[snoopyjon]

Hi everyone,

I've had a search round but not been able to find anyone that's had the same problem as me...

I washed the car yesterday, and decided to check the tyre pressures again as both the right side tyres have been losing pressure. I was shocked to find that the rear left was also down to 14psi. I can't remember if the front left had lost anything, if it had, it was minimal.

However, when I was checking the pressure, there was a bit of water between the tyre and the rim, and it was bubbling, so it looks like that one at least is leaking from the wheel...

When I bought the car, they refurbished three of the four alloys, because they all had some scuffs on them. Is it possible that the refurbishing has destroyed my wheels?

I've got the car booked in tomorrow to have all the wheels taken off, tyres off, wheels cleaned and re-sealed, at a price of £16 per wheel. I'm going to give this a go first, as all my tyres are good and don't need replacing otherwise...

It's just a bit un-nerving when I travel 100 miles a day in the car, and I don't have a spare wheel...!

Cheers,

Jon.

 

[RobertUtley]

How much pressure have they lost since you last checked?
If it was from when they were refurbed did you check when they were refitted?
It doesnt sound great with the water bubbling tbh but it could be a simple fix like leaky valves especially if they didnt change the valves after the refurb and put the old ones back in!

 

[rogerc41]

I had this on my old Focus. It will be the tyre bead leaking at the rim, probably due to a small amount of corrosion around the rim. When they re-sael them make sure the clean up the inside edge of the rim. The tyre place i use then put a layer of silicone based sealler around the rim edge to help seal and stop further corrosion occuring.

 

[wemorgan]

When I bought the car, they refurbished three of the four alloys, because they all had some scuffs on them. Is it possible that the refurbishing has destroyed my wheels?

Yes, it's possible. Most garages when refurbishing wheels on selling a car will only have a 'smart' refurbish done. As far as I am aware this is basically deflating the tyre and pushing it back off the rim edge, then cleaning and repairing the wheel face only.

If when inflating the tyre again they didn't seat it properly on the rim it will not seal correctly. Ask them to completely remove the tyre, clean the rim edge and refit the tyre.

As mentioned, it could be a leaking valve, which is easy to test.

 

[snoopyjon]

Thanks everyone. Took it to a local tyre place this morning, and they took all wheels off and did a bubble test, but nothing showed up. This confirmed my suspicions about the seals, and the tyre places too. They took the tyres off the rims, cleaned them all up, replaced the valves, and re-balanced all the wheels before filling them with nitrogen. They're going to re-check for free next week, and then they've offered to do a free re-check every month or two as well as I signed up to their discount card.

I shall monitor them visually, and if any of the wheels look to be going down again, I'll take them straight back in.

Thanks again for the responses

 

[wemorgan]

buy yourself an accurate tyre pressure gauge. A visual inspection is too crude in my opinion.

Tyre pressure gauges | Products | Auto Express

 

[RobertUtley]

buy yourself an accurate tyre pressure gauge. A visual inspection is too crude in my opinion.

Tyre pressure gauges | Products | Auto Express

Agreed or take it down to the local petrol station and pop it on the inflator and it'll tell you what it currently is! My bets still on the old valves