car I noticed
> that the front lug nuts on both sides were so hot that I could hardly
> keep my finger on them. The rear lug nuts were warm. I had been doing
> about 15 minutes of highway driving.
>
> Is it normal for the front lug nuts to get so hot?
>
> Is it possible that something is up with my brakes which is generating
> extra heat which is contributing to the wheel covers flaking?
>
> My brake service has always been done at the dealer, and in informal
> testing yesterday, when I put my car in neutral on a gentle incline it
> rolled freely . . .
>
> What do you think?
>
>
> George
>