Woke up to a totally flat rear tyre this morning. Glad this didn't happen when I was driving it...

 

@TMB - How long has that been in the family? I get the valves replaced every time I get new tyres, so every 1 to 3 years.

Tyre's nearly 8 years old judging by the 4509 in the bottom left of the pic.

 

Must have taken a clout from road debris I should think. 

Edited 1 July, 20179 yr by Wino

I thought I'd had that tyre renewed about three years ago but I might be mistaken. That one might have been on the car when I bought it as I do very little mileage so the treads don't tend to wear very fast. Anyway, I've just come back from having a new tyre, valve and balance at National Tyres.

 

I always thought they automatically renewed the valve whenever you get a new tyre but if that's not the case it seems really stupid considering how safety-critical it is. I'll make sure I ask for new ones from now on!

 

 

I think you have to ask *not* to have new valves with new tyres, if that was wanted for some reason.

The default is to replace.

Edited 1 July, 20179 yr by Wino

1 minute ago, Wino said:

I think you have to ask *not* to have new valves with new tyres, if that was wanted for some reason.

The default is to replace.

 

Good

I hope that you have checked all the other tyres now, as that tyre in that picture, is showing cracks and that means, as Wino pointed out, that it is getting too old to be safe to use!

I've never ever kept using a car with tyres that are showing cracking on any part of them, it just is not a smart thing to live with.

 

The late 2009 Ibiza that I still seem to be looking after, has two original tyres on it and they are not showing any signs of cracking - yet, but as soon as that car is back under the control of my daughter (at the end of this month), I'll be telling her to buy a new pair, or maybe a new set before she starts to use it as a daily runner for work etc! (I've coughed up enough money to keep it in good runner order while she has been working abroad, but I'm drawing a line at replacing the tyres)

Edited 2 July, 20179 yr by rum4mo

Yeah, the other tyres are only a few years old and are fine.

Was there not an issue with the valve hole size on some Skoda steel wheels a long time ago, I think that the obvious recovery action was to fit wheels with the correct diameter of valve holes, obviously they did not want dealerships just opening up the holes that were too small? That might explain why an very old valve stem failed!

2 hours ago, rum4mo said:

Was there not an issue with the valve hole size on some Skoda steel wheels a long time ago, I think that the obvious recovery action was to fit wheels with the correct diameter of valve holes, obviously they did not want dealerships just opening up the holes that were too small? That might explain why an very old valve stem failed!

 

A recall search seems to indicate only two recalls have ever been made for the Mk1 Fabia. 'Passenger airbag concern' and 'bolts of tandem fuel pump cover may break'. Tyre fitter told me the valve breakage was age-related.

Edited 2 July, 20179 yr by TMB

Back to the tyre place again. Valve stem leaking at wheel entry on new installation

 

Expanding your original photo as much as my phone can, there looks to be some rust on the right hand side of the valve hole in the wheel. Possibly not cleaned up before new valve went in?

Yes, they seem to have stopped bothering to check/clean the valve hole area. They have now cleaned it up but it should have been done to start with.

I bought a set of four used Audi alloys to use with winter tyres on my S4, they were 18" which I think makes more sense and cheaper for tyres than 19" ones, I got them all powder coated to brighten them up a bit before I first used them, anyway, that was in Autumn of 2013, by the time they had been taken off the car for the 3rd time, I was aware that they were losing pressure and at the valve areas! So I had to get new valves fitted to them all at Costco who were the people that fitted the winter tyres just after these wheels had been refurbished!  So, I am thinking that the powder coating place, who "know their stuff and do lots of wheels as a side line activity", must either be passing these wheels out with undersized valve holes, or they or Costco tyre fitters are making a very bad job of tidying up these valve holes prior to fitting the valves! I'm not impressed and see that one of these wheels is once again leaking air very slightly despite me trying to be clever and applying some rubber grease around that area of these wheels in a bid to stop salt and water collecting in there! What I am meaning is, I think that that area of all these wheels has been cleaned back to bare alloy, which is not too good! I hope your new valves last longer than my new ones!!

^ Might have to start putting inner tubes inside tubeless tyres like we did years ago