Tire slow leak

[Andrew1972]

I have 2007 MDX that had a slow leak on tire 5-10 psi in two weeks.

I replaced worn tires with brand new and the leak persists at 5psi every two weeks same wheel. A Tmps kit ($5) was install supposedly on valve but don't fully trust place. There is some surface corrosion.

Is this rim?

 

[Chris142]

Pump it way up and spray it with soap

 

[Donald]

The rims need to be wire brushed where the bead seals. The tire store should be looking for this and cleaning up the rim where needed. New tire valve if not positive it was replaced.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

I'd go with a bead leak. 9 year old alloy wheels are going to have some corrosion. Also try to clean and reseal where the valve stem goes through the wheel. That's a common corrosion and leak point too.

Harbor freight sells a wire brush that is perfect for cleaning beads.

 

[Virtus_Probi]

Had my tires swapped (winter to summer) some years ago at a really seedy looking shop right in the city and had a slow leak for the whole summer, had to stop a couple of times a week to pump it up (now have a tiny compressor I use at home). I called the shop and they told me I had cheap wheels and it was no big deal, anyway...they weren't going to try to fix it.
Mentioned this at another shop when I had the winter tires remounted and they told me that aluminum wheels need to be gone over with a wire brush every time tires are mounted and many shops just don't bother with it. Have never had a slow leak since then and I still go to shop #2.

 

[Wolf359]

There's lots of shops that will now fix tire leaks for free. I think the last time I went to Town Fair Tire and they charged me $4 to balance the tire afterwards, but the leak fix was free. Even Goodyear tire shops do it for free. Anytime I have a slow leak, I'm able to get it fixed at a tire shop, usually it's either the bead or the valve stem. It's one of those things where there's no need to DIY when it's so cheap to have someone else fix it.

 

[Rand]

Most likely the bead seating surface needs some work. if its really bad they can use some goop to seal it.. but usually just cleaning it will suffice.

 

[bugeye]

I had a slow leak on one tire after 4 new tires were installed on aluminum wheels. I inflated the leaky tire to 20 psi over the recommended pressure but well within the max pressure on the tire sidewall. Surprise, over a week, the pressure never dropped. Guess the bead was not properly sealed. I then reset pressure to recommended. No more slow pressure loss.

 

[berniedd]

I had aluminum alloy wheels in my vintage VW bug and on 2 occasions had a slow leak in 2 tires. One had air seeping through the center of the tire tread (I junked the tire) and the other had the air leaking through a porous center of the spindle of the rim itself (fixed with epoxy steel). The latter didn't have any cracks as far as I could tell and I continued to use that rim till I sold the car some years later.

 

[CapriRacer]

The key here is that you had the leak BEFORE you installed new tires and you suspected the TPMS - and you replaced that.

It's possible that the alloy wheel may be leaking through the metal. That fits the description. That is going to be difficult to verify.

So your first step is to try spraying the assembly with soapy water. Do this very carefully. The leak is slow are not likely to generated anything more than a small bunch of very tiny bubbles.

The next step is to immerse the assembly in water. Inspect very carefully.

 

[krismoriah72]

I had a slow leak for 3 months. My sensors go off below 30psi so i had one tire that would lose about 5lbs a week. My home fix was to inflate that tire to 40psi and only have to add every two weeks..lazy i know.

I finally got around to taking to a tire shop and i planned on plugging the tire. They dismounted the tire and there were 3 nails installed deep into the treads.

I made 2 long trips 300miles plus with 3 nails.. amazing that i didnt have a bad issue.

 

[HemiHawk]

My parents have had this issue with two vehicles. The first was an explorer limited with chrome plated rims. The chrome corroded and caused a leak. cleaning the rim didnt do much. replacing them with no plated ones fixed the issue.

Now again, with chrome plated rims on another ford. needless to say they are going to try to avoid the chrome plated rims (which is tough on Ford's limited models).

 

[bigt61]

Yeah, it's likely the bead & corrosion. I'd just Slime it (cheap at Walmart) and call it a day. In the unlikely event that doesn't fix it, remove tire and clean up the bead. PITA.

 

[Andrew1972]

Got a call from Indy tire place who stated tire leaking from several places and TMPS valve dry rotted. They cleaned rim inside (not done in install) and replaced tmps. The Indy place thought his own shop did this shoddy work.

VIP auto who bunged install charged for TMPS rebuild did not change them nor did they clean the rim.

 

[Mr_Joe]

My last slow leak was a loose valve stem.