Does fix a flat ruin tires?

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I use fix a flat in my tractor tires. It is for emergency use for people that do not have the ability to change a tire. Yep it clogs the pressure sensors just like it clogs up the leaks.
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
I use fix a flat in my tractor tires. It is for emergency use for people that do not have the ability to change a tire. Yep it clogs the pressure sensors just like it clogs up the leaks.


This bums me out. First, because there's no way I could change a flat on my car (or truck, for that matter) by myself, and B) I already had to change out a TPS on my car and it has ridiculously low miles. And there's no reason given as to why it failed - " the computer just says it failed, we can't tell why".

Yeah, thanks.

I miss the old days when we didn't need an artificial brain to take care of our cars. I adore my Challenger, but there's an effing sensor for EVERYthing. It's tedious.
 
TPM$...because Americans are too lazy or stupid to check their tire pressure.

My bud's '08 Nissan Frontier has TPMSs the batteries in which are failing. Time to buy 4 new sensors. Kira
 
Originally Posted By: JennyHemi

This bums me out. First, because there's no way I could change a flat on my car (or truck, for that matter) by myself, and B) I already had to change out a TPS on my car and it has ridiculously low miles. And there's no reason given as to why it failed - " the computer just says it failed, we can't tell why".

Yeah, thanks.

I miss the old days when we didn't need an artificial brain to take care of our cars. I adore my Challenger, but there's an effing sensor for EVERYthing. It's tedious.


Determining a reason for failure is a big issue with any solid state part, it can easily take thousands of dollars worth of analysis to MAYBE find an answer for a single return. Maybe a quarter of the parts in FA will be destroyed by the analysis before an answer is found. I have seen getting a couple of dozen returns out of some hundreds of thousands or millions of parts sold to a key customer turn a company upside down, product development grinding to a halt as all hands on deck are called in to find the problem (hopefully, there is just one). A company I worked for a while back had a few hundred returns out of many millions of parts sold over a couple of years and they ended up selling themselves off to a larger company that could handle such expenses.

It is becoming more common to add Built In Self Test (BIST) to such parts so they can possibly tell you what is wrong with them if they are still alive at all, but it is an expensive add-on with sometimes questionable benefits for the cost. After all, as you have seen, it is pretty easy to tell the end user the thing just broke. It might save the vendor if it helps them tell their customer what is going on without expensive FA, but then the customer will complain right off the bat about the increased part cost to get the BIST and maybe go somewhere else. Some standards are making BIST a requirement, which removes the need to do a cost/benefit analysis and drives us to just figure out how to do it economically and effectively.
 
I've had to deal with many rims that leaked from corrosion at the bead. After 10 winters, any car rim is fair game -- steel or aluminum.

As mentioned above, first diagnose where your leak is coming from. Slow leaks over two weeks are doable for diagnosis, it just takes a bit more patience. Throw soapy water on the tire. Keep it wet. The leak(s) will show up as a foamy area in 5-10 minutes.

I repair corroded rims myself. After the tire is removed I sandblast the corrosion and repaint. Wirewheeling and using gunk just isn't good enough for me.
 
Originally Posted By: CT8
I use fix a flat in my tractor tires. It is for emergency use for people that do not have the ability to change a tire. Yep it clogs the pressure sensors just like it clogs up the leaks.

I got a Fix-A-Flat analogue - Stan's NoTubes on a mountain bike. Good for thorns and small things and useless for tears.
 
Originally Posted By: Kestas
I've had to deal with many rims that leaked from corrosion at the bead. After 10 winters, any car rim is fair game -- steel or aluminum.


My vote is on this also.

I have 2 sets of 15+ year old wheels. Towncar wheels on my Jeep and 2000 Focus wheels on my Focus for winter. I cleaned the bead up each time I have to mount a tire but it's usually always some sort of bead leak or valve stem leak that causes one or two tires to go flat.
 
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
Determining a reason for failure is a big issue with any solid state part, it can easily take thousands of dollars worth of analysis to MAYBE find an answer for a single return. Maybe a quarter of the parts in FA will be destroyed by the analysis before an answer is found. I have seen getting a couple of dozen returns out of some hundreds of thousands or millions of parts sold to a key customer turn a company upside down, product development grinding to a halt as all hands on deck are called in to find the problem (hopefully, there is just one). A company I worked for a while back had a few hundred returns out of many millions of parts sold over a couple of years and they ended up selling themselves off to a larger company that could handle such expenses.

It is becoming more common to add Built In Self Test (BIST) to such parts so they can possibly tell you what is wrong with them if they are still alive at all, but it is an expensive add-on with sometimes questionable benefits for the cost. After all, as you have seen, it is pretty easy to tell the end user the thing just broke. It might save the vendor if it helps them tell their customer what is going on without expensive FA, but then the customer will complain right off the bat about the increased part cost to get the BIST and maybe go somewhere else. Some standards are making BIST a requirement, which removes the need to do a cost/benefit analysis and drives us to just figure out how to do it economically and effectively.


This is one of the reason why once a vendor has established a working design and is willing to license or sell the components, it is easier to just buy from that vendor instead of create your own. Even if you can recoup all the development cost the risk of a massive failure is just not worth it.
 
Bead leaks are huge. On just one 16 inch wheel there is over
8 feet of bead surface to keep sealed. It is amazing that a clean bead can hold air!
 
Originally Posted By: Traction
Bead leaks are huge. On just one 16 inch wheel there is over
8 feet of bead surface to keep sealed. It is amazing that a clean bead can hold air!

I know, because I have had to clean up many wheels. A set of 4, is 32 feet to clean!
FOR FREE.
 
Your tires may be covered on warranty.

"All MICHELIN® tires4 (both Replacement & Original Equipment) come with a limited warranty for treadwear, as well as a limited warranty which covers defects in workmanship and materials for the life of the original usable tread, or for 6 years from date of purchase, whichever occurs first."
 
Obligatory:
oCbBltK.jpg
 
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