Wheel/tyre losing 5-7psi in week: wheel or tyre to blame?

Wheel/tyre losing 5-7psi in week: wheel or tyre to blame?

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RoVoFob

Original Poster:

1,334 posts

158 months

Tuesday 22nd June 2021
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I picked up a 54-plate S60 T5 10 days back and it looks like the tyres are losing around 5-7psi over the course of a week. The rears had 12-15psi in when I topped them up immediately after I bought it (they didn’t look anywhere near that low...) and since topping them up, all four have dropped a reasonable amount in a week.

I had a 56-plate V70 with identical alloys until a month back and that barely seemed to lose any air - both with the ancient, very worn tyres on it when I bought it and the Michelin PS4s I had fitted.

The S60 has three Michelin Cross Climates and a Continental on it, but I think one of them was manufactured in 2013 and the other 2015 (I couldn’t find any date stamps on the other two...), so I wonder whether the rubber is particularly degraded.

Is it most likely that the rubber is simply knackered, or would you expect the alloys to be part of the problem for that scale of air loss?

Thanks.

donkmeister

8,160 posts

100 months

Tuesday 22nd June 2021
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I've had that happen due to corrosion on the wheels where the bead of the tyre sits.

Solutions are:
1) Replace the wheels
2) Refurb the existing wheels
3) Ask the tyre guy to sort it, and he'll use a die grinder to clean up the surface and use goop to seal the bead.
4) Fill your tyres every day and hope.

Those are in order of best-worst, and most expensive-least expensive.

RoVoFob

Original Poster:

1,334 posts

158 months

Tuesday 22nd June 2021
quotequote all
donkmeister said:
I've had that happen due to corrosion on the wheels where the bead of the tyre sits.

Solutions are:
1) Replace the wheels
2) Refurb the existing wheels
3) Ask the tyre guy to sort it, and he'll use a die grinder to clean up the surface and use goop to seal the bead.
4) Fill your tyres every day and hope.

Those are in order of best-worst, and most expensive-least expensive.
How corroded were your wheels? The odd thing is that the wheels look in pretty good nick. Better than the ones on the V70...

fatboy b

9,493 posts

216 months

Tuesday 22nd June 2021
quotequote all
Tweak the valve up. I’ve had this numerous times.

donkmeister

8,160 posts

100 months

Tuesday 22nd June 2021
quotequote all
RoVoFob said:
donkmeister said:
I've had that happen due to corrosion on the wheels where the bead of the tyre sits.

Solutions are:
1) Replace the wheels
2) Refurb the existing wheels
3) Ask the tyre guy to sort it, and he'll use a die grinder to clean up the surface and use goop to seal the bead.
4) Fill your tyres every day and hope.

Those are in order of best-worst, and most expensive-least expensive.
How corroded were your wheels? The odd thing is that the wheels look in pretty good nick. Better than the ones on the V70...
On appearance, not very - could definitely see a bit of bubbliness in the paint/coating around the rim before the tyre was removed, but the wheels had a fair bit of kerbing.

MIght be worth a google to see if it's a regular issue with those particular wheels too - we had a Mazda MX5 S-VT and the wheels on those are prone to the coating peeling off and airloss occurring. Something due to the powder/paint process being implemented incorrectly.

Valves are another possibility (as posted by another). Unusual to have all four go but I could say the same about corrosion too!

TGTiff

408 posts

184 months

Tuesday 22nd June 2021
quotequote all
I had something similar on the nearside front, would loose a couple of psi a week. Turned out to be a very fine crack right on the edge of the rim of the alloy.

RoVoFob

Original Poster:

1,334 posts

158 months

Tuesday 22nd June 2021
quotequote all
fatboy b said:
Tweak the valve up. I’ve had this numerous times.
Screw the whole thing in further?

bluezedd

1,008 posts

82 months

Tuesday 22nd June 2021
quotequote all
Ideally you really need to remove the wheel and spray it with soapy water or put it in a water tank to find the source of the leaks so you can deal with it properly.

It will be a hassle but also will make it easier to spot any damage to the tyres

RoVoFob

Original Poster:

1,334 posts

158 months

Tuesday 22nd June 2021
quotequote all
donkmeister said:
On appearance, not very - could definitely see a bit of bubbliness in the paint/coating around the rim before the tyre was removed, but the wheels had a fair bit of kerbing.

MIght be worth a google to see if it's a regular issue with those particular wheels too - we had a Mazda MX5 S-VT and the wheels on those are prone to the coating peeling off and airloss occurring. Something due to the powder/paint process being implemented incorrectly.

Valves are another possibility (as posted by another). Unusual to have all four go but I could say the same about corrosion too!
Hmm. I’m planning to change all four tyres, so I can remove that variable. I just don’t want to change them and find the tyres still losing air at the same rate, as I don’t think it’s great to take the same tyres on and off the wheels multiple times.

These wheels have notably less kerbing than the previous set. No MOT flags of distortion, either, which I did had on one of the wheels on my old V70. Even that didn’t seem to lose air, though. Odd.

I’ll do some wheel-specific searching, but don’t remember seeing anything before. Thanks.

RoVoFob

Original Poster:

1,334 posts

158 months

Tuesday 22nd June 2021
quotequote all
TGTiff said:
I had something similar on the nearside front, would loose a couple of psi a week. Turned out to be a very fine crack right on the edge of the rim of the alloy.
How visible was this?

droopsnoot

11,932 posts

242 months

Wednesday 23rd June 2021
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On one of mine I had some corrosion between the wheel and the paint around the bead where the tyre sits. Sealing the tyre to the wheel didn't help because the air was getting out between the paint and the wheel. The solution was to remove the tyre, strip the paint off and repaint it, then re-fit the tyre. Virtually invisible until the tyre was removed, but easy to see the air coming out by removing the wheel, lying it flat and running a little water with washing-up liquid around where the tyre and wheel join.

voram

4,026 posts

34 months

Thursday 24th June 2021
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droopsnoot said:
easy to see the air coming out by removing the wheel, lying it flat and running a little water with washing-up liquid around where the tyre and wheel join.
^^^ This. You can check for leaking valve at the same time and the same way.

MDMA .

8,895 posts

101 months

Thursday 24th June 2021
quotequote all
voram said:
droopsnoot said:
easy to see the air coming out by removing the wheel, lying it flat and running a little water with washing-up liquid around where the tyre and wheel join.
^^^ This. You can check for leaking valve at the same time and the same way.
Or sit it in a big tub of water and watch for bubbles.

eps

6,297 posts

269 months

Thursday 24th June 2021
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RoVoFob said:
fatboy b said:
Tweak the valve up. I’ve had this numerous times.
Screw the whole thing in further?
Just give it a try - it will only go in as far as it can - but don't overdo it! See if there is any 'play'. Cheapest, quickest option to try first before cracked wheels, etc..

Check for any nails or other things stuck in it as well.

gazza285

9,810 posts

208 months

Thursday 24th June 2021
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On my sixth Volvo, the latest is the only one that doesn't have a leaky tyre.

fatboy b

9,493 posts

216 months

Thursday 24th June 2021
quotequote all
RoVoFob said:
fatboy b said:
Tweak the valve up. I’ve had this numerous times.
Screw the whole thing in further?
It’s always the first thing I do after getting new tyres. Been caught out numerous times. Just nip them up a bit. I’d be surprised if all 4 wheels are cracked. Needs a valve tool though.

Yodafone

427 posts

205 months

Thursday 24th June 2021
quotequote all
it will be corrosion around the rim, I got the tyre place to put tyre sealent when tyres are changed each time and it never lost pressure after that. The was on 2003 S60 T5 with the 18 inch wheels.

Mr Tidy

22,313 posts

127 months

Thursday 24th June 2021
quotequote all
I had a similar problem around 2015 when I fitted my winter tyres to my BMW E46.

One lost pressure within a week. I took it to my usual tyre place and they diagnosed a poor seal on the rim due to corrosion. So they took the tyre off, cleaned up the rim and refitted the tyre. £10 later it worked fine for the next couple of years until I sold the car.

TGTiff

408 posts

184 months

Friday 25th June 2021
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RoVoFob said:
How visible was this?
Only found out when getting the tyre changed.
Was on the inside of the rim and you can hardly see it even with the tyre off the wheel.

RoVoFob

Original Poster:

1,334 posts

158 months

Saturday 26th June 2021
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fatboy b said:
It’s always the first thing I do after getting new tyres. Been caught out numerous times. Just nip them up a bit. I’d be surprised if all 4 wheels are cracked. Needs a valve tool though.
Will pick myself up a valve tool. Checked the tyres again today and think they’d only lost 2-3psi in the last six days.

One of the rears had air gushing out as soon as I went near it with the pump, so potentially that valve is overly loose...