Flat Tyre But No Puncture?

[bomber06]

Whilst cleaning the drive of snow on Sunday morning I noticed the misses' car had a flat. The pressure guage on the pump read 0 psi. I blew the the thing up and took it to local tyre place round the corner. The guy took the tyre off blew it up to 50 psi and tested it for a puncture, but couldn't find anything wrong at all. He said it was due to the low temperatures and the tyre must have contracted causing the seal between the tyre and alloy rim to break.

I hadn't come across this before and was just wondering if this is common problem. I am glad to say the RAV's tyres are spot on! Might have been in a bit of a pickle if it had been one of the T180 tyres!

[john905]

Whilst cleaning the drive of snow on Sunday morning I noticed the misses' car had a flat. The pressure guage on the pump read 0 psi. I blew the the thing up and took it to local tyre place round the corner. The guy took the tyre off blew it up to 50 psi and tested it for a puncture, but couldn't find anything wrong at all. He said it was due to the low temperatures and the tyre must have contracted causing the seal between the tyre and alloy rim to break.

I hadn't come across this before and was just wondering if this is common problem. I am glad to say the RAV's tyres are spot on! Might have been in a bit of a pickle if it had been one of the T180 tyres!

never heard of that bud, if it were me i would check the preasure every couple of days and hope it dont go down

[Mereside]

Hi there,

Not a lot of help as I have not heard of this before and am assuming that the tyre was correctly inflated and checked prior to this happening.

I have had alloy wheels loose pressure due to corrosion but not overnight from fully inflated, I have had valves leak but again that would be apparent to anyone checking it. The only way I can think that the tyre could loose its seal would be at very low pressure but this would be rare as I have had a tyre with a puncture and it was down to about 8-10psi and I only realised after a bit of heavy cornering and I had been travelling at a very fast speed prior to that and the seal didn't break.

You said that the tyre chap took the tyre off and re inflated it to 50psi and it was ok. If he did remove the tyre he would normally replace the valve a the same time.

If he just took the wheel off and put it in a bath to soak it would show a puncture but not always a slow puncture as it takes ages for the air bubbles to go from bunging the tyre in the water.

My best guess on the info you have supplied is that the tyre has a slow puncture and it will go flat again after a few days. With these new fangled radial ply tyres (I'm old and remember cross ply's) you cannot always tell how low the pressure is untill they are nearly flat.

Hope this helps and hopefully there is a tyre fitter/engineer that can give a definative answer. Good luck and let us know if you find out what caused this.

Regards

[Jamesbelfast]

Although rare there is a possibility there was water trapped in the valve core and if it froze it would force the valve open just enough to allow air to escape causing the same symptoms as a slow-puncture.:)

[local hero]

Or has some Oik, the worse for wear on a Saturday night let your tyre down to amuse his mates.. Any footprints in the snow????

[bothwell_buyer]

Although rare there is a possibility there was water trapped in the valve core and if it froze it would force the valve open just enough to allow air to escape causing the same symptoms as a slow-puncture.:)

good answer - well done....and it shows the worth of valve caps too!! With the amount of grit sprayed on the road etc!

[bomber06]

Its kept pressure since Sunday....Strange!