Bad Volvo Valve Stem

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.

 

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"

 

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

 

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.

 

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"

 

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".

 

"............................................................................................."

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....don't slip on the wet floor..

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

 

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!

 

"........................................................"

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"

 

Speak to the service managers boss go to the top not the idiot that he
employs and is costing him good will.
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