- Dec 2, 2011
- 4,042
I had an issue with both of my passenger side tyres losing 5psi of air a week and the drivers not losing anything. So, suspecting nails or something else in both of the tyres, I went down to the tyre store and got them to check them out.
No punctures were found, but the source of the leaking air was actually the rim. Here's where I'm scratching my head...they said because of salt during the winter (we get a lot of salt), the rims start to corrode, being aluminium I didn't think this could happen, but apparently it does, the corrosion pushes against the bead of the tyre and it starts to leak. They cleaned both rims where the bead goes against the rim with wire brushes and put liberal amounts of bead sealer on them before reinstalling the tyres and checking for leaks. One was ok, but they had to redo the other to stop the leak.
The guys there said that there is not too much that I could do to stop it, but what about having the wheels stripped and powder coated? Obviously a new set of wheels would be a fix but there's more important things to do before that.
ETA: No comments about my spelling...I grew up in Australia and we use the Queen's English.
No punctures were found, but the source of the leaking air was actually the rim. Here's where I'm scratching my head...they said because of salt during the winter (we get a lot of salt), the rims start to corrode, being aluminium I didn't think this could happen, but apparently it does, the corrosion pushes against the bead of the tyre and it starts to leak. They cleaned both rims where the bead goes against the rim with wire brushes and put liberal amounts of bead sealer on them before reinstalling the tyres and checking for leaks. One was ok, but they had to redo the other to stop the leak.
The guys there said that there is not too much that I could do to stop it, but what about having the wheels stripped and powder coated? Obviously a new set of wheels would be a fix but there's more important things to do before that.
ETA: No comments about my spelling...I grew up in Australia and we use the Queen's English.
