From daughter’s 2020-ish Corolla. Could not get the portable tire pump to connect properly to one valve. At my suggestion she took it to a tire shop. They replaced this part (for free!!!). It’s been years since I saw the inside end of a valve stem. Is that all this is, or is that something else on the inside end?
That the transmitter for the tire pressure monitor system “TPMS”. It lets the car know when a tire is low by lighting up a signal on the dashboard.
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Thanks. That’s what I wanted to guess, but I couldn’t believe that the shop replaced a TPMS sensor for free. I have a bad feeling that they put in a plain valve stem. I think that would have caused some TPMS alert on the dashboard, and my daughter is pretty alert about that. “Requires further investigation,” as they say.
Post a 2nd picture, please
And don’t throw that tpms sensor away just yet . . . if it’s working, they can be reinstalled with a kit, which includes the seal(s), cap, nut and valve stem
If they took out tpms sensor and put in a plain rubber stem you’d have a tpms warning pretty quick. A plain stem is $1. Can’t believe no charge for new tpms sensor.
A valve core is inside valve stem.
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I’m confused. Are you getting a tire pressure warning? Where did you get that part? If they replaced it why would they give you the part back? They just throw that out.
Replacing just the valve stem is perfectly acceptable practice. No need to replace the sensor unless it’s faulty.
Just look at the other 3. If they replaced it with a plain stem it would be obvious. Not to mention the tire pressure light would be on.
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looks ok to me
Looks like the tip of the sensor snapped off when the shop was trying to air it up, they did the right thing by your daughter and replaced it for free, as long as the tpms light is off… There is always more to the story, maybe she cried, maybe they thought daddy would raise hell, maybe they were just feeling nice, maybe y’all are good customers, maybe maybe maybe… All kinds of reasons for taking care of a customer that has or hopefully will spend money with you, like cheap advertising, word of mouth…
If the TPMS light is off, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth…
I just replaced my daughters 17 Corolla TPMS sensor, it was $45ish for one, not 30 for the set as there is something different from around 2014ish and up…
Thanks for all the good advice, which I am still trying to absorb.
I don’t know if there was a low pressure warning from the TPMS, but my daughter is conscientious about that and about keeping the tires inflated. (I got involved because she could not get the pump’s hose to attach properly to that one valve stem. Nor could I.)
The hand holding the part in the pic is the shop employee. I don’t know if they gave her the old part.
By telephone this morning, she says no TPMS warning.
I will investigate further. She lives only three blocks away.
“A tire shop”, the tire shop where she had her tires replaced? Davesmopar is likely correct, the shop damaged it and replaced to keep a customer happy.
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I am just wondering how good looking the OPs daughter is?
Several states require shops to return parts to the customer.
Not only that, I always kept the old parts to show the customer if they wanted as well as some customers ask for the old parts back and or just want to see them for whatever reason… I think it shows the customer a bit more of a trust factor if/when you show prof of work done…
You’re spot on Dave. And, the customer technically owns the failed part.
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Depends on what state you live in. Many states the mechanic won’t return parts unless you specifically ASK. And in many cases (like brake calipers as an example) - you would then be required to pay the core charge.
When my brother owned a Camry, he had some sort of engine repair done at the dealership, under warranty (I don’t recall the nature of the repair)
When he picked the car up, the old part was sitting–on his center console, in a small puddle of oil–and he was not happy with this type of “service”. He got them to clean-up the mess, but he never returned to that dealership.
And some people are just plain stupid, there is no hope or help for them, you can’t change stupid… I/we always used a parts return back or tire bag if a big part and mostly kept them to the side in the shop unless the customer stated otherwise…
I also have had more than once a mechanic pull a handicap vehicle WITH HAND controls out and park it between 2 cars in a normal tight parking space, when I saw it I would say, did the hand controls NOT give you a hint dumbass?? again, stupid is stupid…
If you don’t know how to take care of a customer the right way, you should not be in this business…
If it was the old west, I would just shoot them and be done with it… 
The technician made a mistake, he misplaced a warranty return part. If and when the manufacture calls back the old part, it won’t be available. The manufacture can deny the claim.
Is there a state in which customers find the scrap parts inside the vehicle without asking? Most customers would object to that.