Defective automobile tire valves manufactured in China are the subject of a recall. Some 6 million tire valve stems manufactured by Shanghai Baolong Automotive Corp. of China between July 2006 and November 2006 have been recalled. It is estimated that 36 million of these tire stems were manufactured.
The U.S. distributor of the tire valves, Dill Air Control Products, of Oxford, N.C., notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of potential problems with the tire valve stems after it was named in a lawsuit filed in Florida. The lawsuit contends that a defective tire stem caused a rollover crash.
The Florida suit alleges that the tire valve stem on the rear tire of a 1998 Ford Explorer cracked causing the tire to fail and leading to a rollover. The driver was killed.
Dill International issued a recall for 6 million of the tire stems. In May of this year Dill issued an advisory to dealers indicating a problem with surface cracks on the outside of the valve stem’s rubber near the rim hole.
Dill asked retailers to return all of the unsold valves. However, the problem is that it is almost impossible to trace valves once they have been introduced into the stream of commerce.
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