Currently there is no violation for a hubcap missing a securement bolt, unless there is an active leak. I recently inspected a tractor trailer that was missing 1 of 8 hubcap bolts in a wheel assembly (see attached pictures). There was evidence that oil was leaking from where the bolt was missing. However, at the time of the inspection there was no active leak. With the style of hubcap this tractor was equipped with there was no possible way roadside to determine if there was any oil left in the axle assembly. The driver stated he did not notice the oil on the rim when he did his pre-trip. Leaking hubs and missing hub caps were previously acted upon by CVSA and there were several OOS violations added to the CVSA OOS criteria. However, the issue of a missing component such as a hubcap bolt was not addressed.

Since the hub assembly is addressed only in the CVSA Out of Service criteria, there is currently no violation for a hubcap bolt missing and no way for the inspector to notify the carrier that their vehicle has a potentially serious issue with their wheel hub assembly. With the hubcap such as this, there was no active leak. However, it was previously leaking from where the bolt was missing and there was no means roadside to tell if there was any oil left in the axle assembly.

There needs to be an added OOS violation of Hubcap Bolt Missing with evidence of a leak or no oil remaining in the hub assembly. An alternative would be to add a note in the hub section that references Ops Policy 15 to cite 396.3a1 (not out of service), so that the issue can be corrected by the carrier, upon the conclusion of the trip.

During discussion a question was asked whether it can be assumed the hub is dry. There were comments from industry that if it is not leaking, where is the hazard, and they stated that there is no hazard. Comment that in the picture it is a seep, not a dripping leak. It was discussed that it looks like there is a missing bolt and causing a leak. A question was asked whether or not a violation could be noted without placing the vehicle OOS? In this situation, it can only be a violation under 396.3a1 and since it is not an OOS situation it cannot be listed as a violation of 396.3a1. No motion was made, item was CLOSED with no action taken.