Got my husband to check the tyre pressures on Sunday morning prior to heading off to lunch with all my family. (No apologies for making him do this: I was wrapping presents, it was cold out, and the mucky jobs are his.) When he took the pump off the valve on the final wheel, all the air started whooshing out.
He put the pump back on quick, and we sought technical advice by phone from my brother. He said the valve had probably stuck open, and explained how on his bicycles some of the valves have special notched caps which enable you to close the valve if you use this cap upside down. He didn't know how we'd fix this problem on a car without a similar gadget.
Fortunately our new tyre pressure gauge (Halfords) had a funny cap on the end, which had the notches we needed! But the instructions didn't mention what it was for.
Should I worry about this or only if it happens again? I've never known it happen before on a car - only on bikes, and mine haven't got those funny valve caps!
|
Sue, It does not happen often, fortunately. The notched end is to remove the valve from inside. It unscrews- just check it is tight by screwing clockwise. Valves do go faulty though, and the time honoured check is to put a blob of spit on the end and see if it blows bubbles. You may prefer washing up liquid bubbles! It's proper name is a 'schrader' valve.
regards
Mike
|
|
Thank you. We'll check them all ... but a relief to know it doesn't happen often.
|
|
|
|
A bit of grit gets in the valve, could be blown in by the pump or be in the tyre already, and this lets the air out!
The 'Schraeder' valve is very simple - imagine a rubber cone at the other end of the pin in the middle, with a spring that pulls it into a conical hole.
(How do you do a umlaut on this site? Ctrl+shift+colon+letter doesn't work.)
a
See?
|
Schräder... like that!
it's easy on a Mac. On a PC? I'll ask Stephen!
|
|
|
Martyn
re accents:
I think Stuart B has answered this for everyone.
Amazing isn't it:
- to get umlout on a mac press option-u followed by the key you want an umlout on.
- on a PC it is a load of ALT + numbers. .. and a different set for each letter you want umlouted.
Similar for others on the Mac - option+e for acute, option+ ` for grave, option+ i for circumflex...
done in < 0.1 seconds.
.. but then I suppose it's pretty amazing that one can get these other characters on a PC anyway.
S
|
|
|
|
Its also easy PC
Ensure Numlock is on.
Then Press and hold alt key then type 0228 (the notation for this is Alt+0228)
doing this gives you ä
If you want to know the other strange character codes fire up the character map, which is a file called charmap.exe on my PC, have made a shorcut to it.
You will see an array of characters and if you highlight the character you want it tells you the shortcut code at the bottom of the dialogue box,
For example ü is Alt+0252 Ü is alt+0220
signing off anorak hood getting itchy
|
Ah, Oh!
a
No.....
It doesn't work for me.....
(I must be reading this wrong?)
alt+0228 = (nothing)... never mind!
|
El Dingo Martin
Have you got NumLock on and type the numbers with the number keypad NOT the numbers across the top of the qwertyuiop bit.
Secondly if you are using a laptop then you still have to put numlock on and use the keys which have now become exclusively number keys, on mine the uio keys become 456
so alt+0228 = ä
tara a bit
Stuart (in Vegas)
|
|
ä Ha! Got it! Thank you Stuart (In Vegas).
|
|
|
|
Stephen you're right it's a complete pain especally when you use an unfamiliar PC's because you cannot set them up as below.
Actually to go a bit further you can set up shortcut keys which you can remember.
Eg in Word I have set up
ü as alt+u
Ü as alt+shift+U ie capital U umlaut using the same combination but with shift key
and so on.
Therefore you can set up all the other letters commonly used as memorable strings.
Very few people commonly use all the characters unless you speak multi languages, I can't even spell or punctuate in this one!
The downside is that sometimes the Alt+ letter is also a shortcut to a menu command which is then disabled.
hope this helps somebody
cheers,
S
|
Thanks, chaps and anoraks all.
Note that our Austrian friends (o+umlaut in their surname) spell it oe when umlauts aren't easily available ... like in their email address.
|
|
çúé mark with lõãds óf spécíãl çháraçtérs as stándárd.
|
Mark, you know they say what goes around comes around,
You are just showing off because you have a Poruguese keyboard map!
;-) had a bacon sarnie with proper bread yet?
Stuart (in Vegas)
|
Ah well, after much research and hunting, limited by the amount of time I had, I bought a Morphy Richards 48265 breadmaker.
I'm taking it for a test drive today, we'll see how the bread is tomorrow.
|
Like I said to LAC - buy the Pansonic Bread Maker (the original & best!).
BTW you flash git with all those special characters.....
ä - see, I'VE GOT IT NOW!!!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
