Last year, after a service at my local dealership, I noticed that a couple of the valve caps from my car were missing. Sadly, my local car parts shop didn’t have any replacements, so I took (as is often the case) to eBay.

There I found some flashy hexagonal metal caps for only a couple of pounds. They weren’t chrome but still looked nice.

Sadly, a winter of snow, wet, cold and lots of road salt has meant that they corroded into place. I’d tried some WD50, but the valves were turning as I tried to unscrew the caps. The last thing I wanted was to tear one of the valves.

A trip today, however, to Kwik Fit in Long Eaton sorted that though – they managed to get 3 off and 4th required the wheel to be taken off, tyre deflated and the valve replaced. It took 10 minutes and they didn’t charge me.

They also fitted some replacement, black plastic caps. Which don’t corrode into place.

Lesson learnt.