Tyre Valve Damage - Metal Valve Corrosion
One job this week was a Jaguar with damaged valves, the owner had fitted after market metal dust caps. These had corroded to the valves and wouldn't come off. The owner tried using a pair of pliers on the caps, but ended up breaking off the top of the valve allowing all the air in the tyre to come out.
This happens because most of these caps are made of a steel, where as most valves are either brass or aluminium. With the static electricity generated by the wheels going round you get a galvanic corrosion reaction between the two differing metals and they corrode together.
If you have these metal caps, you need to take them on and off frequently to stop them corroding, which most car drivers don't do often enough. If this happens to you, you could try applying a penetrating oil and leaving it overnight, then gently try to turn the valve cap forwards and backwards. Another option is to apply heat to the cap, but you have to be very careful not to burn the rubber valve.
With this Jaguar, I had to remove each tyre from the rim, cut out the rubber valve and fit a new one, these rubber valves come with a plastic cap which won't corrode to the valve. I often recommend to my customers that they don't use these after market caps and keep the original plastic caps.
Should you have TPMS sensors they can still have the same reaction to metal caps, but if these are damaged they can be more costly to replace, most TPMS sensors have removable stems which are replaceable although they cost more than standard rubber valves. Some of the older TPMS sensors are an all in one sensor and valve stem, in this case we would have to replace the complete item, this is far more costly.
Should you have problems with your valves, call us at Hometyre on 03334445454 we carry parts on our vans for most TPMS sensors as well as normal valves.
HometyreGroup
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