tire leaking air

[sindows]

I have a leaking driver side rear tire which leaks ~1 psi/day and has been for a few weeks now. Is this something I need to address right now or is it okay to reinflate it whenever the pressure gets low?

 

[alfa147x]

Originally posted by: sindows
I have a leaking driver side rear tire which leaks ~1 psi/day and has been for a few weeks now. Is this something I need to address right now or is it okay to reinflate it whenever the pressure gets low?

all depend on how low you let it get before you fill it back up

 

[bruceb]

I have a similar issue with my left rear tire .. Over a 2 weeks period or so it will drop about 4PSI
So I check them all once every two weeks and adjust as required. The tire is rather old and odds
are a tire shop won't be able to find that small a leak. Eventually, that tire will also wear to the
point of requiring replacement. Now if I was losing say over 1 PSI per day, then I would try to fix it.

 

[xavier es]

did you try some stop leak stuff in that tire? it usually works good on small leaks if you follow the directions.

 

[sindows]

Originally posted by: alfa147x

Originally posted by: sindows
I have a leaking driver side rear tire which leaks ~1 psi/day and has been for a few weeks now. Is this something I need to address right now or is it okay to reinflate it whenever the pressure gets low?

all depend on how low you let it get before you fill it back up

I have a tire pressure monitor and it beeps at me whenever the pressure drops to ~25(the car recommends 32PSI.

 

[StageLeft]

Nice timimg. Me rear left is dropping 1 psi/day. Tread is still good. Would one of those slime bottles fix this? Will trying cause any problems like making it harder to change down the line or anything? Obviously I have no idea where the leak is so ihave to just use some shotgun approach.

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Nice timimg. Me rear left is dropping 1 psi/day. Tread is still good. Would one of those slime bottles fix this? Will trying cause any problems like making it harder to change down the line or anything? Obviously I have no idea where the leak is so ihave to just use some shotgun approach.

Just take it to a tire place and have them patch the tire. Shouldn't cost more than $10 or so.

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Nice timimg. Me rear left is dropping 1 psi/day. Tread is still good. Would one of those slime bottles fix this? Will trying cause any problems like making it harder to change down the line or anything? Obviously I have no idea where the leak is so ihave to just use some shotgun approach.

I can't imagine a tire place will think it's easier to change a tire when its full of goo.

Anyways, that stuff only fixes leaks in the tread, not on the side wall or from a bad bead. Unless you know where the leak is I wouldn't use it.

 

[thomsbrain]

Many tire places will fix leaks for free. Almost all tire places beg you to not use the goo except in an emergancy. They have to clean it all off when you change the tire eventually. So go get it taken care of.

I had a tire that was dropping slowly for a few weeks recently. One night at 1 AM on the highway after 50 miles of driving, I felt the handling go weird and realized I was getting a flat. Luckily I was prepared to change the tire (spare properly inflated, flashlight, etc), and I had a safe place to do it. The tire in question had a nail in it, and probably had it the entire time but never got hot enough for the hole around the nail to stretch and lose more air.

Every other time I've had a leak, it always turned out to be a nail or something similar. The lesson is that tires rarely just "get a small leak." They usually get punctured by something that stays in the hole and keeps the air from all rushing out. But eventually its going to get worse and be a safety issue, especially if you drive long distances at high speed.

 

[sdifox]

well, you could have a deformed rim like I do (some idiot hit my wheel with his car) and it leaks. I didn't bother fighting with the insurance to get the rim replaced. I just fill it up every week. I lose about 2 psi in a week.