Dust cap seized.

brorabongo · Post by **brorabongo** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 10:25 am

Thought I would check my tyre pressures as I was hearing more road noise then usual and found that three of them was on the low side, they all had silver dust caps and came off no problem. As for the forth wheel I can not get the b****y cap off

its a blue coloured cap of a different metal I guess, so seized solid.

Anyone have any tips how to remove? as the valve was twisting as I was trying to remove cap with a spanner. will it be a job for WD40 or plusgas? stuff.

Thanks.

Colin Lambert · Post by **Colin Lambert** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 11:16 am

The valve has a brass core inside the rubber so get a pipe wrench. NOT A MOLE GRIP (or you may over do it and crush the brass tube) and grip it as tightly as you can SENSIBLY then with a pair of pliers try to remove the cap. If it is annodised blue, it is probably aluminium and you have may have electrolytic corrosion (2 different non ferrous metals in contact).
If it won't budge then try working your way round the cap with the pliers squeezing it out of true slightly which should break the crud inside.
If all this fails its off to the nearest tyre shop for a new valve. Best of luck.

brorabongo · Post by **brorabongo** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 2:21 pm

Thanks Colin

I'll give it a go tonight.

vic swan · Post by **vic swan** » Tue Jun 05, 2007 4:24 pm

New valve supplied and fitted will cost you about £2.95. Don't let them con you into balancing the wheel. A lot of them don't know how to on a Bongo.

brorabongo · Post by **brorabongo** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:31 pm

went to the garage as none of the above worked. The guy took the tyre off went to roll it over to the machine and noticed two flat spots on the tyre and theres at least one on the other front tyre

I was wondering what was causing the flapping noise at low speed with window open

There was no other signs like feeling it when driving

. Until she gets her new shoes i'll just have to drive fast with windows shut and music LOUD

The tyres were made by Falken, and have a perfect tread. Could these be the original ones when shipped from Japan? I'm not the first UK owner, also the last owner did very little milage.

Post by **aitch** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:50 pm

Falken tyres made for the usa and canada market (see google search) but I've not heard of them before. Hope that this might help!!!

trevd01 · Post by **trevd01** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 9:55 pm

I once had to replace all four tyres on a car after an artic pulled out in front of me when I was fully loaded and towing an unbraked trailer tent at a probably illegal speed. The car (Astra Belmont SRi estate) was less than a month old.

Despite the abs the tyres all had flats spots were caused by the rubber left on the road. Felt like driving on corrugations afterwards.

Fortunately it was in the days of company cars so it didn't cost me anything.

You can buy curved plastic stands for motorhomes and caravans to stop flat spots forming when laid up.

brorabongo · Post by **brorabongo** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 10:55 pm

Strange as does not feel like driving over corrugations

I was looking out for that. the tread does not look any worse on the flat spot then anywhere else. As for the bongo being laid-up. Theres no chance of that in this household. We've done over 10,000kms since February.

trevd01 · Post by **trevd01** » Thu Jun 07, 2007 11:32 pm

aitch wrote:Falken tyres made for the usa and canada market (see google search) but I've not heard of them before. Hope that this might help!!!

They are Japanese tyres - very popular on Subarus etc. I had some on a Legacy Turbo I had once.

http://www.falkentyres-uk.com/

smartmonkey · Post by **smartmonkey** » Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:23 am

I had Jap spec falkens all round on mine. They have lovely cartoons on the sidewall depicting either two people or lots of people. I still have the front ones on because they are newish.

brorabongo · Post by **brorabongo** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 6:57 pm

Both front tyres now changed. The mechanic said he's never seen tyres like it before They were more like a 50p shape then round

It looks like the wheels have been resting on a bar? for long periods of time. The noise they made was

and it seemed to happen over night.

mikeonb4c · Post by **mikeonb4c** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 7:08 pm

bizarre - hope its all smooooooooooooooooooooth now

shakey · Post by **shakey** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 8:11 pm

Impact damage can cause this, also a poor plug repair letting water to corrode the steel cords, they snap, and localised distortion occurs.

Shakey

Colin Lambert · Post by **Colin Lambert** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 11:11 pm

Brora,
You did well to get rid of those. They look highly dangerous to me.

brorabongo · Post by **brorabongo** » Fri Jun 15, 2007 11:45 pm

The road noise was unbearable. now smooooooooooooth as something very smooth! (thanks Mike)

The other strange thing noticed was that the three lines of tread in the centre were different heights to each other and changed all the way round, ie the centre line higher than the two outer for a bit and then the other way round

and even on the same line in someplaces it goes higher>lower>higher in it's consecutive pattern (if that makes any sence?)

Anyway as Paolo Nutini sings " I put some new shoes on
And suddenly everything is right"

Got Tigars cargo speed tyres on:-
Tigar