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Just received my Lizard Green precision tire pressure gauge in the mail. Definitely a cool gift from PCNA marketing. Please don't take my review to mean I don't appreciate a paint to sample precision gauge that matches my GT3 RS, I do love it.
Being the tool junky that I am, I immediately assembled the unit and ran out to the garage to give it a try. Tried it on driver's rear and the end wouldn't seal on the valve stem. Repositioned it a couple of times, made sure I fully retracted the locking lever, nothing seemed to help. Thought maybe it was something unique to that valve stem, so I gave it a try on the driver's front. Same behavior.
I proceeded to disassemble the end fitting and have a good look at the engagement. On a standard valve stem, the brass threaded portion of the stem is a bit longer and reaches through to the rubber seal. On the RS wheels, mine are the factory black with the green stripe, the valve stems are the heavy duty type with a little bit shorter thread and a slightly larger tube diameter below the threads. The opening in the end fitting was not large enough to fit down around the valve stem and allow the end of the valve stem to seat on the seal.
A quick trip to the shop to make a few measurements, find the right chucking reamer and make a quick setup on a Bridgeport milling machine made quick work of opening the fitting just enough to clear.
I'm not sure if my situation was just manufacturing variance or perhaps tolerance stack-up with the paint on the valve stem.
So now that I have a gauge that will fit the valve stem, back out to the garage I went to give her a try.
As to the operation of the gauge, it doesn't work like my track tire pressure gauge - directions are on the back of the card in the top of the box.
Out of the box it definitely doesn't work well. The chuck isn't made to the right specs. I also compared it to my $450 gauge that is very accurate and this one is off by a few pounds.
12-25-2018, 04:08 PM
That's very non-Porsche of them.
