Slow leak driving me slowly insane!

Sat. before last, some jerk cut me off & to avoid him slamming into my kid in the back seat, I swerved & hit the curb with the right rear tire. It has a very faint scrub mark but that's it. Mon., just 2 days later, the tire was almost completely flat, so on went the spare until I could get to the shop. At the shop Sat., the guys filled it up, ran tests, & found absolutely nothing wrong with it. They told me to just watch it & if it did it again, bring it back. All was well & good until, you guessed it, this Mon. AM, the tire was flat again. So, hubby aired it up & I drove it over to the shop again. This time, they dismantled the tire, ran all their tests again, & again found nothing wrong with it - they put it back on & I drove home. Tue., the tire looked fine. Today (Wed.), it's low enough that it'll definitely be flat tomorrow morning. What's going on? I can't keep missing work to spend 2hrs. at the shop for "nothing"?? ARGH!!

 

If you literally slammed into the curb you might have dented the wheel slightly creating a small gap between the tire and wheel. But I'm probably wrong.

 

Yeah definately check your rim, tire can look perfect but its always your rim you got to watch out for.

 

After I mentioned to them that when I had this issue years ago on my '85 S10 it was due to a dented rim, they checked both rim & tire & still didn't find anything wrong.

*sigh*, I guess only a new rim & tire is going to solve this problem.

 

Have they checked the valve stem? Thats the only other thing it could be.

 

Does the tire pressure gauge lights on the board??

 

yep

 

Yes, and the tire itself is visibly low.

 

well my guess it could be the wheel and the valve stem, or even sometimes the tire can have a small crack not imperceptible to the eye, why don't you try this: have your spare tire swapped on your damaged wheel, and viceversa, that way you can see which one is damaged the wheel or the tire,,,

 

Hmm, that's a good idea.

Thanks!

 

Yeah, so far, I haven't been out of pocket on anything & it would be nice to keep it that way, lol.

 

If you had a bent rim enough to cause you to lose air - you'd see it and you'd most likely have vibrations also.

Did you actually watch the shop take the wheel off the rim and check it?

Did they clean the rim and clean the tire surface?

Here's something to check - Take the tire off & fill it up. Pour some soapy water over it (all over it). Watch for air bubbles forming. You could have a very slight crack in the rubber/sidewall from the impact, enough to cause a slow leak.

 

I definitely don't see a dent or feel vibrations - on my old S10, I *knew* I bent the rim immediately, but this time, I didn't hit the curb nearly that hard.

Yes, I saw them do the whole thing, including cleaning the rim & tire (I was standing in the shop area rather than in the waiting area, discussing football with one of the guys who was on break).

I definitely think it's worth a shot giving it a test myself, though, to see whether I notice anything the shop might've missed.

 

Yeah, do as she suggests. Its the easiest way to detect a leak but pump up the tire pressure to the maximum pressure indicated on the tire. You'll detect the leak sooner since its a very slow leak. If you dont have luck with the soap test, drop your tire in a tub filled with water and remember to do the soap test on both sides. If nothing helps, as a last resort you may consider using a liquid tire sealant. Good luck.

 

Thanks.

 

hope is an easy cheap fix! good luck!

 

Well, after a dip test showed the hole, I've now got a new tire plus a free oil change coupon for the hassle.

I'm a much happier camper now.

Thanks for all the advice!

 

Wow...sounds like my front passenger tire right now. Drove slowly (in a parking lot) into a deep pothole/rut and the pressure in that tire started to drop. Didn't see the pothole. I noticed the tire was bulging a few days back and found out it was at 25psi.

How much did you have to pay to replace the tire?

My tire is only two weeks old...hope I can get it replaced without having to pay out of pocket.

 

I'm sure I probably could've done better had I shopped around for the tire, but I was just so sick of waiting at shops and all that I just replaced it with the same as what I had on it, so it was $144.95 when all was said and done.