How to modify the factory Audi RS4 wheel centercap to fit the Italian-made RS4 replica wheel

The Audi RS4 wheels (and/or "RS4 style" wheels) look great, but are very expensive. Luckily there are high-quality replica wheels available for a fraction of the cost, that look just like real Audi RS4 wheels! Their only drawback is the lame chrome/plastic centercap. But luckily the OE Audi RS4 wheel centercap will fit the replica wheel, with some modification of the centercap. Very special thanks to Cameron Abbott for being the first guy to start cutting into his $20 centercaps to get this to work!

Here's a comparison of the replica centercap and the OE piece:

(OE cap on left, replica cap on right)

4 out of 5 Audi enthusiasts agree that the OE cap is prettier.


Warning: very crude drawings follow!!


Schematic:

Why the caps must be modified:

After they're modified...



Procedure:

1. Buy stuff. Get yourself a set of RS4 replica wheels from The Wheel Exchange. I opted for the 18x8" ET30 wheels. Also get a set of Audi RS4 wheel centercaps, Audi part number 8D0-601-165-K-1H7, available at your local dealer or from Clair Parts. If your car's tool kit (in the rear by the spare wheel/tire) doesn't have a centercap pulling tool that looks like this also order one of those -- Audi part number 8L0-012-243 -- costs about $1.50.

Pretty soon you'll have a pile outside your door that looks like this:

Wheel with no centercap:

2. Assemble tools. This part is really easy. All you need is a pair of these:

3. Trim OE centercaps. Look at the back sides of the OE centercaps. See the "fins" or "vanes" that go around the outside of the "plug part?" Those are the guys we're going to operate upon. Basically they're too tall to enable the OE cap to slide down far enough to snap into the replica wheel. So all we do is make the "shoulders" a little lower.

The red lines in this photo show where to cut:

(dark part on the right side fin was shaded with a magic marker to show what material is to be removed)

Line up the wire cutters to cut according to the red lines -- just two snips on each fin to make each fin look like this:

That's all there is to it!

4. Insert modified OE centercap in replica wheel. Just line it up and push it straight on. "SNAP!" And you're done. Use the little metal centercap puller tool to remove them.

The end result:

On the car:

Here's a picture of an OEM 18" RS4 style wheel for comparison:

I'm glad I didn't pay the big bucks for the factory RS4 style wheels!!

Please email me if you have any questions/comments/corrections/etc.

Thanks for reading. :)