Pressed far in so she can’t get an air pump onto the Schrader value.
How is this remedied??
That sounds odd. The simple fix would to just install a new valve stem.
It might be possible to unscrew the valve stem with a “valve stem wrench” and replace it. The “wrench” can be found on metal valve caps, probably less than $1 for a package. The caps will have a hole in the center and a slot in the end. The valve stem assembly has “flats” on the sides to which the wrench engages.
If it cannot be, the stem will have to be removed and replaced. And the wheel rebalanced.
If your friend’s car has wheel covers, it is possible that short stems will not reach out far enough. If so there are stem extenders that screw on like regular stem caps but you can pass inflation air through the nib on the end. Check with your local parts store like Pep Boys, Kragen, AutoZone, etc. If you cannot get the counter salesman to come up with something, have him/her go out and look at what your problem is and a solution might be forthcoming.
Like Researcher notes, one of our cars does have wheel covers and short stems on a couple of the wheels. They are somewhat recessed and annoying to deal with. But it can be managed. If your friend can’t manages send her to look for the extenders. At a big box auto parts store, one of the counter folks would probably be happy to take a quick look and see what she needs.
Gotta agree. If the stem itself was pushed in, it would not hold air. If the core is pushed in, its just a matter of unscrewing it and replacing it, but still would most likely not hold air. More likely is that a short valve stem was used for a hub cap where a long one should have been used, so its a matter of getting some extenders to screw on. I used to have this issue when I got tires. The tire shop always wanted to put long ones on, but I wanted short ones to use the extenders so I didn’t have to take the caps off every time.
Is this valve stem on a bicycle? Or a tube type truck tire?
I was thinking the same thing.
It has to be on an inner tube tire. A regular radial tire stem would be pushed into the wheel where the air would escape from the tire.
Tester
Removing the hub cap might help.
On my van, the valve stems are too short to be reached through the wheel cover cutouts, so
I installed valve stem extensions as Researcher mentioned above. I think that may be the problem here.