Has anyone had this problem? I had 4 new BFG's installed back in July and about two weeks ago, I noticed one of the rear tires with low pressure. As I was filling it with air, I noticed that air was leaking from the valve stem where it is seated in the rim. Everytime I nudged the stem air would leak out. I went back to the place that installed the tires and they replaced valve stem and rebalanced the tire for me. Now, this morning I noticed one of the front's a little low on pressure. By the time I got out of work the tire was just about flat. I changed tires and brought it back to the tire shop. Again, the valve stem. This one was leaking right out of the center part of the valve stem. So they did the same thing...replace the stem and rebalanced the tire. They told me that those are high pressure valves, but I am not so sure. Kind of strange to have 2 different but brand new valves go in two weeks. Any thoughts on this?

 

I have never heard of high pressure valve stems, in fact I think there is only one type of valve stem design for all SD wheels. The shop you are using may have tried to save money by buying some cheap constructed valve stems.

 

Or the knucklehead changing the tires was lazy and didn't change them, or he damaged the one while mounting the tire, and the other got dirt in the valve core when it was put back in.

 

I know that the duallys have "high pressure vavle stems". But SRW trucks came with regular ones. When I had my cooper H/T's on my truck I was having problems with vavle stems cracking and leaking. I did not have the high pressure vavle stems and I ran my tires at 85psi which is what they were rated for, I think the high pressure and weak vavle stem was causing my problem. Dont know if that helps, but thats my experience.

 

Try pulling the valve core and reinstalling it, sounds like it could be a little loose ..

 

This morning before heading to work, I took a walk around the truck just to check the tires. I gave a wiggle to the driver side front valve stem and guess what.......it shot out air! So that's the third one out of four tires. I took the truck straight to the shop and after looking at it, they figured that they used the wrong valve stems. They used the higher pressure ones that they put on heavier trucks which have a slightly smaller circumference than the regular ones. Actually, the mechanic told me this and the manager was arguing with him about it saying that all stems are the same. In the end, I had them replace all of the valve stems with regular stems. Hopefully, this is the end of the valve stem problem. Oh, they didn't charge me anything. And another manager told me that they actually had two boxes of defective valves that they were shipping back to their distributor.

 

There is a difference between high pressure stems and low pressure stems if the hole stem is all black it is low pressure snap in stem if the base is black and the stem is brass it is a high pressure snap in stem. The best stems are the high pressure bolt in stems where every thing on the outside is chrome and they seals from the inside with a grommet and have a nut on the outside . these are what we use where I work and are what I have in my rims as they will never leak brake or crack. if you have aluminum wheels and get the bolt in stems make shure you get them for the alloy wheels because the washers from the standard bolt in stems do not fit in the recess in the rim with out grinding them down.

 

The black base with the brass stem's are the ones they initially installed. I guess those were the snap in high pressure one's. I have the OEM aluminum rims, and I guess they didn't fit well on them. I have seen the bolt on one's you are talking about. But it is kind of late to install those now unless I go out and buy them and pay a shop just to replace them, but they still have to dismount each tire and then rebalance them too. The guy was telling me that the maximum pressure on the tires should be 65psi and that is putting too much pressure on the valves. Too bad they didn't have the good one's to begin with. So for now, they are the low pressure, all black one's.

 

Not sure I would buy the 65psi max pressure...unless you do not have OEM stock Load Range E tires on your SD. If you do have the "E" range, then they should be good for 80+psi.

I too have the black and the stem is brass with the Alum wheels...they seem to work for my needs. My guess is that they just installed defective stems...and are playing "dumb" now.

Good luck with the low pressure valve stems...

biz

 

Just a couple months ago I bought 4 Bridgestone Load range E from a Firestone Company store. I paid for new stems. But when I got home I found the original stems still there. So...I went back and the manager says that the OE stems don't need to be replaced like ordinary car stems(they were the brass ones). So...he gave me a credit for the original purchase. I'm still not happy, but hope the dadgum things last. It seems like Goodyear or Firestone dealers just can't get it right in my experience!

 

I have BFG A/T ko's LT265-75R-16 with a Load Range of "D" mounted onto the OEM aluminum rims. The tires say max pressure is 65psi cold. Right now I have all the tires at 60 psi. I am thinking of maybe ordering some good valve stems online and just going to another place and have them replace all 4 of them for me.