Tyre valve

[AndyT]

Hi all - my first post so be gentle with me please.
Had my MG5 for 13months now and loving it.
Wife came home from work at lunch time and -5C outside saying that a warning light had lit on the dashboard for two of the tyres being under pressure.
1.8 BAR rather than 2.2. so i trotted of to Sainsbury's garage - 1st tyre no problem, 2nd tyre i spotted as I took the dust cover off that the tip of the Schrader valve was split and i could hear a very feint slow hiss put the tyre back up to 2.2 BAR and tightened the cap back down as hard as I could
Naturally I inspected the tyre thinking either I or my wife might have clocked the kerb - no marks or scrapes to be seen.

So I took it to my trusty local garage, I did not expect them to have a replacement monitoring valve and bless them they did fit me a new rubber valve for £0 (I have been going there for 30+ years)

Called the MG garage - Oh that'll be £110 for a replacement not the tyre replaced as well, just the valve!

Anybody got any bright ideas?

• sticky tape over the warning light
• I also understand you cannot rotate tyres on MG's now
• can the management system have the tyre sensors turned off?
  • After all I have been driving for 53 years without them so far.

Kind regards to all
AndyT

 

[BugEyed]

The EU Nanny state and her post BREXIT niece insist that you have them, so there's no way to avoid them other than driving old cars as they are an MOT requirement.
But the good news is that the sensor was not what failed, it just hangs under a relatively normal valve stem that costs less than £10 unless they see you coming. The complete sensor costs about £40 from MG so your garage was charging an awfully large amount for fitting. A tyre shop might charge £10-£20 to fit and balance.
Why did it fail? Was it damaged when cleaning the car? The design of the wheel protects them from stones etc. so it requires human stupidity somewhere.

 

[BugEyed]

Missed the last question. You can move the wheels around and the car picks up the changes after a few miles of use. If you want you can pay your dealer to force a reset to learn the new positions quicker, but why bother?

 

[AndyT]

The EU Nanny state and her post BREXIT niece insist that you have them, so there's no way to avoid them other than driving old cars as they are an MOT requirement.
But the good news is that the sensor was not what failed, it just hangs under a relatively normal valve stem that costs less than £10 unless they see you coming. The complete sensor costs about £40 from MG so your garage was charging an awfully large amount for fitting. A tyre shop might charge £10-£20 to fit and balance.
Why did it fail? Was it damaged when cleaning the car? The design of the wheel protects them from stones etc. so it requires human stupidity somewhere.

Thanks BugEyed - no sign of mis-use or damage so wondering if the very thin aluminium (not brass) has failed due to cold, the body of the valve is also a solid construction aluminium tube bolted on to the wheel rim and not flexible as a normal Schrader valve is.

I am beginning to think that this might be a manufacturing fault.

KR AndyT.

 

[AndyT]

Missed the last question. You can move the wheels around and the car picks up the changes after a few miles of use. If you want you can pay your dealer to force a reset to learn the new positions quicker, but why bother?

Ok this makes more sense - thanks.

 

[BugEyed]

I am beginning to think that this might be a manufacturing fault.

Sounds possible. Can you see where the fault has started from?