Valve Stem Problem Uncovered

The story is all too familiar:

I got some nifty-looking aluminium valve caps sometime last year, and they've been left on my car all winter. Unfortunately, I can no longer get them off.
I've tried pliers (the stem just turns), oil, and heating them with a lighter.

Reading around, a lot of other people have had this problem, but nobody's come up with a solution.

Within the past few weeks I've overheard conversations that sound like this. It cost me over $200. Who knew something so simple could cause such a big problem. We're talking about putting metal valve stem caps on your tires that are equipped with pressure sensors.

You've seen them in stores. The metal caps that look cool in the package. They appeal to people who want to put a finishing touch on their vehicle. From what I've been hearing, don't do it. Stick with the black plastic caps.

It seems that over time, the metal cap and the sensor stems actually meld together. It's actually corrosion caused by dissimilar metals. That's right, they weld themselves together. When it happens, if you develop a slow leak or a flat tire you may be unable to get the metal caps off to air up your tires.

It happened to our engineer here at work. He said the cost to replace four of the actual sensors that tell you how much air pressure you have in your tires would be over $230.

Share this information with your Facebook friends. Who knew, keeping it simple could in the long run save you so much.

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