Serious Problems with tires/wheels

[snicker]

I can't keep air in my tires and I 've already bent a rim. I had it spun with a micrometer and it's straight. The tire is perfect. The band and bead are good. It seems to be leaking from around the bead. I have metal valve stems and I don't know what to do. What are good tires/wheels? I have jumped a few feet and no problems but when I go into a turn and hit something, aka rut or rock, I have problems. Any help?

[rollo]

We mostly run stock or cheap rims and inflate to 40+ psi when we run offroad.. nothing special though. One of my Enkeis has a freakin massive bend in the rim (from running into a kerb trying to avoid a random douchebag) but it holds air just fine. Did you check the valve itself? Maybe it's faulty?

[BorkedWRX]

spray the tire with soapy water, that'll tell you where its leaking.

[Rallycat66]

use tubes...

Whenever we ran street tires on the rally car (which was really often in the old days), we'd get them mounted with tubes. Prevents all those air leaks where you roll the tire off the rim a little and get junk caught in bead or bend the rim.

Tim

[wolfman79]

My first question is what air pressures are you running? If you're leaking air around the bead then maybe a slightly higher pressure would solve that. Another idea to consider would be to de-mount the tires and clean the bead seat area really well to ensure a proper seal. That would also be a good oppurtunity to go ahead and tube the tire.

If these are going to be dedicated dirt/rally-x/rally tires and wheels then you might want to look into getting some used rally tires. They can be found pretty cheap and in good condition. As for wheels I am sticking with my stock 15" steelies until they give out. After that I'll probably look into a set of Team Dynamics.

[BlackParis]

Another idea to consider would be to de-mount the tires and clean the bead seat area really well to ensure a proper seal. That would also be a good oppurtunity to go ahead and tube the tire.


Pay to have a shop do this unless you have the equipment to do it yourself ;) but you will need a die-grinder with a whirewheel on it to get it clean, and use a bead sealer when you reinstall it..

Also go to a shop that has a hunter roadforce balancer 9300 or better ;) old school balancers dont measure rim and tire runout.... it will tell you if there is a broken/shifted belt in the tyre or if the rim is bent...

If you are runniing the tyres ALL the time DO NOT put a tube in them... Tubes would be fine for rally-x or racing tyres, but on a daily driver you will end up destroying the tube wasting your money....

[kylelikewhoa]

Could be corrosion on the inside of the rim/bead, or the wrong kind of wheel weights can cause leaks too. How old are the tires? And what kind of tires are they?
And like others said, take the wheel off, make sure there's enough air in it, and use soapy water around the bead and see if there is a leak. If you have access to a small tank of water, you can dunk the wheel in there section by section too and just look for air bubbles, that's the way I prefer since you can check all of the bead, tread and sidewall at the same time. If that fails, get the tire dismounted, cleaned up and bead sealed. And the tubes idea is definetly a good idea too.