Warning for cheap alu' valve caps

[quicky1980 0]

A while back some kids nicked the valve caps off one side of my car which originally came with the wheels. So had to buy some replacement so thinking that valve caps are simple enough, I bought the cheapest I could find off ebay.

 

They arrived and looked ok so fitted them to the wheels, never thought they would be a problem until it came to my regular tyre pressure check. The remaining standard caps came off no probs but the ebay jobbies....no way..stuck fast!!

 

Ended up filing them off by hand to avoid damaging the valve and evently weakened the crappy caps enough to get them off.

 

Looking at them, it appears they they bonded due to being dissimilar material, but not sure why the original ones were fine even though they were alu' too.

 

So word of warning, dont use cheap valve caps on the tyre valves. You may end up regreting it! If you have them alreaday fitted go check quickly before its too late and either replaced or grease the threads.

 

Any one else experienced this problem

[davidwort 0]

Just cheap and nasty metal I guess, black plastic has always worked fine for me :)

[robrado974 1]

My mate who sold me the vr had the same problem with his 32 ,the ally reacts with the steel and almost becomes glued on .

[Supercharged 2]

Think the Halfords ones are stainless - been using these for years and no problems at all...

 

O ring seal too so hardly ever see any drop in tyre pressure

[davidwort 0]

eh? you rely on your valve dust caps to keep the pressure in :lol:

[Alex_G60_Fanatic 0]

eh? You rely on your valve dust caps to keep the pressure in :lol:

lol

[fla 9]

same happened to me, quicky, had to dremel one off. Now used some copper grease on them, so far so good but will replace with stainless (like supercharged) shortly.

[Supercharged 2]

eh? you rely on your valve dust caps to keep the pressure in :lol:

 

Well... my mate who's a tyre fitter says most valves leak around 5psi per year, obviously corroded wheels can be an issue on cars of our age...

 

I've not had to adjust the pressures in ages on mine (over a year) despite checking fairly reguarly!

[davidwort 0]

fair do-s, I'm sure the valves do leak a little, like you say, old alloys are also a culprit, I was just puzzled that you think that the inner valve rubber seal on the valve itself is going to be any worse than an o-ring on the cap (probably only really there to keep dirt and water out of the valve)

 

you could always fill the top of your valves with silicone sealant :)