theanimala

I have a very slow tire leak. It take around 2 weeks to notice it, and when I do I only have around 10lbs of pressure. One day it was even lower then that. What sucks is that I've taken it to the dealer and they said there is no leak. I guess it's just too low for them to catch.

What can I do? I was thinking of putting in FixaFlat and hope that holds. I know garages hate it, but for such a slow leak it just might help. Any suggestions?

Lexozz

That thing leaves a film inside your tire and destroys it. It could just be a faulty valve. How dare the dealer tell you there is no leak. They couldh've chgd the valve as a precaution, maybe the seal around the tire/rim is defective. My suggestions, take it back and demand they fix it or take it a local tire shop so you could see what they're doing..

2Lexos

please....i beg you....no fix-a-flat. that stuff is bad. to me it sounds like a rim leak or valve leak. the best thing for you to do is to go to a shop and have the carefully inspect the tire. if they don't find it have them break it down and check the tire bead for a possible rip in the bead. sometimes the beads can be torn while installing the tire on the rim. the same goes for the valve stem. if all is good with the tire and valve stem, have them put a bead sealant on both sides of the rim and tire and valve stem. hopefully that will fix the problem. good luck

purebliss

This happen to me drove me comeplety nuts!!!Let me ask you this do you have aftermarket chrome rims on your car? Because I did and every month it would be a nother tire and then they seal them for me and they last like 6 months and then it would leak. So what happened was one of my rims started to peel so Lexus complety got me new rims at no charge. I asked him if I should not go back to chrome rims because of the peeling and he said he would order me factory chrome lexus rims. He did this and the tires havent leak yet and they been on for about a year. I bought the car in a month ago and told him how that problem of tires leaking had stoped and he said it was proably caused by the poor platting of the orginal aftermarket lexus rims. My question is why does lexus sell them. Now with my wifes LS430 I made sure they were ordered the chrome rims from the facotry with the car so I wouldn't have this problem again. I live in a snowy area so there is always a lot of salt on the rode and they haven't started to peel at all. Bascially what it sounds like to me is the tire isnt sealing right to the rim. If you have aftermarket rims then theres your answer.

cyclemax

Have the tire shop submerge the wheel in a water tank. That, with very close inspection, is sometimes the only way you will see a slow leak. Usually, they're in too much of a rush.

salimshah

Valve (not the stem) leak can be checked/confirmed at home. Put some soapy water over it. Slightly yucky but simple way that does not require special tools/set-up, is to wet your finger tip with spit and smear across the stem head. Spit has enough surface tension to cover the air inlet, and if there is a fine leak, it would bubble up.

Slow leaks situation can be exagerated by raising the tire pressure (higer then the one stamped on the door sill, but lower than the max on the tire it self)

Salim

theanimala

I do not have aftermark chrome rims, I have the stock 17" alloys with Dunlop SP5000 tires.

I will try the water on the tire test, but I can see where it may not show since the leak is so slow. I think I am just going to have to force a shop to look at it harder.

snakeyez

I've had a leak in my tire recently also. It ended up being a nail in the tire. I was able to fix this for $3 by myself by extracting the nail.. enlkarging the hole and plugging the tire. (Firestone wanted $20 to do the same job).

It is best to make the inspection with the wheel off the car and defintely SUBMERGE the wheel (entire wheel if possible) under water. That is sure to show any leaks since the pressure inside the tire is greater than outside.

theanimala

Well, I got it fixed, but what a rip. I needed two new valve stems (2 tires were leaking) and they charged be $51 total for the two. I also had a 4 wheel balancing, which was another $60, as well as resurface all 4 rotors (needed badly), which was $255 total. I was so sick of this crap that I figured I would have Lexus do it so if it wasn't done right I would have them do it again.

With prices like this, I remind myself why I don't have them do service on my car unless I need them to...

rvelez

Hi: I had a similar problem recently with one of my 17" Kumho tires with the factory chrome rims. At first, one tire dealership told me that they couldn't find a leak. Then, I got a 2nd opinion and was told that perhaps it did not seal right when the tire was mounted due to some of the chrome inside peeling away. They put some sealer on the area they identified, BUT the problem was not fixed even then. Turns out, that my rim was actually cracked on the inside enough to lose air after about 2 weeks of running on the tire. I bought a used rim in really good condition and the problem has not reoccurred, so far. Hope this helps.

PERRYinLA

I also have a very slow leak on one tire. Since I bought the tires off eBay and just had CostCo install them, they won't guarentee the tire. So if I bring it back to them they might charge me for every little thing that they try.

I'm thinking the quickest fix would be to have them throw in an inner tube, but is that sort of thing even done any more?

And on a related issue, if they note its position on the wheel before taking off the tire, need it be re-balanced once they carefully re-install it in the same position?

I'm starting to think this leak is the reason why the eBay guy sold me his tires so cheap! (But even with the cost of fixing one leak, I still got a bargain.)