The person who owned the car before me fitted some very nice shiny aluminium dust caps, which I have to say look a lot better than the plain black plastic ones!

Howver, I tried at the weekend to unscrew them in order to check the tyre pressures only to find that they were all stuck fast

I tried a bit of WD40 and a small spanner, but all that did was turn the main valve stem

Apart from a trip to my local Kwik-Fit, does anybody know of another way that I could remove them?

Thanks.

Andrew

Can Opener?

Not try holding the rubber stem and then turning the cap? That said have you deformed the cap with all the manipulation?

small allen key on the side of the cap?

stop theiving (or new owners) unscrewing them Former Mod/Member, with the most post & Chicken George Arch nemesis

npinks wrote:

small allen key on the side of the cap?

stop theiving (or new owners) unscrewing them

I had a set of caps with an allen key in the side to stop the thieving nicking them, it went to the dealer for a service and they fitted a new set as the highy trained service technician could not see they had an allen key locking them. It stated on the invoice, Replaced all four dust caps due to being siezed  p****d off with a Digital Keyboard Warrior

I replaced the standard plastic dust caps for aluminium ones (ebay) and was warned by a mechanic to make sure I put some vaseline around the valves first because it is a very common problem with them seizing !!

Common problem on my Mercedes (shiny aftermarket !) dust caps, only last week one of them was stuck fast due to oxidisation of the thread on the cap.( white powder)

Take a hair drier and heat it up for a few minutes and use two pairs of pliers,one to unscrew the cap and one to hold the tube steady. Use sufficient force, it will come off without damage to the tube

When its off apply some grease to all your dust caps inner thread

This is the same problem as alloy wheels rusting on to the hubs. Always grease the join between aluminium and steel or it will seize.

I had some e-bay ones too. Nice blue anodized, and looked good on the silver Suzuki I had then. Came to check pressures about a month later, and they were all stuck! I tried a socket as they were hexagonal, but could see the valve rotating in the alloy wheel. I had not put them on tight either! Luckily, holding the valve body with some small pipe grips and then using the socket, they came undone. Brushing the threads clean and a little grease solved the problem, then someone took two of them! So I fitted plastics all round, and put the two remaining ones on the light aircraft my son is (slowly) restoring.