Losing Air In A Tire Through The Rim?

[DuaneG]

So my driver rear tire keeps losing air. Pressure lasts about 4-5 days. No holes. I talk to my mechanic and he tells me that it is a common thing for my Lexus version to lose air between the rim and tire. And I can have the rim fixed (resurfaced or something) for $100 per tire.

Is this a real problem? Please advise.

DuaneG

[SRK]

Corrosion can start in the area of the wheel rim where the tire bead makes contact. Flaking power coating, damage, can expose the aluminum to road salt and moisture. So the corrosion lifts the bead a bit and air leaks through. Of course identifying the area is easy with a spray bottle or an immersion tank and any good tire shop should be able to do this. Once found the corrosion can be wire brushed away, and the area treated either with a silver spray paint, or a black mastic bead sealer. The tire is then just remounted. There is NO WAY you need to spend a $100.00 to fix such a simple problem. The idea that it is a "common thing" is absolute BS.

[VBdenny]

Agreed that a hundy is wayyyy to much. Pump that puppy up to about 50psi and dunk it under water and you ought to be able to see something happening. Small leaks are a royal pain. I have one rear tire that just went flat in the garage and I found a tiny staple in the tread. I pulled it and went to plug it but it was so small I couldn't. I planned on taking it to TreadQuarters but after a week it still hadn't lost a bit of air. Go figure.

[SW03ES]

Are your wheels chrome? Its really common on the chrome wheels...

[DuaneG]

Well, I USED to trust the guy. Now I don't know.

I don't think I have chrome wheels.....

[RDM]

Dunk it in water. The bead could be bad, you could have a pinhole in the tread, or it could just be misaligned from hitting a good curb or pothole. Highly doubt the rim is the problem.

[eatingupblacktop]

Ask the tech to show you the corrosion before going ahead with any resurfacing. A bang at less than optimum pressure can break the seal enough to cause a slow leak. Likely a clean and reseal will be the fix.

[aggiecarpenter]

So my driver rear tire keeps losing air. Pressure lasts about 4-5 days. No holes. I talk to my mechanic and he tells me that it is a common thing for my Lexus version to lose air between the rim and tire. And I can have the rim fixed (resurfaced or something) for $100 per tire.

Is this a real problem? Please advise.

DuaneG

I had the same problem with my 1996 LS with chrome wheels. The tire guy showed me the inside of the leaking rim and the chrome was flaking off in multiple places and corroding. He ground it down a little and put some sealer on it but the problem persisted since the corrosion had eaten so much of the finish away. I got quotes for getting the wheel refinished which was the same price as just buying a new OEM replica wheel. Needless to say I went with a new rim. Problem fixed. I was told it was pretty common for the chrome wheels.

[marlon08901]

I have a 90 LS400 without the chrome wheels and never had a problem..then, I purchased a set of used chrome wheels and when I had them installed the mechanic told me that sooner or later the rims would develop rust spots inside and air will start leaking.......sure enough about 2 years later one of the tires started to loose air....I went back to him and what he had warned me about turned out to be true. He sanded down the inside of the rim put the tire back on and no problems since.....it happened to a different tire later but at that point I had the rest of the 3 rims sanded down. He only charged me about $20 the first time and $50 for the rest of the rims.

[mickg]

I had the same issues with the chrome rims on my '94 LS. I had Discount Tire swab each rim with sealer, and install snow tires on all 4 rims.These rims were corroded in the baead area, which was the source of the leaks.

I then went out and bought a second set of rims for summer duty. With two sets of tires and rims, Discount swaps them out and balances for free each season. I thought it was a pretty good deal.

[rwallican]

I had the issue on my 05 LS430 but it was with aftermarket rims. He actually showed me the leak. Got the rim fixed (it had curb rash as well) for $130 and it's fine now.