“BOSTON — A small 50 cent part for your car could have a critical safety defect.

Team 5 Investigates reported Monday there could be more than 30 million of these parts on the road right now.

Last November, Robert Monk, 31, died when his SUV flipped. Investigators blamed rapid air loss in the right rear tire. His family has filed a lawsuit.

“There was a crack in the valve stem on his tire that led to a loss in air pressure,” said Richard Newsome, an attorney for Monk’s estate. “And when that happened, his tires failed because of the loss in air pressure. He lost control.”

A valve stem is an inexpensive rubber part taken off the shelf and inserted into a tire so you can pump in the air. But a crack in the rubber could allow air to escape, causing the tire to deflate or rupture. You could then have a flat or a crash.

After the crash, the distributor, Dill Air Controls Products, warned service centers — but not drivers — about the problem of certain cracked valve stems coming from a factory in China. Another company using that same factory issued a recall for six million cracked valves.

But that number is insignificant compared to the 30 million potentially defective valves that Dill warns could be out there — on any make, any model.

Initially, the problem was thought to involve only replacement tires. But Team 5 Investigates discovered it may threaten some cars bought new.

Sean Kane, a tire safety expert, examined the valve stems on our 2007 Ford Explorer. He found cracks on three of the four valve stems.”

The station has tips on how to look for defective stems:

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/investigative/16688483/detail.html

The Consumer Reports blog has a similar report:

http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2008/06/tire-valve-stem.html

When you get a chance, have your mechanic or tire place inspect the valve stems on your car.

Posted by Rich

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hitchhiker%27s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy

“A towel, it says, is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitch hiker can have. Partly it has great practical value – you can wrap it around you for warmth as you bound across the cold moons of Jaglan Beta; you can lie on it on the brilliant marble-sanded beaches of Santraginus V, inhaling the heady sea vapours; you can sleep under it beneath the stars which shine so redly on the desert world of Kakrafoon; use it to sail a mini raft down the slow heavy river Moth; wet it for use in hand-to-hand-combat; wrap it round your head to ward off noxious fumes or to avoid the gaze of the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal (a mindboggingly stupid animal, it assumes that if you can’t see it, it can’t see you – daft as a bush, but very, very ravenous); you can wave your towel in emergencies as a distress signal, and of course dry yourself off with it if it still seems to be clean enough”

For more info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Towel_Day

Posted by Rich