Dust caps welded on!

[natty94]

Hi,

I had the wheels realigned today and the guy at the tyre shop was going to do the tyre pressures as part of the price but he couldn't get the dust caps off. The dust caps on my Saxo are some of the crappy Smiley ones that my mate put on the car before he sold it to me and the rear ones are easy to do but as mentioned the front one are welded on, I've tried pliers and mole grips and neither have worked.

Any ideas?

[blueg33]

Check they are not secured with a grub screw. If they are you will need a small allen key

[natty94]

blueg33 said:

Check they are not secured with a grub screw. If they are you will need a small allen key

As far as I'm aware there not

If they were why would only the front ones be locked and not the rear ones?

Edited by natty94 on Thursday 4th April 18:16

[blueg33]

natty94 said:

As far as I'm aware there not

If they were why would only the front ones be locked and not the rear ones?

Edited by natty94 on Thursday 4th April 18:16

because someone forgot to tighten the screw on the rears?

It was just a suggestion, some "fancy" caps are secured with grub screws

[trashbat]

They won't be secured, they'll be bonded.

The aluminium of the cap corrodes and reacts with the steel of the valve, forming a chemical bond. You probably won't get them off. Had the same with a mountain bike and had to cut the valve off.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=102...

[natty94]

trashbat said:

They won't be secured, they'll be bonded.

The aluminium of the cap corrodes and reacts with the steel of the valve, forming a chemical bond. You probably won't get them off. Had the same with a mountain bike and had to cut the valve off.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?t=102...

That's what the tyre fitter said so it seems that's the case as these are cheap alloy type caps

[trashbat]

A tyre place will probably replace the valves for you, maybe £5 or £10 each.

You could stop it happening with grease inside the caps, but it's a bit late now, unfortunately.

[GuinnessMK]

I had this, brass valve and alloy caps, dissimilar metal corrosion.

I very carefully split each one with a dremmell, across the sides and top, then levered them off.

Went back to black plastic after that!

[natty94]

GuinnessMK said:

I had this, brass valve and alloy caps, dissimilar metal corrosion.

I very carefully split each one with a dremmell, across the sides and top, then levered them off.

Went back to black plastic after that!

So it's possible to hack them off?

[alangla]

I get similar problems with my alloys corroding themselves on. Copaslip on the mating faces (screw threads in this case) helps though I'd be sorely tempted just to go for plastic valve caps.

[GuinnessMK]

natty94 said:

GuinnessMK said:

I had this, brass valve and alloy caps, dissimilar metal corrosion.

I very carefully split each one with a dremmell, across the sides and top, then levered them off.

Went back to black plastic after that!

So it's possible to hack them off?

Yes. Just be careful with the dremmell near the wheels themselves.

I managed to cut through the caps to the very edge of the thread on the valve. A cut across the top and a pair of mole grips and I squeezed the cap off each side of the valve.

Worst case scenario (apart from cutting into your wheel) is that you damage the valve, which you'd be looking to replace anyway.

[natty94]

GuinnessMK said:

natty94 said:

GuinnessMK said:

I had this, brass valve and alloy caps, dissimilar metal corrosion.

I very carefully split each one with a dremmell, across the sides and top, then levered them off.

Went back to black plastic after that!

So it's possible to hack them off?

Yes. Just be careful with the dremmell near the wheels themselves.

I managed to cut through the caps to the very edge of the thread on the valve. A cut across the top and a pair of mole grips and I squeezed the cap off each side of the valve.

Worst case scenario (apart from cutting into your wheel) is that you damage the valve, which you'd be looking to replace anyway.

Me and my friend tried today and managed to get the drivers side one off using brute force with a pair of mole grips on the valve and pliers on the cap, put we destroyed the valve on the passenger side so it had to be replaced