A few weeks ago I started the car and had a tire pressure warning (22 psi). I had been messing with the pressures daily. I filled it back up and didn't have any issues for a few days and it stayed at 36 psi. Again, I had the same thing happen and took it into Discount Tires and they couldn't find any leak. Two weeks go by and nothing. I'm up at Ft. Irwin right now and left the car parked back at work in San Diego. A co-worker who went back to SD yesterday called me and said my tire was flat and sitting on the rim. The only common denominator I can think of is that I took the car for a few laps around the "Eastlake Proving Grounds" a day or two before each of the low pressure readings. A good friend mentioned it is probably the valve stem getting a leak after the aggressive runs and called it "Phantom Air Leak". Has anyone had any similar experiences with this and if so, what can I do as far as replacing the valve stems?
Oh shit! That tire can't sit on the rim for long, bro... what do we need to do? Did you pal fill it up?!?! Let me know!
i had that problem a couple times in my lightning with the valve steams it sucks having to change a flat in the airport parking lot late at night
Nope, I have the only set of keys with me. Its probably been sitting like that for over a week now, so a couple more days won't hurt "any more".
ive been having the same problem for a while now with one of my tires..never falls below i think 20psi however i also have belt showing in that tire
If you drive fast enough the flat part of the tire should move to the top of the rim.:tooth: Maybe just take the wheel off and do the old soapy water trick.Just a thought.
thats what i was thinking... at least that way you can find exactly where it is coming from and if it is in fact the valve stem or not
5 gal of Slime? :good: jk Like others stated, wet the tire & valvestem to see if you can find some bubbles.
Rick, so what do you think it is, the stem?? The rim maybe? A real small hole?? One of my tires (LR) keeps loosing air real slow too, it's driving me crazy cause for some reason it doesn't ALWAYS leak. One week I'm down 3-4 pounds, the next I'm not down at all, and all with the same driving (around town). Making me mental! In my case I don't really know how a tire can lose very little air so spuratically like that.
I already took it to Discount a couple weeks ago where they submerged the tire in water and couldn't find anything. I personally think it is something with the valve stem and will remove the tire and do the soapy water trick around the stem when I get back. Are there more robust valve stems we can get for our cars? If so, I'll replace all four with them.
I think a metal stem is as good as you can get and they're all created equal, aren't they?? In your case it could be a leaky bead, seen that a few times in my years working for Wheel Works. Especially with large rims. It's also REALLY hard to find slow leaks, I worked that side of the store too back then and I HATED doing that more than anything. Could spend a 1/2 hour with a tire in a tub of water and STILL not find the leak! Doh!
