Slow tire leak, bead corrosion, sealer safe?

[highway_star]

About a year ago I got some new tires at Discount Tire. After about 6 months one developed a noticeable leak, 10 PSI a week or more. Another 3 PSI a week.

I took them back and they looked at the outside, saw some rim corrosion, and said most likely it was a bead corrosion issue and they could not do anything, but offered to sell me new rims. Said they no longer use bead sealer due to liability/safety issues.

Putting aside the fact that I will never do business with them again (and add them to the list with Costco), I've decided to just dismount, clean, and seal the two tires myself.

My assumption is the sealer is in fact perfectly safe used as intended, and that they have an analyst at corporate that found out they could make more money by selling rims than sealing old ones, but before I go do this does anyone see an actual safety concern with the bead sealant?

 

[The_Jeff]

Used instead of a proper repair it could leak again. It's not so much customer safety IMO but an annoyance for them; people will keep returning for a (free) re-seal instead of fixing their actual problem.

The goop gets on tire bead seating surfaces as well and needs scraped off before remounting.

If I were you, I'd carefully clean up your rims. A wire cup brush on a grinder cleans them fast, then follow up with 220 grit sandpaper. Then mount your tires with judicious amounts of soapy water or your favorite bead lube, pump 'em up to 50 PSI, and wait a day. They probably will seal just fine without the goop. If they don't you can still pop the beads and sneak the sealant in.

Since you have the means to mount your own tires, my advice would be to DIY every new set as nobody cares quite like you do. I get most of mine from walmart, some used from FBM.

 

[Kestas]

I always used sandblasting to clean corrosion off rims, followed by paint. It's a superior way to refurbish the wheel and get rid of leaks. I hang on to cars for a long time in the rust belt, and I have been doing this for 30 years. It works every time.

I have access to a sandblaster. Perhaps you could take your rims to a machine shop that has a sandblaster.

 

[Allaned]

About a year ago I got some new tires at Discount Tire. After about 6 months one developed a noticeable leak, 10 PSI a week or more. Another 3 PSI a week.

I took them back and they looked at the outside, saw some rim corrosion, and said most likely it was a bead corrosion issue and they could not do anything, but offered to sell me new rims. Said they no longer use bead sealer due to liability/safety issues.

Putting aside the fact that I will never do business with them again (and add them to the list with Costco), I've decided to just dismount, clean, and seal the two tires myself.

My assumption is the sealer is in fact perfectly safe used as intended, and that they have an analyst at corporate that found out they could make more money by selling rims than sealing old ones, but before I go do this does anyone see an actual safety concern with the bead sealant?

Sure, do it yourself. Don't need to dismount tire from wheel, just deflate and "break" the tire bead free from the rim, then do the cleaning. Clean the rims, a wire brush works great, then apply the rubber based sealant. Air them back up and remount on the car.

 

[highway_star]

Used instead of a proper repair it could leak again. It's not so much customer safety IMO but an annoyance for them; people will keep returning for a (free) re-seal instead of fixing their actual problem.

The goop gets on tire bead seating surfaces as well and needs scraped off before remounting.

If I were you, I'd carefully clean up your rims. A wire cup brush on a grinder cleans them fast, then follow up with 220 grit sandpaper. Then mount your tires with judicious amounts of soapy water or your favorite bead lube, pump 'em up to 50 PSI, and wait a day. They probably will seal just fine without the goop. If they don't you can still pop the beads and sneak the sealant in.

Since you have the means to mount your own tires, my advice would be to DIY every new set as nobody cares quite like you do. I get most of mine from walmart, some used from FBM.

Yep, the plan was to clean first, then use a thin layer of bead sealer for good measure. I might go partially based on how clean the rims look/how much of it is actual pitting of metal, etc.

I would say the means to mount my own tires are...improvised at best, not something I would do on scale, but for a couple its fine. If the plan to get a proper garage and shop comes through I will get a changer and a balancer and declare independence from the shops though.

I always used sandblasting to clean corrosion off rims, followed by paint. It's a superior way to refurbish the wheel and get rid of leaks. I hang on to cars for a long time in the rust belt, and I have been doing this for 30 years. It works every time.

I have access to a sandblaster. Perhaps you could take your rims to a machine shop that has a sandblaster.

I did take a look around, there are a few places offering a blast and paint service at $100 a rim. As I plan to replace these rims when the tires are used up I will not invest that in them, but for the next set, likely to be a junkyard set, I may start by having said shop renew them before use.

 

[ripcord]

I have a manual tire changing doohickey and have satisfactorily used bead sealant to fix a stubbornly leaking aluminum rim. It does make breaking the bead a little more challenging later, though.

 

[Kestas]

I did take a look around, there are a few places offering a blast and paint service at $100 a rim.

Wow, that's a lot! I bought a sandblaster long time ago, but it's the open type that I used to prep rusted cars for driveway restoration. I wish I had room in the garage for a sandblaster cabinet.

 

[highway_star]

Ok update on this.

I got one of the tires off and basically the paint on the rim is flaking off. I did sand and wire brush the heavy flaking off, but I'm wondering if it would be better to just strip all of the paint out of the bead area?

I don't want to have to do this twice, and I suspect if I use sealer then dismounting a second time will be even more painful than this was the first time.

 

[The_Jeff]

I have not found that bead sealer makes bead breaking noticeably harder. I have found that old tires that have been mounted "forever" break harder.

The thing about bead sealer is half of it stays on the tire and the other half sticks to the rim. And then you have to clean both sides before remounting anything.

I'd remove the paint that wants to come off and leave the paint that doesn't want to come off. Bead sealer is a crutch (IMO) and best left off. Scuff the tire beads slightly (like with 220 grit sandpaper) so they aren't shiny but are in fact dull. The rubber is very thin here so don't go too aggressive or you'll see cord or metal, neither of which is good. Lube this up with your favorite tire soap, remount, pump up to 50 PSI, leave overnight. The rubber will conform to and stick to the now-clean rims and you shouldn't have any problems.

If after all this you get leaks, verified with soapy bubbles, re-break the bead and brush that sealer goo in, in about a six inch swath near the source of the leak. No reason to do it everywhere.

 

[highway_star]

Well update on this.

Did both tires. First one was a pain getting on and off, second went significantly better being up the experience curve a bit.

I discovered paint pealing off the rims in both cases. I cleaned up the loose stuff, contemplated completely stripping it but opted not to put that kind of time in. Because remounting these low profile tires inevitably caused more paint to come off from the tire spoons pushing on it I did use the bead sealant. I also realized that I did not want to dismount and remount these again, in part due to difficulty and partly due to concern that it was going to damage something.

The second tire I discovered had a nail in it after dismounting it. I plugged that one since I couldn't really take it back for a full patch job at that point.

First tire held the exact PSI for a week, I think we are good on that for now. Granted it was just sitting so we will see how driving goes.

Second tire lost 4lbs. Not sure if some of that was lost up front before things cured however, so going to top off and check again.

Not the best job, but as I said I'm ditching these rims and tires once I get enough use out of the tires. I've put close to 8k miles on them and they were cheaper ones so I figure by 30k they will be toast anyway.