I recently bought a used 2003 350Z and with the temperatures changing, I need to iflate my tires. I went to do so and realized I can't get the caps off the valve stems. I feel like a complete moron, but could somebody please tell me the trick to taking these things off? I looked all through the manual, but found nothing.

 

I did that, all they do is spin, they don't loosen. They are not the usual black caps, they are hex shaped and have a "Z" logo on the top,

 

OOoh in that case twist them off counter clockwise then. Righty tighty, lefty loosey, even if hex shaped with a Z logo on them.

 

Some valve stems are made to deter thieves. Without a key you can turn them forever.

 

lol.... so he's basically screwed without the key???

 

yep. sounds like you got a set of them.

 

Yep, Locking valve caps, had to break them to get them off. Thanks to those that actually tried to be helpful.

 

Just curious, but why would you (or the original owner) want locking valve covers? I mean, I can understand locking wheel locks, but valve covers too? How hard were they to break off?

 

see post #5 for yoru answer

 

Yip, they normally come with a matching key as such. I've got a slightly different version to this. Extremely hard to remove without the key.

Lol, the idea it to slow the thieving little dishonest people down at least. Ie, they move on to another.

 

first there's gas thieves, now there's air thieves...lol