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I expect some drop over time but it's getting to the stage I have to pump them up every 10 days or so. Seems to be happening with three of them. It seems unlikely that I've acquired three small punctures (and I can't find anything). So, what's the cause/fix?
Can I stick in some sort of sealant? Would I be able to do this without jacking up the wheel?
Or is this the "porous alloys" thing I recall reading about? The wheels are 9 years old and aren't kerbed or anything. Again, would sealant do the trick?
How old are the tyres?
Take a wheel off , go at it with a strong fairy liquid/water mix in a spray bottle & all will be revealed.
I have done this a lot, most likely poor sealing around the valve , but could also be the bead. corrosion builds up & cracks the paint & the air escapes.
I have my own tyre machine & balancer & have fitted/repaired a awfull lot of tyres.
Fronts - 13 months. Rears - a bit older
I had this on a car I had a few years ago and it was down to corroded alloys, nothing I did could resolve it.
I bought a van just over a year ago and as part of the MOT (before collecting it) the garage fitted two new front tyres. The rears were Continental winter tyres. They annoyingly deflated about 10 PSI over the course of about a week.
The van went back for some warranty work and I mentioned it to them and they had them reseated (there was white sealant around the bead, so they did actually get it done!).
They continued to leak so I tried tyre sealant which worked slightly better in one wheel than the other.
The tyres had loads of tread but the side walls look 'aged' so eventually I changed them and they no longer drop any pressure. I assume that the tyres were actually porous.
Had this on a golf. It was the rims they needed cleaning with a wire wheel on the bead. Get them to use a quality bead lube which is also a sealer
Alloy wheels? Could be corrosion on the bead area of the rim breaking the airtight seal. Tyres off and wire brush the rim to remove the corrosion has fixed my wheels on the past. A permanent fix is a wheel refurb with a better paint finish.
Could be the wheels, could be unlucky with a tyre
If you can be bothered, swap the good wheel/tyre with a dodgy one and see if anything changes
Could just be how they have been fitted. You might get away with having them re-seated.
Are you sure you don't have any screws/nails in them?
A while back I had two tyres that needed topping up weekly.
I'd ran my hands around both tyres and had a good look around for a screw or similar in the tyres, but found nothing.
Took it into the local tyre place & one just needed re-seating while the other had a really long screw stuck in the tyre. It had pushed itself right into the tread and had a black head so was virtually invisible with the wheel still attached to the car. Luckily it was right in the middle of the tyre width so they were able to patch it.
A permanent fix is a wheel refurb with a better paint finish.
A permanent fix is steel wheels 🙂 A refurbed alloy is just wheel that will need a refurb again later.
Its such a shame that alloys have become so ubiquitous - they're shit. It was fine for them to be fragile and ephemeral when only poseurs bought them. Now we're all lumbered with them.
Its such a shame that alloys have become so ubiquitous - they're shit. It was fine for them to be fragile and ephemeral when only poseurs bought them. Now we're all lumbered with them.
This.
Had the same thing a few years ago small hole in side of tyres probably done by a dart or sharp small nail, common thing the tyre fitter said , a punishment for parking in somebodies space etc.
Tyre chappie dunked them in bath of water to find holes just like a bike tyre, the side walls are a lot thinner.