Ever since buying my panel slightly used I have been less than pleased one valve stem was a mismatch. Mind you I didn't lay awake over this, however I did decide when opportunity presented itself, it should be on a to do list.

Had a RF TPMS alert for a month now and decided it was time to $plurge on sensor replacement. Having moved to a small town out from most civilization last year, I now find myself lamenting on decisions over paying a bit more for local service or driving for a bargain. Today the local service won out and after much grilling I decided he was up to the task. In hindsight, uhhhh...apparently in my questioning, I neglected to inquire about the valve stem issue and now have three styles of valve stems. I am now faced with perplexing question of should I go for a fourth style at some point or try to match all four?

The kid doing the job said failure was Fix A Flat causing corrosion on the sensor, to which I replied I hadn't bought that product since before he was born and could it have been Slime instead, to which he replied NO. So it might have been done before I bought the vehicle. But both products now claim safe for TPMS; or does that mean safe until they cause failure or was the kid just wrong?

 

Might have been Fix-A-Flat, but more likely age. The newer F-A-F is sensor safe.

If you are adventurous, you could change the stems yourself, they only cost about $5 each. The sensor just bolts onto the inner end. The tire shops spew all kinds of "it has to be done with special torque tools" stuff, but watch the tire busters for an hour or so.

 

When I called to get a quote he told me they use a universal programmable sender that I believe is integrated as one unit (sender/valve stem)? It is a metal stem retained with nut outside the rim? Reminded me of a motorcycle stem. Otherwise I'd think they would have used a less expensive rubber stem.

The original Affinity's have 23000 miles on them. When they start to show serious wear I'll drive over to the Rack and have everything on the wheel replaced as at that point the batteries will probably be approaching 7+ years.

More than anything I'm mad at myself for not recognizing the stem would end up nothing like the other three wheels. Perhaps someone in the future will be spared by reading of this experience.

 

I am now even more confused. The Original valve stems were mismatched? The Original valve stems were metal, or rubber? This is a 2009 HHR? Was it originally sold in Canada?

23,000 Miles on the Affinitys are chump change the ones on my 2011 are at 102,000 and no wear bars yet.