Rim protection on tires: what is it and how does it work?

Reading time 4 Min.

Recently updated on July 26, 2022 at 08:29 am

Expensive and high-quality rims make your car an eye-catcher. But these are also prone to damage. Even driving roughly over a curb can cause scratches or dents on the aluminum rim. These are not only annoying and visually unattractive to look at, but also prone to Corrosion. For this reason, numerous manufacturers offer a so-called to protect aluminum rims rim protection on. This rim protector is nothing more than one additional rubber lip around the tire plank.

you can see the rim rib

The Rim rib (Rim protection strip or rim protection) is very robust and protrudes slightly at the height of the tire bead over the outer edge of the tire out. The tire bead consists of one Steel wire core and holds the tire firmly on the rim by pressing against the rim flange, the outwardly curved edge of the rim. So if you get too close to a curb with the tires, grind first the rim rib over this and protects the rim flange. All in one, of course certain measure!

A pair of Rim protector not only protects the rims, but also the tires and prevents damage to the thin sidewall of the tire. Nevertheless, the protective effect is only minimal and the more energetic you drive into a curve or perform a parking maneuver, the faster it can happen that the protection kshows one more effect.

Rim protection for steel rims

The Steel rims and attached hubcaps Rim ribs can unfortunately become problematic if the hubcap extends to the tire. In this special case, the hubcap would be supported on the rim rib and not sitting ideally. This could cause the hubcap to come off the rim at high speeds and that Damage or tear off valve. Therefore: If you have steel rims and are thinking of tire protection, then you should definitely seek advice from an expert. More often, the rim protection for car tires comes with a cross-section under 55 (Low-profile tires) are used, which are usually mounted on aluminum rims.

Rim protection has no standard

One problem with rim protection is that lack of norm and therefore it varies from manufacturer to manufacturer, but mainly in terms of strength and technology. Some rim ribs can be more pronounced than others. In addition, depending on the manufacturer, they not only have different designs, but also different names. Well-known abbreviations for tires with rim protection are, for example, FL (rim strip), FP (fringe protector), FR (rim rib), MFS (with rim protection or maximum flange shield), MFSL (with rim protection strip), ML (with strip) or RPB (rim Protection bar).

Although the naming is quite different as you can see, the purpose of the rim protector remains independent of the manufacturer always the same. The inner structure of the tire flank and the rim edge should be through the rim protector protected against mechanical damage. Therefore, the surcharge for a rim protection is usually justified.

We hope that you have received our information report on the topic / term rim protection (further designations / keywords are: Rim strip, rim rib, rim rib, rim protector, rim protection strip, FL, FP, FR, Fringe Protector, Maximum Flange Shield, MFS, MFSL, with rim protection, with rim protection strip, with bar, ML, Rim Protection Bar, RPB) from the Autotuning category . Our goal is to have the largest German-speaking tuning lexicon (Tuning Wikipedia) and to explain tuning technical terms from A to Z easily and comprehensibly.

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