Slow Puncture - what to do

[Roy124]

I have a pressure loss on one tyre.  The TPMS alarmed today with a 20% pressure loss (as advertised). I noticed a similar lost some weeks back so it's a really slow loss. 

Previous time I had something like this was 20 years ago with a Mondeo.  At that time we were about to go on holiday, so I put some foam in.  This cured the problem until I sold the car a few months later. 

What would you do, get it checked out or add some gunk? 

[FROSTYBALLS]

Depending how far away your Toyota dealer is, most offer free puncture repairs. Needs to be booked in in advance - but as it is only a slow puncture, you could afford a couple of days wait.

[fourbanks]

Personally, I always purchase a new tyre and reject a repair. Having said that, times are difficult, so get it repaired and try and save a little in case it happens again. I think all new cars today should come with either a half tyre or run flat tyres as standard. I would never entertain this so-called gunk and am surprised the public in general has excepted that cut back 

[Roy124]

Thank you.  As I anticipate changing the car next month I might tell them then. 

 

[davidif]

On 7/30/2022 at 3:54 PM, fourbanks said:

Personally, I always purchase a new tyre and reject a repair. Having said that, times are difficult, so get it repaired and try and save a little in case it happens again. I think all new cars today should come with either a half tyre or run flat tyres as standard. I would never entertain this so-called gunk and am surprised the public in general has excepted that cut back 

Whilst I entirely agree that a space saver tyre should be a minimum legal requirement, I would certainly not support widespread adoption of runflats having experienced them with both BMW's and a Mini. I found the ride and handling characteristics to be poor and very expensive to replace.

 

[Hybrid21]

I would look at the tyre Roy and locate the puncture, most likely a screwnail.

Depending on it's location it may be repaired successfully,  then just go to a garage and have it fixed 👍

[Corollanutter]

Get it fixed before it lets you down (no pun intended). 

[forkingabout]

A decent tyre place will offer to repair it cheaply enough IF its legally repairable.

If the object isn't visible then a quick dunk of the wheel in the water bath will soon pinpoint the leak. 

[forkingabout]

On 7/30/2022 at 3:54 PM, fourbanks said:

I would never entertain this so-called gunk and am surprised the public in general has excepted that cut back 

Mainly pure laziness & people not having a clue. 

A lot of younger people these days have no clue how to change a wheel let alone do it safely. 

A spare wheel isn't available on a factory order for a C-HR, so I ordered the parts required before my vehicle was even built 

[Corollanutter]

14 minutes ago, forkingabout said:

Mainly pure laziness & people not having a clue. 

A lot of younger people these days have no clue how to change a wheel let alone do it safely. 

A spare wheel isn't available on a factory order for a C-HR, so I ordered the parts required before my vehicle was even built 

I did the same with my Corolla. I purchased a spare rim and tyre, jack and brace - and ditched the gunk. Best accessory I got for the car - especially after a pot hole strike took out the front rim. Don't mess around with tyres - they are your only contact point with the road.

 

[Roy124]

Once hit a pothole at speed.  Both near side rims were buckled, thank goodness for steel. 

Fortunately only one instant blow out.  The other bent and graunching but driveable.  

Got to Limassol, tyre workshop took wheel off, drifted the buckle with a sledge, rebalanced, good to go. 

Mag alloys, stuffed. 

[Cyker]

Yikes I can only imagine how loud the bang was from hitting that! I hit one on the way home and thought I'd broken something the impact was so loud!

I'm pretty sure I would have used up all the callouts by now on the wheel insurance if I'd kept it and the 17" rims...!!

I just don't get why anyone would use low profile tyres here. There's nothing sadder than watching SUVs and even range rovers - giant 4x4s with huge ground clearance! - tip-toe through a broken up road with pot holes and humps because their alloys are so big the slightest impact will probably chip them...

Although it is the 2nd must fun way to stop them tailgating me as I don't even slow down most of the time  (The first way being 2m width restrictions  )

[Hornet3D]

4 hours ago, forkingabout said:

A decent tyre place will offer to repair it cheaply enough IF its legally repairable.

If the object isn't visible then a quick dunk of the wheel in the water bath will soon pinpoint the leak. 

My last repair cost me less that £30 and that was with the guy coming to us.  I did it that way because I knew if the puncture was in the wall of the tyre it would need to be replaced so the guy had the right tyre on board just in case.  

[Cyker]

Flippin' heck that's a good deal! I don't suppose they'd come to London...?  

The mobile tyre fitters I've seen around here start at something like £70 and that's not including the tyre!!  

A lot of garages already charge £25-30 for a puncture repair, only exception are the dodgy-looking independent ones who still do it for like £15 if you're lucky...

I'm tempted to get one of those kits that catlover posted with the sticky string plugs...!

 

[Roy124]

Cyker, not a loud bang, two near simultaneously.  Assume 10 feet between wheels and 130 feet per second so around a tenth of a second between bangs.  

The road was superbly smooth so the edge road hole was a bigger surprise. 

15inch rims on the SAAB meant it would ride rough unfinished roads at speed. 

 

[Catlover]

30 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Flippin' heck that's a good deal! I don't suppose they'd come to London...?  

The mobile tyre fitters I've seen around here start at something like £70 and that's not including the tyre!!  

A lot of garages already charge £25-30 for a puncture repair, only exception are the dodgy-looking independent ones who still do it for like £15 if you're lucky...

I'm tempted to get one of those kits that catlover posted with the sticky string plugs...!

TonyHSD has used that system as well, he has posted photos of the repair area and it’s still holding up.

[Roy124]

On 8/1/2022 at 11:47 AM, Hybrid21 said:

I would look at the tyre Roy and locate the puncture, most likely a screwnail.

Depending on it's location it may be repaired successfully,  then just go to a garage and have it fixed 👍

Nail.  Found it in the channel between treads.  Road has been resurfaced recently so it looked like a stone.  Might be one of mine from the garage floor. 

Must take more care there. 

[Hybrid21]

Hard to avoid Roy, even see screwnails in supermarket car parks, white van man opens door and they just fall out 😀

[Cyker]

4 hours ago, Roy124 said:

Nail.  Found it in the channel between treads.  Road has been resurfaced recently so it looked like a stone.  Might be one of mine from the garage floor. 

Must take more care there. 

It it makes you feel any better, I went through a period where it seemed I was getting a puncture every few months! It's why I tried that Puncturesafe stuff (Which, while it actually did a great job self-sealing punctures, the imbalance it created in the tyre at speed was too much...!)

 

[Roy124]

On 8/4/2022 at 12:57 PM, Cyker said:

 I tried that Puncturesafe stuff (Which, while it actually did a great job self-sealing punctures, the imbalance it created in the tyre at speed was too much...!)

 

Is that the aerosol gunk you might buy in Halfords?  I once had a slow leak that I assumed was either a poor seal or porous mag alloy.  I only use a bit of a small can rather than the whole thing.  If I had used the whole can I don't know what would have happened to the already inflated car.  I had no further problems. 

Did you use it on one wheel after a puncture or all wheels in case? 

PS I am tempted to pull the nail out to see if its one of mine 😁

[Cyker]

It's a bit different to the normal tyre goop - You put it in the tyre *before* you have a puncture and it sort of just sticks to the inside the tyre. It's a fairly thick gel so it isn't supposed to slosh about unless you use too much.

If there's a puncture, the gel gets pushed into it from air pressure and sets into a rubbery plug fairly quickly, and is supposed to be a permanent fix so you don't then need to get it fixed at a tyre place. If the puncture is too big it just slows the air loss and you leave a trail of blue goo on the road until it drains out  

It worked quite well - I never had to top up the air in my tyres while I had it in, and it really did plug several nail punctures in the tread. I was going through a period where I just seemed to be attracting nails to my tyres, but only had a single puncture while using it that it didn't stop, because it was in the sidewall of the tyre.

However, the biggest problem with it is it *does* unbalance the tyre at certain speeds and caused nasty vibrations exactly like a wheel that's thrown a lot of wheel weights.

I think it'd be perfect for e.g. a van driver who only drives from a local the depot to all its local delivery areas, but as soon as I started getting close to 60mph brrrrRRRrrRRrrrrRRrrrRRrrr.