Losing pressure...

[steve singh]

Hello Guys,

Seems my passenger side rear tyre is suffering from a slow puncture. The air pressure is dropping from 33 to 26 over a period of 2 weeks, whereas my other 3 tyres are not losing more than 1 psi over the same time duration (doubled checked this over a period of a mth to make sure).

Took my car to a tyre place and they cannot locate where the air is leaking from - they did the visual inspection and also stuck the inflated tyre into water etc

No obvious sign of damage to the alloy externally.

I suspect that air is only leaking when the weight of the car is on it...

Does that suggest an issue with the rim? Any suggested way of hunting down the leak?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

Edited by steve singh on Tuesday 20th July 13:44

[jayfish]

get a spary bottle and wet the tyre around the rim and look for tiny bubbles,is there any corrsoion on the rim?

[steve singh]

Thanks Jayfish, I couldn't see any corrosion on the rim itself, but there seemed to be quite a bit on the wheel hub.

[Chill Winston]

How old are your alloys?

[Isimmo]

Are they split rim alloys? They can be sods for that.

[VXRuss]

Sounds like you have a small crack in the alloy, time to get that welded.

[reggie82]

jayfish said:

get a spary bottle and wet the tyre around the rim and look for tiny bubbles,is there any corrsoion on the rim?

I had the same problem recently and it turned out to be corrosion on the rim. Spraying the rim with water didn't show this up as it was leaking so slowly, but they spotted it when they took the tyre off.

[steve singh]

Thanks for the responses - the alloys are Monza 2 on a Golf GTI Mk5 - hope the alloy isn't knackered !

Might try someone like kwik-fit and ask them to take the tyre off to see what the internals look like.

From what I've heard previously re mess, I'm guessing using something like tyre weld on a hard to locate slow puncture is a bad idea?

Edited by steve singh on Tuesday 20th July 14:07

[E21_Ross]

steve singh said:

The alloys are Monza 2 on a Golf GTI Mk5 - hope the alloy isn't knackered !

Might try someone like kwik-fit and ask them to take the tyre off to see what the internals look like.

From what I've heard previously re mess, I'm guessing using something like tyre weld on a hard to locate slow puncture is a bad idea?

kiwk-fit....they are uselss IMO

[MadRob6]

Had this problem recently on my brother's mk3 Golf. Water had settled between the tyre and the wheel (car hasn't moved for about a year so it has just sat there) and corroded the wheel slightly breaking the seal on the tyre. Tyre place whipped it off, tidied up the rim and re-sealed the tyre and it's keeping the pressure fine now.

Yours may not be the same thing but it could be worth removing the tyre and inspecting the rim for damage/corrosion.

[steve singh]

Thanks guys - I'll give the rim a squirt of water on both sides to see if I can spot any leaks.

If that doesn't turn up anything, I'll just take it to a kwik-fit and ask them to pop the tyre off and examine the internal rim with a bit more dilligence.

[hornetrider]

Could also be a dodgy valve. I had this problem on an old car and a new valve sorted it.

[steve singh]

hornetrider said:

Could also be a dodgy valve. I had this problem on an old car and a new valve sorted it.

Thanks hornet - the guy did check the valve when it was in the water - he moved it in a variety of directions but no luck

[PeteG]

Take it to a local garage that does tyre fitting, rather than Kwik-Fit, IMHO.

[MX7]

A drop of washing up liquid in the water helps. Rinse off afterwards.