taeng

iTrader: (1)

I have run into a mysterious air leak. I initially had my trafficstars wrapped with Nittos and one day I noticed that my tire was almost flat. I checked and found an air leak around the bead. I had a tire shop check it out and they said they could put some bead sealer on it for me. They did and It lasted about a week until I noticed i needed air again. I refilled and that lasted me like 3 days. 40psi would last around 3 days until i needed more again, but then after 2 weeks I needed to put air in it everyday. The tire shop said my tire was probably the cause so I bought two new tires for the rears.

I then picked up some nankangs and mounted them yesterday. I woke up and they were still full of air. Now when I went to work and decided to move my car to a better spot. So I did and when I got out of the car I noticed a loud hissing and long be hold my tire was losing air again. This time is was literally deflating in front of me. I searched around and could isolate where it was coming from. Now I'm just pissed off b/c maybe I didn't need new tires.

So I go back to the tire shop and tell them what happened. They dunk my whole rim back into the water to find the leak. Now there was no leak that they could find. With no leak being found they didn't know what was wrong. They just deflated the tire and put some bead sealer and called it a day.

Could someone please help me discover this mysterious leak? Or perhaps just point me in the right directions.

Thanks

sleeper408

iTrader: (6)

Maybe it is the wheel that is leaking. 3 piece wheels are bolted together with rivets and they use a silicon to seal the wheels together. I think I am having this problem as well, but not as bad as yours. The rim isn't bent around the lip on the inner or outer barrels right? You should probably have a shop disassemble your wheels and then reassemble them with new silicon if it's not the lip of the wheels that's causing the tires not to properly bead onto the wheels.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

what size tire on what size wheel?

taeng

iTrader: (1)

Well the air has held today lets just hope it stays that way. (probably not though) I'm probably going to have disassemble the wheels if it leaks again. Any idea how much that's going to cost?

taeng

iTrader: (1)

The old Nittos were 275/30/20 and the new Nankangs are 255/35/20.
Rims are 20 x 10.5 ET 29

sleeper408

iTrader: (6)

If you had two different brand and sized tires and the problem is persisting, I am almost 100% there is something wrong with the wheels. I don't know how much the disassembly costs because I had bends fixed, lip re-chromed, so the assembly/disassembly cost was combined with the other costs.

talltrini1

I am having a similar problem with one of my tires. They are Kumhos on 19" iForged Aeros, which I believe are a two piece wheel. What does wheel disassembly/reassembly typically cost?

Alexis-LS

When they dip the wheel/tire in the water tub, wheel/tire are not under stress of vehicle weight. You might not see air bubble. You can try keeping a spray bottle with soapy water in the trunk. If you see it deflated again, spray it on. You should see air bubble coming out where the leak is.

sleeper408

iTrader: (6)

That is a good idea. I would try and do that to locate the where the leak is. You'll just have to keep spraying, then moving the car, then spraying, etc.

sleeper408

iTrader: (6)

I want to say no more than $50. Please call a repair shop to get an accurate quote though.

taeng

iTrader: (1)

Now when I think about it think that for some reason the tire is just not "beading" correctly on the rim. (forgive me if my terminology is wrong) Cuz when I brought in my car to change the tires I told him I have a leak and wanted to check before I swap tires where it was coming from. With the old tire on and sprayed soapy water you can see that the air was coming from the bead along the rim in three different spots. Now that I have a new tire and it still leaks It has to be that the tire isn't "beading" properly onto the lip of the rim.
Is this a common problem? What can I do to fix this problem? I don't think it's the rivets/bolts b/c there wasn't any leaking coming from there, just the bead.

mitsuguy

iTrader: (2)

possibly they ripped the bead on the new tire when it was installed? only way to check though is to dismount it and look...

it's quite common for someone not that experienced mounting low profile tires to tear the bead area...

rroy

iTrader: (1)

make sure it's not your valve stems... http://blogs.consumerreports.org/saf...alve-stem.html

When i originally bought my rims they came with leaking valve stems which caused me a lot of hassles...