Bad Volvo Valve Stem

Discussion in 'General Motoring' started by Stephen Henning, Oct 18, 2005.

  1. My '01 V70 XC has Volvo replacement Pirelli Scorpion S/Ts. They were
    replace by my Volvo dealer. I don't know if they replaced the valve
    stems our not. Anyway, today I had a flat. I put air in the tire and
    it seemed to not have a leak. When I screwed on the valve cap, every
    time I touched the stem, it leaked. When they replaced the valve stem,
    they said that the entire insides of the stem were coming apart. You
    could see a big aneurysm just looking at the outside of the valve stem.
    I never saw anything like this before.
     
    Stephen Henning, Oct 18, 2005
    #1
  2. Stephen Henning

    Randy G. Guest


    During the time I worked as a tire buste I probably installed
    thousands of valve stems and removed about the same number, but never
    remember seeing any fail in the way you describe. It sounds like the
    rubber delaminated from teh internal brass tube allowing air from
    inside the wheel to pressurize the area between the outer rubber part
    of the stem and the inner brass tube.

    Still, Volvo probably does not actualy make the stems, so don't be too
    hard on the dealer on this one. Generally speaking, I think that new
    stems are a matter of policy anywhere that tires are installed today.


    __ __
    Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
    \__/olvos
    '90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate
    "Shelby" & "Kate"
     
    Randy G., Oct 18, 2005
    #2
  3. Stephen Henning

    Jim Carriere Guest

    The most recent time I got new tires the shop ape put one of my
    hubcaps on completely wrong, the gap for the valve stem was nowhere
    near the valve stem, and the valve stem was bent over pretty hard.
    Not sure how the V70 XC wheels are, probably different than this.
    You're probably right, this is a one in a million bad valve stem.

    I use the term shop ape in this case because he also overtightened my
    wheel bolts with the air wrench (huge pet peeve of mine). I've had
    shope _techs_ do good work on my car before, I prefer them over the
    apes :)
     
    Jim Carriere, Oct 18, 2005
    #3
  4. Yes, the V70 XC has "mag wheels" with no hubcaps.
    The Volvo shop-techs that replaced my tires and also rotate my wheels do
    the same thing, use air wrenches. I had to use a 4' pipe on the Volvo
    lug wrench to loosen 4 of the 5 bolts. I could only budge one without
    more lever-arm. One time when I had a flat along a highway, I had to
    wait until a State Trooper could help me loosen the lug nuts. Another
    time AAA had to toe me into a garage where they used a 4' pipe to get
    more lever arm because even their air wrench couldn't loosen the lug
    nuts.
     
    Stephen Henning, Oct 18, 2005
    #4
  5. Stephen Henning

    Randy G. Guest

    On the 960 the torque is stamped right on the dust cup. When we got it
    the PO had gotten a set of tires at XXXMart. I took the car home and I
    pulled the wheels and all of them were very much over torqued by about
    40% or so.. Back when I was doing tires it was no big deal to use an
    air wrench because hubs, drums and disks were a lot tougher and
    anything close was pretty much OK. Today, with thin disks, small hubs,
    and alloy wheels make proper torque critical.

    A fellow came in one day and stated that we were to hand-tighten his
    wheels and in no way were we to use the air guns. I twisted two studs
    off like they were butter. The air guns were fairly closely calibrated
    and I never damaged a stud with it..

    I still remember one of the tire salesmen was just a bit shy of fully
    literate, and I put a set of tires on a "Valvo." He was a nice guy
    though, and quite friendly with us grunts in the "back". Another
    salesman was a real SOB power seller (they all worked on commission)
    and thought we were all a bunch of hippy punks. He sold a set of tires
    that was "close" to the correct size to a guy in a sports car. We told
    him that they wouldn't fit, and he just about came apart at the seams
    and told us, in no uncertain terms, to put them on. We did.. The owner
    drove about 20 feet and there were four, long, rubber strips about
    3/8" x 3/8" where his fender edges stripped off the outer edge of the
    tread. Became a "no sale" and the salesman had to eat the tires
    against his commission... tee hee

    Ahhhh.... memories. The fun we had in the underground tire storage
    room with the water fire extinguishers!


    __ __
    Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
    \__/olvos
    '90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate
    "Shelby" & "Kate"
     
    Randy G., Oct 18, 2005
    #5
  6. This is deja-vu all over again.
    Last July I had two tires replaced on my XC70 and sure enough, 200 miles
    later I had a flat at work just as I was leaving to go home. Auto Club
    put on the spare and I went home. I got home, filled the tire and heard
    air escaping. I ran my hand over the tire to feel for air and it was
    coming out of the stem where the outer rubber of the stem meets the
    threaded portion where the cap screws on. I called Volvo of Las Vegas
    and asked if they would replace it for free. The service mgr. said "NOPE".
     
    .................................................., Oct 20, 2005
    #6
  7. Stephen Henning

    Randy G. Guest

    "............................................................................................."
    Depending on how long you have had the tires and who installed them, I
    would have to say that this is a warranty problem. That was a
    defective stem, and dare I ask it, but is Volvo getting valve stems
    from a China manufacturer? Unless the stem shows signs of vndalism or
    being struck by a foreign object, it would have to be a defect. We use
    to install them with a tool that gabbed the stem through levberage
    against the rim (on steel rims). The harder you pulled on the lever,
    the harder the tool pinched the stem as it pulled it through the rim.
    never had one fail in the manner you describe. I did replace a couple
    that had defective cores but never saw one that leaked like that. We
    even carried a tool that cleared the threads in the stem as well as
    for the valve cap so an otherwise good stem would not have to be
    replaced.
    __ __
    Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
    \__/olvos
    '90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate
    "Shelby" & "Kate"
     
    Randy G., Oct 20, 2005
    #7
  8. randy....don't slip on the wet floor..

    "Ahhhh.... memories. The fun we had
    in the underground tire storage room
    with the water fire extinguishers! "
     
    ~^ beancounter ~^, Oct 20, 2005
    #8
  9. Yeah, right...like I'm going to take the Volvo dealer to court over a
    1.25 valve stem? From now on, If the dealer spots a nail in the
    sidewall, who cares...I'm driving the car to a tire store, and I don't
    care if I have to drive on the damned rim. I'm not paying the Volvo
    dealer cost of two tires...no way, no how!
     
    .................................................., Oct 20, 2005
    #9
  10. Stephen Henning

    Randy G. Guest

    "........................................................"
    Nor should you. The point was that I was suprised, what with the
    recent history with Firestone tires et.al. that the dealer would sluff
    off the liability like that. The job would take maybe fifteen minutes
    including pulling the car into the bay, would be an excellent customer
    relations building opportunity, and would be a documented CYA
    situation for them as well.


    __ __
    Randy & \ \/ /alerie's
    \__/olvos
    '90 245 Estate - '93 965 Estate
    "Shelby" & "Kate"
     
    Randy G., Oct 20, 2005
    #10
  11. Speak to the service managers boss go to the top not the idiot that he
    employs and is costing him good will.
    "...........................................................................
     
    John Robertosn, Nov 18, 2005
    #11
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