Tyre Pressure Thingy

[lardhelmet]

I have just bought a secondhand corsa. In lovely condition but the metal yre pressure tube thingy on the two back tyres are corroded and i cant get my pump to fit to put some air in the tyres. Will i have to buy new tyres or can the garage just replace those metal bits?

[bhg481]

I must say that in all my years of motoring I've never known the tyre valves to be so corroded that the pump won't connect properly.
How old are the tyres? There is a code on the tyre wall of the format XXYY, where XX and YY are the week number and year the tyre was manufactured. If the tyre is more than about 7 years old it's time it was replaced. If the tyre is not too old and not overly worn a garage will fit a new valve (about £10).

[lardhelmet]

Thanks bhg. Cant decipher when they were manufactured so I dont know how old they are. I only bought it a month ago. Its an 09 place and only done 25000 so chances are they are the original tyres?. Should the garage replace the valves for free?

[lardhelmet]

There used to be a special key to unlock the dust caps which obviously disappeared in the midts of time, so the garage had to take them into the workshop to get them off to put rubber ones on.

[bhg481]

Tyre age is just about OK even if tyres are original. Changing the valves will cost about £10 per tyre (about the same cost as a puncture).
Have a look at http://www.blackcircles.com/ to get a price for new tyres for your car. If the tyres are fairly worn it may be false economy to pay to change the valves - new tyres will come with new valves.

[lardhelmet]

Thanks for your help bhg - much appreciated.

[tonyav]

Hiya lardhelmet, might be worth giving the valves a brushing with a small wire brush ( I have seen sets of three in the cheap shops for a quid ).

[furrypusscat]

Has the vehicle been used regularly or parked up for a long while as if they haven't been used they disintegrate from the inside and become dangerous so would need replacing.

[furrypusscat]

Wups, pressed send too soon. If the car has been parked for a while it would be advisable to have a garage check them all out.

[lardhelmet]

Just an update. Garage replaced valves on both rear tyres for free as they said it was their fault and they should have checked & replaced them before they let me have the car. Very pleased with that.

[tonyav]

Jobs a gud un then, lardhelmet.

[lardhelmet]

It sure is tonyav.

[tonyav]

Happy motoring then, lardhelmet.

[bhg481]

Trivial cost to the garage, happy customer who is likely to go there again. If only all businesses had that much common sense.

Nice of you to come back to us with your result lardhelmet - not everybody has the decency to do that.