Problem with motability car

smitchy73

What types of valve covers are on the car, I've heard of some accesory(metal) covers being put on and this clashes with the material used in the tyre pressure valves, and this causes them to break, there was indeed a large article in WhatCar last year about this.
Depending on this it could affect who is at fault, if OP has changed covers on valve's to something other than in handbook(I discovered this in my handbook if I had tyre pressure indicators fitted) then OP would be at fault.
Hope you get it sorted though, and if it aint then I'd chase them, Motability I wouldve thought would have fought this for you, if not contact WhatCar, they may fight it. Sounds like a fault to me.

Austineer_2

These TPMS (tyre pressure monitoring system) valves are rigid metal, and very easy to snap when inflating on an air line. They are brittle and they can corrode so that you can't remove the valve core (the springy stopper inside) easily.

We got called out to a few going back a few years ago when Renault first started fitting them, all at petrol stations where the owners had tried to inflate the tyres. Our only option was to fit a temporary rubber (standard) valve to get the vehicle rolling to the main dealer where a new sensor valve could be fitted. Of course this means that the TPMS unit isn't getting the correct signals back and won't register if another tyre deflates.

Smitchy73 is right about the common problem with aftermarket valve caps, though I don't think that it's necessarily the case for the OP here. Went through a spate of having to revalve cars whose owners had fitted free, coloured caps that were given away with one of the motoring magazines. I've got metal caps on my car but they're of better quality and I greased them before I fitted them.

hubert_cumberdale

i think the problem is the air lines

they have one handle on and the connector is at a 45 degree angle if you push it on one handed because of the 45 degree angle on the head a lot of the down ward force you put on would be applied sideways against the valve. that is why its better to use a hand near on the back of the connector to the valve.

also a different metal valve cap may cause a galanic corrosion on the valve if it was say stainless steel and aluminium as they dont like each other especially with salt water flying around

robbond55

Thank you for the replouies.
Firstly, the shredded tyre was disposed of - the first one that was replaced was the one that had deflated and kwik fit fitted a temporary valve then fitted the space saver on to the other wheel until they got a replacement tyre in the next day and fitted that with a temporary valve.
I have not been using any aftermarket valve caps - I have read up about these causing problems after the incident with the valves and I just use the plastic caps anywaemey.
Kwik fit has the contract with motability anyway for the tyres and are supplied when needed as part of the lease scheme, but I have just called motability today to escalate the complaint and have had a call back from someone who said he will see what he can do and speak to vauxhalls head office- he said they get 110 thousand cars from Vauxhall anyway so they should be easier for them to deal with.
He also agreed with me that as i was using everything as intended for its correct purpose then he cannot see how they can say accidental damage.
I know from when the RAC came out they said that they have seen problems with these types of valves on Renaults and that they are quite brittile - mind you vauxhall dealers did not accept this as an argument as they said "we are not Renault".
I will have to see what will happen but the technical manager who I spoke to from motability earlier seemed quite optimistic that I should be able to get something sorted.