here's a weird one ...... Valve Stem cracked & broken

[OriginalOwner]

This afternoon I jumped into the '74tii to head out for a cruise on The Pass Road.  I didn't even get to the street, the steering wheel was very difficult to turn.  So I rolled back into the carport.  I could see that the right front tire was very underinflated & mostly flat.  When I attempted to attach the tire pump hose to the valve stem, I could see several large cracks in the rubber of the valve stem.  When I pushed the stem sideways, I could hear air leaking.  I put the front end up in the air and removed the tire.  I again pushed the stem sideways, and it fully cracked, all air escaped.  NEVER EVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THAT BEFORE, on any car/truck/motorcycle !!!

 

I took the tire to the local shop and they replaced the stem.  Back at the house, I put the tire back on, aired to proper pressure ...... back to normal.   I checked the other three valve stems:  no cracks whatsoever ..... "just like new."

 

Definitely something very different/unusual/weird.

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

 

[Mike Self]

It must have been the rubber end that's pressed into the wheel, as the stem itself has a brass sleeve that's molded into the rubber.  The sleeve is internally threaded for the valve core, and externally threaded for the valve cap.  

 

Do you know how old the valve stem was?  I've seen 'em blow off an inner tube (installed on a car or bicycle) but that's more liekly with an old inner tube.   If the valve stem had been bent sideways--like with an improperly installed wheel cover--for any period of time, it would stress the rubber in the same way you would by torquing the suspension bushings with the wheels off the ground.  

 

Unusual, but not unheard of...lucky you weren't tooling down the road at 75 or so...

 

mike

['76mintgrün'02]

I had that happen on my old Subaru.  ( It has 185/70/13 tires too and 4x100 stud spacing.  Wrong offset for a 2002 though. )

 

Did you know you can use a valve stem to pump up flat oil and paint cans?  It works great!  Be careful though.  I suppose you could pop the can if you used too much pressure.

 

[Mike Self]

5 minutes ago, '76mintgrün'02 said:

Did you know you can use a valve stem to pump up flat oil and paint cans? 

What a great tip!  Will have to try that.  If you use a hand (bicycle) pump you don't need but a couple of strokes.  I wonder, though it pumping air into a can of spray paint won't make it start to thicken.  Oil and carb cleaner, though will be OK.  

 

Will root through my garage trashcan and pull out the two cans of carb cleaner and one of starting fluid that went flat and try the trick.

 

mike

['76mintgrün'02]

I've never tried a hand pump, but it should work.  I usually just give it a quick blast from the compressor.  You'll probably need to keep pressure down on the valve while you're pumping. 

 

Don't wear your favorite clothes.  Do wear goggles!  (I usually just squint).

[Lorin]

I’ve seen that happen a few times over the years. Mostly age related but once caused by heavy  mini 8 ball valve caps on my sister’s beetle. 

[tech71]

12 hours ago, OriginalOwner said:

 

Definitely something very different/unusual/weird.

Do you have young children about?

[OriginalOwner]

Hmmm, the broken valve stem:  I'm thinking it's only about 6 years old ...... which is when a new tire was installed.   And it didn't have an inner metal tube, the stem was very bend-y when pushed sideways.  

 

Oh well.

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

 

[Hans]

perhaps it was disturbed by something?

[jgerock]

Same thing happened to the spare tire on my 2011 Honda Pilot.  Spare hangs beneath the SUV, and the stem faces upward - nicely where water can rust the wheel.

[M3M3]

yup.  seen it.  usually an age related issue.  some shops don't change the valve stems when replacing tires unless specifically asked to do so.  even then, they don't.

['76mintgrün'02]

Yup.  Part of Basic Wheel Maintenance.  Not everybody's into that.   

(Sorry, Carl.  Couldn't resist).

[Son of Marty]

I follow Ray's tire maintenance program, every now or then launch one into a farmers field🤣😲!

[OriginalOwner]

mint,

 

I can most definitely rule out one cause of the cracked valve stem:  no deterioration was due to dish soap detergent degradation(s) !!

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

 

[TobyB]

On 4/29/2023 at 9:51 AM, OriginalOwner said:

Hmmm, the broken valve stem:  I'm thinking it's only about 6 years old ...... which is when a new tire was installed.   And it didn't have an inner metal tube, the stem was very bend-y when pushed sideways.  

 

Oh well.

 

Cheers,

 

Carl

 

I wonder if the shop got their 'new' stems from Horror Fright-

 

it's pretty common for low- quality 'rubber' from 3rd party suppliers

to fail like that.  I haven't had a valve stem do it, yet, but lots of other things

that formerly lasted longer than I have are now crumbling to pieces.

 

I used to think it was that I was durable, but now I'm starting to wonder...

 

t