Tire shops and valve stem caps

What is it with tire shops and stealing these? Is it some kind of conspiracy?!

They just forget to put them back on.
Happens all the time
Calm down spaz

yes
they sold them to bicycle owner

kids who think they're hardcore steal them

Tire shops understand these have no purpose and just toss them. They see these as the equivalent of the plastic that comes on the bezel of your new flat screen tv.

this
we have Tupperware containers filled with stems we just forgot to put back on

Why aren't they fired for incompetence?

>these have no purpose
Wrong. Schrader valves are vulnerable to dirt getting into the valves and forcing the pin down.

Fuck I knew it

>My wheels have two valve stems per wheel because racecar
>Speshul snowflake name brand aluminum caps
>Pick something up at friend's place last year, probably only there for like 10-12 minutes
>Walk back to car that wasn't even 50 feet away
>Get home and find two of them are missing - probably some faggot kid on a bike in his neighborhood
>Four months ago
>Go to Firestone
>Want to order Bridgetstone Potenza RE-71Rs
>They only have Toyo Extensa HPs and want like $680 to "special order" the RE-71Rs
>okay.jpg
>Go home with shitty cheap Toyo Extensas
>Notice they took my remaining caps and put that shit on
>Tfw

lmfao

keked hard

>Speshul snowflake name brand aluminum caps
Unless I am wanting to show off, I remove my decorative aluminum caps and use plain black plastic. They are the eco Nitrogen fill caps (who knows how the dealer gets them) that came with the new car.

To the everyday me, the less "flash" the better. Don't want people breaking the dark tinted windows thinking there might be something worth stealing inside just because they see some flash on the wheels.

I used to use the stainless hex ones, but kept losing them. Then one day I found a couple of little shits stealing them from my car for their BMX bikes. I threw my full iced coke on the fuckers and laughed as they ran to "tell mommy". Fuckers are lucky I didn't kill them. Shitty parenting.

Now I use the black plastic ones because the world is full of little shitheads.

mitsu's come from the factory with grey plastic caps.

the dealer does that nitrogen bullshit caps so they've literally got thousands of the OE grey caps on the nitrogen machine. Fun tip, the "shiny" nitrogen caps like to seize onto the aluminum TPMS stems. Having them break on a car with 8k on it is a MASSIVE FUCKING PAIN IN THE ASS HOLY SHIT.

god damn galvanic corrosion. Somehow its accepted to put synthetic brake lube/anti-seize on them so the dealer dosent just order generic green "nitro caps"

Because the automotive industry doesn't give a fuck, they'll hire any retard that can turn a wrench.

Which is why the job market is inundated with wannabe mechanics.

I recently bought new tires from a mom-and-pop shop and it took me a few days to realize they didn't fill them with nitrogen like the dealer did with the original tires.

Is this something that is only done with specific brands of tires, or do you have to special-request it? Would the mom-and-pop shop retroactively fill them with nitrogen?

Also is nitrogen a meme to begin with?

Once they put a new cap on my tire that didn't have one.

Fucking take them off first then you spaz

Nitrogen is a dead meme that died before THRUST VECTORING.

Mom and pop won't even HAVE nitrogen. It's pointless and all it does is stop your tire light going on just because it was extra cold this morning.

Dealership tech here, yes, nitrogen is a meme.

Literally the only benefit is airing your tires twice a year as opposed to three times, and waiting an extra fifteen minutes at the dealership while the tech takes your shitbox over to the nitrogen machine and grumbles about you wanting to be a special snowflake and wasting his time with meme air

>Not filling your tires with helium

Helium has a much much higher thermal conductivity, helping keep the rubber cooler by dissipating heat.

And it's light.

Are you meme-ing or should I go to the nearest party planning store with my tires?

Steal them off bicycles, the cycle continues.

It's true, but helium would leak out faster because the smaller molecules.

We use helium as a purge gas in our lab instruments because of the excellent thermal conductivity. It gives much better sensitivity.

>"special order" the RE-71Rs

The higher end racecar potenzas are can be hard to get and even harder to return. Probably had to order then direct from Bridgestone and you probably showed up the day after their order window. The down payment is probably to cover their costs on the tires just in case you dip and their left with very expensive tires they can't return.

>all the caps are different

At Walmart every time we replace a tire we replace the valve stem (if it doesn't have a tpms sensor), and they come with caps. If I get a 4 tire sale with tpms and no caps I might bother to give them new ones since they're spending a lot, but we also have a giant pile of caps from valve stems we replaced. If they're missing one I'll pick through that pile and give them a matching one. If they asked nicely I'd probably give a walk up customer a cap or two out of that pile, it's not losing us any money and it makes the customer happy.

>Boss tells me Costco has $70 off any set of Bridgestone tires
>Spend like $56 for a membership
>Order RE-71Rs on the Costco website a week before the sale ends
>A week and a half goes by in silence
>Finally get email saying they canceled the order because they're out of stock
>Go to Costco in person
>"Oh, yeah, we can order them for you if you want..."
>Why the fuck didn't you order it during the sale you cunts
>"Sure."
>They order it
>Get my membership refunded because fuck them

Not filling your tires with propane