I made my summer/winter wheels exchange last week-end, and when putting back the lock nut bolt and list back in the trunk, I was looking at the spare tire and decided to verify its pressure.

To my surprise there was no pressure at all! I proceeded to inflate it at 60PSI right away. I never checked the pressure in the 6 years I owned my RX.

I am wondering if the vehicle came with the wheel without pressure and it was supposed to be inflated before delivery, or it simply deflated over the years.

If it was a slow deflating, I would have suspected a pressure around 20-30 PSI. But I was reading 10...

Did someone get in the same situation as me where they found the spare tire without pressure?

I will proceed to check the pressure of the spare tire of the two the vehicles (the adult kids at home cars) we have when I change their wheels. One is one year old and the other one is old but I did not check for a while.

 

Check for Dry Rot too! Tires have a 6-10 year life, but closer to 6.

 

The first thing that comes to my mind is why no TPMS alarm?

 

The system will read the pressure of the spare even when it's in storage underneath?

 

My spare tire looks brand new, no cracks.

And there is no TPMS in it. My ECU displays nothing for the fift wheel entry when I change my TPMS codes when I switch my summer/winter wheels.

EDIT: I will check if there is one with my TPMS tool to see if it detects one in it. If so I will add it in the ECU!

 

Does that mean we have to replace the spare tire every 6 - 10 years? Even if we never used it? I don't think so.

 

I am only saying to check your tire. Dry rot is definitely a real thing that can happen to tires that sit unused. You don’t want to find yourself stranded on the side of the road because of a spare tire can’t hold pressure or possibly even blow out due to a weakened side wall.

 

Most people don't check pressure of the spare tire because it's a PITA to do so.

I bought and added a valve extender to the spare tire of each vehicle. It makes checking the pressure easier. I make a point to do it monthly.

 

I always assumed it did. My leased 2017 RX is gone but only had about 25k when turned in, so never had to deal with tires.

 

Actually, it simply deflated over the first 24 months that you owned the car. These little rubber donuts are way too cheaply designed to be airtight for 2 years, much less 6 years. There's a great thread on spare tire maintenance here:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...-pressure.html

and I personally got one of those valve extenders, installed it, and use it to re-inflate my spare annually.

 

Thanks! The kink of thread I was looking for!

As an update, I checked my daughter's 2021 Mazda 3 spare yesterday as I was changing here tire sets from summer to winter, and it was at 45 psi. I don't know what was the pressure when delivered. Now it is fully inflated.

 

I check spare tire pressure on my vehicles each time we go through a time change. They are always down at least a few pounds, but never empty. You are always losing air from all your tires. The only question is how much and how fast. Spares seem to lose more air due to their higher 60psi versus 30ish psi on your regular tires. Regardless, checking psi on all tires simply must be done on a regular basis, with or without TPMs.

 

RX does NOT have TPMS on spare tire.

Pressure should be checked during regular maintenance intervals.

 

Yeah come to think of it, my ES DOES in fact have a sensor in the spare. I had to use it a few weeks ago and there was no light. Our RX is nearly six years old and I've never checked the spare Perhaps it's time.

 

Yeah mine too is 6yo, never check and it was empty.