Tyres Going Flat Randomly... Whats Going On! Rant Warning

April 14, 2009

Hi all, it really hasn't been my year :(

I had some 15" momo alloys on my celica when i brought it 4 years ago,

good alloys but the handling was iffy with the high wall tyres. So treated myself

to some second hand Gen 7 17" alloys

Sorted the handling like a dream BUT the tyres keep going flat! The front tyre went flat on me

a few weeks ago when i jacked the car up to do an oil change, i lowered the car back down and all was fine went

in for a refreshing cupper to came back and find it flat :huh: Strange i thought, so took the

wheel down the local garage to pump it up, it wouldn't hold pressure. So off to Just Tyres

i went (great company very helpful) they got air into it and after 10 minutes of investigating,

even taking the tyre off to have a better look they couldn't find a thing wrong. . So great i thought

all fixed and sorted! Driving home today and suddenly the rear tyre went flat!!

and its not even the same damn wheel!! :censor: Got it home pumped it up and now its fine

and holding pressure again as normal :blink:

Whats going on with these wheels, i can't work it out. It wasnt like i was doing any hard cornering

when they went flat and i normaly do plenty of that some evenings and they held fine, its doing my head in!!......... Rant over ;)

April 14, 2009

My proffesional opinion (if there is nothing obvious)....

1. Would be a bead leak, there could be some oxidisation on the wheel where the tyre seats that needs to be cleaned off (wire brush attatchment for a drill) some bead sealer applied, new valve and balance.

2. Dodgy valve core... could explain how you had difficulty blowing it up, the difficulty could also be a faulty gauge at the garage(s) too though.. it does happen. Again the best solution would be as above.

When a slow or intermittent leak can't be found it's usually to do with the rim or the valve, they don't leak when they are off the car but as soon as the weight is on them they leak very slowly, or more quickly if the weight of the car is on a prticularly bad section of the wheel.