Noticed that one of my tires (19" 265/30) is losing some air, about 3lbs. in 12 hours... it's a relatively new tire and I was thinking of using one of those tire sealants you can buy at an auto parts shop... I've done this before with OEM-size tires and it seemed to work fine with sealing a slow leak, but does anyone know if a 3lbs. loss in 12 hours is "too fast"? I don't see any nail or screw or anything in the tire, and there doesn't seem to be any visible signs of a puncture. Could it just be the valve stem? I'd hate to have to buy another tire since I just bought these about 2 months ago (they're General's, btw).

If I have to buy a new tire, I will because of safety concerns, just wanted to get an opinion about the rate of pressure loss. Like I said, I've used tire sealant before with no problems on OEM tires, but dealing with aftermarket sizing is obviously a different animal.

 

check for punctures...if not check your valve stems

 

I hate sealants in that they are messy and don't fix the leak problem, it just a kiddie band-aid to the problem. here's what you do:

1st: jack the car up and remove the wheel (trust me it will be a lot easier)
2nd: get an empty spray bottle and fill it with soap and water. put in plenty of soap to get lots of bubbles
3rd: spray around the valvestem and the lips of the wheel. After that spray some on the tread just to be sure that the leak isn't there

3 lbs in 12 hours is a little fast for me so there has to be something bent around the lip of the rim or the valvestem is bad. If not then its probably corrosion building up on the insides of the rim.

 

dont use the slime or sealant BS. i hated removing it when putting new tires on customers wheels.

take the wheel to a shop and have them strip the tire. find the puncture (if any). then reseat the tire on the wheel. it may be a rim leak.

 

Found a local shop that's gonna check it out, they were recommended by a friend... they too said it could be a loose valve stem or a puncture not immediately visible.

 

When you took the reading you measured while the tire was cold at both times?

If you measured a hot tire, the reading would be higher than it would be 3 hours later.

Just checking.

 

Yes I TOTALLY AGREE! I hate tire sealant it should be taken off the shelves! It is the half *** way to fix or delay the leaking of a tire. Patch it or replace it no plugs another half asser that will leak again. See if they can put it in a dunk tank which works the best. And if they don't find anything wrong not being nails or punctures have them break the bead down. Check for a broken sidewall or corrosion on the rim. A lot of the old stock Lexus rims have that issue especially up north where the salt is. You might have to replace the rim. If they bead seal it that will only temporarily fix the problem cause it will leak again. Hopefully you don't have to buy a new tire or rim hope it goes well!

 

found the culprit - a small nail that was covered by some road stuff (I'd say tar but it was more grainy)... dead center in the tread, but the shop that looked at it said it could be patched easily - unfortunately they didn't have the right equipment to work with 19"s so I'll be going to another shop tomorrow.

Thank God I didn't have to buy another tire

 

I've had a few bad experiences removing tires that had slime inside the tire...and every time the customer doesn't bother telling me about. Makes a huge mess in the shop when popping the beads and when removing the valve stem core.

 

Sweet deal man you lucked out!