Chinese valve stems got me.

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Cup of Joe

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I just bought new tires last year and both stems on the drivers side are cracked badly. The front tire was flat and I could have popped the stem off with my thumb. Luckily they are on my F150 that I rarely drive. I was able to pump up the tire and drive it to the tire dealer for replacements but still
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Everybody double check those stems. the 2 on the passenger side still looked new but the drivers
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1) How do you know they are chinese? I'd never saw a mfg origin on a valve stem before.

2) Who installed them? If it is a large chain I'd ask them for an explanation or compensation, regardless of which country it is from. After all, they are not suppose to fail so soon.
 
Don't know that's the problem with stems. In consumer reports they even listed serial numbers or was it models of stem I forget. Anyway all my paperwork says is rubber valve stem 4. No model, no idea of country of origin or serial number to go by. You ever try to read a mounted valve stem? The recalled stems are confirmed to have been produced in china FYI.

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2008/06/tire-valve-stem.html

2nd answer is the same tire store replaced all my stems free of charge no damage to me other then some time. It's a large chain in this area that has been bought by an even larger chain nationally, Merchants tire and Auto part of Kingdom Tire now.
 
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It has been my experience that any rubber type product for automobile use that comes out of China is inferior. Every single item I have used needs replacement at its one year anniversary. I usually have better luck with OEM stuff out of junkyard that is 15 years old then the new Chinese garbage.
 
I wonder why discount tire was so nice when my valve stem broke off, now it all makes since. I went to put air in my tire and the valve stem broke. It was a great moment at the gas station that day.
 
The valves are literally 20 cents apiece; they spend more than that mailing flyers to prospective customers so the goodwill gesture hardly hurts the bottom line.

Went and snagged one from a bag I got on ebay, the bag is not marked with country of origin (may have been subdivided from a larger container), the "outie" of the stem has no markings, and this is the base... which is in fact marked TR413! eek.

valvestm1.png


Edit, however, this does not match the lower pic of the recalled item, making me think TR-413 may be a generic number, like a "PF3387A" could be a fram oil filter or one of many others:

valve_stem_1_imagelarge.jpg
 
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I always ask for the higher pressure "truck" stems when getting new tires.

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Sam's always installs them for me at no additional charge, all I have to do is ask. These are rated up to 100psi.
 
They got me as well. I was checking the tire pressure, and all of a sudden one starts hissing like a snake. No obvious crack in it, and bending the stem made it worse. I presume it cracked down right below the hole in the rim. Drove to Wal-Mart who installed the tires 6 months ago and they fixed it for cheap.

Complained to corporate about the valve stem and got a call from the manager of the local Wal-Mart today asking me if I would feel safer if they changed all the others. Didn't say if free or not. Will find out tomorrow.

Be careful out there, everybody!
 
Yep, it was free.

And Wal-Mart has a bee in their bonnet. Got a call from the store that installed my tires and stems, in addition to the call from the store where I had the stems replaced at. Had a conversation with the store manager (original tire installation store) stating that they knew nothing about the recall, and how they go through a lot of valve stems per week. Still agreed with me that having the rest of the stems replaced at their expense was the proper course of action.

All's well that ends well.
 
For some reason tire stores don't like to use all steel stems, but that is the way to go.
All new cars now have all steel stems because of tire pressure monitoring systems currently required by law.
My experience is steel stems never give you any trouble and last much longer. They don't flex, which makes checking and adding air much easier.
 
I've had two of the valve stems on my Cherokee fail recently, and didn't know anything about this recall. Luckily both failed in a non-catastrophic slowly leaking air fashion, and I replaced both myself with Victor-branded valve stems from the auto parts store. A quick trip out to the car to check what the extras were reveals that they're distributed by Bell out of Des Moines, but still made in China (of course).

I didn't check the ones I pulled out, but after hearing about this recall might take a few minutes to change the other two just to be safe. I would really prefer not to have a tire failure in my Jeep. I'll take a look and see if they match the ones shown on the recall page when I pull them.
 
Originally Posted By: grampi
We can't get ANYTHING that's not made in China anymore :0(
Isn't anything made in China any good!
 
Yes, "TR413" is a generic designation for a short stem. A TR414 is longer, a TR418 is even longer and TR423 is the longest..
This is interesting to me because I just put a new tire on a car today where the tire blew out at speed. The tire looked fine, except it was severely worn on the sidewalls, so I thought somebody just was not paying attention to air pressure. They insisted the air pressure was fine this morning.
What was interesting is I changed the valve stem and noticed it was a Dill ACP stem. It looked fine so I dont know if this applies.
The only problem Ive run into with stems is people putting the wrong stems in 3/4 and 1 ton truck tires. They should be a High Pressure stem, not a standard all rubber stem. I believe the standard stems are rated to 60psi.
 
latest commment taken from the Consumer Reports link listed above:

"Posted by: juanita andrews | Sep 23, 2008 12:29:26 PM

On September 22,2008 I walked outside my house only to find out I had another flat tire. The 3rd one in 3 months. AAA came out to repair it. It was the stem vavle again. Why didn't Sears replace all of them the 1st time. I'm sure they knew about the recall. I purchased my tires from Sears. I could have gotten killed on the highway. Thanks God for saving me. I purchased my tires in March of 2007. Michelin the best."

If you had a bad stem and didn't change all your stems already you may want too. Also correct me if I'm wrong but it appears there are 2 different companies listed, Dill and Top seal.
 
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