jimisbell

I have recently been having troubles with the tires leaking down slowly. It has been since the hurricane so I though I might be picking up nails. No nails were found. Then I remembered that about that time I had added valve caps that has a red/blue indicator to tell at a glance if you tire was loosing pressure. Took a while but I realized that they were the culprit. Inside the cap is a piston/diaphragm that is pushed by the tire pressure to make the indicator change. When you put the caps on they push down to valve center pin to let air into the cap. If the cap is poorly designed the piston/diaphragm may leak slowly. I removed all the caps and my slow leaks disappeared. And, to answer the obvious question, the caps were tight so that was NOT the problem. My suggestion is to NEVER use these.

Robles84

Ive heard with the chrome wheels and over time the chrome breaks down and starts to leak air. I haven't had the problem yet. I have the chrome 18s and chrome is starting to come off around where it wheel meets the tire

StanVanDam

It's more or less normal for the chrome wheels to slowly leak with the OEM caps (non-leak detecting), other people here have been reporting the same for years. With my Canadian 2002 UL, at least 3 of my 4 chrome 17's have slow leaks, I don't have TPMS, and I have separate wheels and tires for winter, so these chromes have had some but minimal exposure to road salt. After the chromes sit in my garage for all winter (5 months), they go from 32psi at the end of summer to low 20s by the start of spring.

I use a Lezyne Digital Drive (bicycle tire pump with in-line gauge) to top up the tires every 3-6 weeks (between 2-4psi loss per month). A few years back, one slow leak turned into a fast leak, so I had a local independent shop dismount the rubber, sand off the corrosion, remount and roadforce-balance the tire for $28 CAD after tax.

If you have a fast leak, get a good technician to take the time to clean off the corrosion and to mount the rubber correctly - a good job of this should get you another few years of very minimal leakage.

jimisbell

My leak is from 35 to 10 in 4-5 days. I dont have the internal TPMS but the external ones so I used "stop leak" to see if it would seal.

StanVanDam

Issues to be aware of when using stop-leak products are some products are not specifically TPMS-safe and can ruin your TPMS sensors (2000-2003 do not have TPMS), can ruin your wheels ("rims"), can cause your tires to become unbalanced if the tires are exposed to winter temperatures (the product pools at the bottom of the tire), and if you hit a nail/screw, the tire shop will not be able to apply a patch. It is best to get the bead cleaned and corrosion removed.

ls430w140

jimisbell

My 2004 does not have internal TPMS. The TPMS is external to the tire.
We dont have hard freezes here in south Texas.Freezing fix a flat take real low temps. We rarely get to 30F
My shop has no problems patching my tires after using the "fix a flat". And if the fix a flat is doing its job, there no worry with a nail.

warminwisc

Agree with Stan. Do U have chrome wheels?

jimisbell

I dont know. I am not a metallurgist. They could be polished aluminum, chrome, or shiny silver powder coat. These days unless you scratch them its hard to tell. Not going to scratch them.

biacs

for what the cost is to have the bead cleaned up and sanded- our wheels are all but guaranteed to be corroded and loose air. Certainly have them cleaned up if you have the chance.

Flat tires can be way more of a problem/cost that a bit of prevention.

Daspyda

iTrader: (1)

I've been having a slow leak in one of my 2013 GS wheels on the 430. One day, I decided to overinflate that tire by 7-9 lbs as I was going on a trip.

Never had a problem afterward after deflating it to the normal pressure a couple days later. I could only surmise it seated the tire to the rim.

Romanova

My 2012 GX460 has OEM chrome wheels and one of them was leaking badly. Took it to Discount Tire where they were able to clean up the rim and remount the tire which has fixed the issue, for now. Discount Tire was nice enough to do this free of charge.

Htony

Get rid of those fancy valve caps. IMO, these caps are the culprits. Just use regular plain vanilla caps.

bloomwcjkl

If the problem continues, have a tire shop break the bead and put some of the bead sealer between the tire and wheel. I did that on a car with leaky aluminum wheels. The tire shop did it as part of a tire rotation.

jimisbell

I put "fix-a-leak" in the right front and it is no longer leaking.