Safety Issue: Tire Valve Stems

[Rionart]

So I pulled the covers off this past weekend and started reviving the fleet after it's winter slumber...and discovered a rather nasty issue.
On 3 vehicles, for a total of 8 rims, the valve stem had perished and split right at the rim.
I noticed it on one car as I was doing the tyre pressures...which led me to start looking more closely at the others.
Spoke to my tyre guy...he says he is seeing quite a few coming in, apparently the valve stems are sourced out of China...and the quality is, how can I be diplomatic about this, absolute crap.
So...before you take your Opel out on the road for this season, give your valve stems a good wiggle, and look for splitting...otherwise sod's law says it's going to let go at the worst possible time and place.
Rgds, Rob.

[oldopelguy]

Amen!

On any tires I expect to use for any length of time I use metal valve stems exclusively. On nicer wheels I prefer the flush ones, like these:
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CMJ3L8"]Amazon.com: Gorilla VS406C Flush Mount Valve Stem - Pack of 4: Automotive[/ame]

[Jeepsbeme]

From those wonderful people that painted toys with lead based paint, here's some of the recall information on those "quality" valve stems. Why is that if an American manufacturer had a recall of this magnitude, the media would be all over it? But this has been treated more of as an afterthought.

Recall Results : ODI - Office of Defects Investigation

[SpringGT]

I got a recall notice from Discount Tire Co. last December on these faulty valve stems. I took the car in and they replaced the valves and rebalanced the tires. They said that the bad valves were made in China. Here is a link to their recall.

Valve Stem Advisory - Discount Tire Direct
Bob

[P.J. Romano]

Spoke to my tyre guy...he says he is seeing quite a few coming in, apparently the valve stems are sourced out of China...and the quality is, how can I be diplomatic about this, absolute crap.

Rob,
Few weeks ago I went to the Canadian Tire to return another "Made in China" crap item. I proposed to them to change the name to "Chinese Tire". They laughed...

[jlthunder]

From those wonderful people that painted toys with lead based paint, here's some of the recall information on those "quality" valve stems. Why is that if an American manufacturer had a recall of this magnitude, the media would be all over it? But this has been treated more of as an afterthought.

Recall Results : ODI - Office of Defects Investigation

I agree. Remember the Firestone tires on the Ford Explorers? The media was all over that. This can cause the same issue on every car, but it didn't even make the news. UGH!!!

[newman27]

Thanks for the tip! The whole "Made In China" thing gets me on my soapbox. I avoid anything made there as much as possible but sometimes there is no other option. For example, last December as I was shopping a Christmas decoration store I decided to see if I could find one item NOT made in China (out of litterally hundreds of items). I couldn't find a single item made somewhere else. It's really scary. My most recent "Made In China" disaster was last week when I bought two light fixtures at Home Depot. I got them home and found that they were completely different in color and materials. The overall design was the same but none of the parts matched between the two items even though they were in the same box with the same description and part number! OK, enough rant...thanks again for the tip as this is obviously a serious safety issue that I hadn't heard anything about!

Matt

[michaedo]

Anybody here old enough to remember "Made in Japan"?
If that was on the label it was sure to be a piece of crap
back in the old days.

[tomking]

Yes I am old enough. I remember as a kid probably 8 years of age going into the 5 and 10 store ( Oh some of you have never heard of that?) and picking up a toy gun. It was made in Japan and out of Budweiser beer cans turned inside out.

[dcm013]

Anybody here old enough to remember "Made in Japan"?
If that was on the label it was sure to be a piece of crap
back in the old days.

I have an old silver plated ashtray I believe is from the '40's or '50's that's marked "made in Occupied Japan". No offense intended to anyone, but it sure was a different time.

I also remember in 1971 I could have bought a new Toyota Corolla for about $1600. I bought a used '69 Opel GT instead for the same money. If only I'd known they were an addiction at the time .

And Tom, I remember having a made in Japan tin friction motor toy car when I was young that I opened up (after it quickly broke) to find it was also made of old beer cans.

Don

[neuropel]

The warning should also be extended to other hardware. You have to go to a specialty fastener store now to get decent hardware as the typical Lowes and Home Depot stuff is garbage. A few years ago I was working on a project and bought a "gross" of lag bolts from Lowes and I still can't get over the low quality. They would bend and snap, even with over-sized pilot holes, and upon closer inspection they appeared very porous, like "pot metal". Also, about 5 out of every 100 didn't have the head machined in a hex and were useless. I returned them, and finally sourced decent ones through a local Fastenal dealer. If they're using this kind of sub-standard hardware, God help us with all the new bridges and construction projects I see happening.