slow puncture

[jrdpod]

One of my tyres appeared to have a slow puncture, which I thought I'd traced to a faulty valve.
However, the tyre dealer found that the wheel itself was leaking.
What I'll do is transfer the (virtually new) tyre onto another wheel.
Would it be worth repairing the leaking wheel (via appropriate welding?)

Thanks
John Podgorski/jrdpod.

[mike st gilles]

Its possible to 'reseal' leaking wheels with the application of one of those 'Instant Tyre Repair' aerosols they sell in Halfrauds and other good and not so good accessory shops........I used it on an old Volvo with 'porous' alloys; just put a good squirt into each tyre and then ran it for a few miles and it never leaked again...........it can mess up your valves sometimes, and tyre changers will moan about it but let them, thats what they get paid for.

[mountainmanUK]

Hi Jon!

Over the years I have had quite a few wheels / tyres which deflated slowly because of a poor seal between the tyre and the rim. In almost every case, the 'cure' was for the tyre fitter to remove the tyre, give the wheel a really good clean with a wire brush, then refit the tyre. Usually a good coating of "goo" (grease?) was brushed onto the rim just before refitting. This works for alloys as well as steelies.

Only if an alloy has been badly kerbed, has the tyre failed to reseal correctly, or a steel rim been really badly rusted.

If you take it to a decent tyre fitters, they will probably do the job for about £5, including a new valve and rebalance!

[Kitch]

If it's a steelie, just throw it away. They can be picked up for pennies or less and it isn't worth the hassle.

If it's alloys, they're probably able to rub the corrosion down and refurb the inner lip.

[AndersDK]

My vote on the canned "instant tyre repair".
Would cost you a fiver, and its a 3minutes job holding down the valve on the can until contents emptied into the tyre. The can is pressurised for inflating a 185-70/14 tyre to at least 32psi.

The rest of the job is an instant 15 minutes trip to spread the solution inside the tyre before it settles.
Next dat you check and correct the inflation.

It works every time.

[jrdpod]

Thanks to everyone who responded to this topic.

What I did in the end was get my local tyre dealer to put the good tyre onto a good wheel, and scrap the bad wheel.

Total cost, a fiver.

Cheers
John Podgorski/n586ua.

[cavmad]

Used to happen a lot on alloys, especially MG Metro wheels, when I worked for a couple of tyre companies. We used to strip the tyre off then put the wheel only on the balancing machine and spin it up whilst holding a wire brush against the inner lips of the wheels (wearing goggles of course). Then a good dose of tyre sealant (like a sort of black tar to look at), blow the tyres up beyond their normal pressure and deflate slowly. Worked for a while but the usual suspects (MG Metro mainly) would be back after a few weeks. You couldn't put tubes in those tyres either because they were metric rims.
Tubing is an answer on steel wheels if you're a) desperate and b) they're not low profile (iirc you can only tube tyres from 80-65 sidewall height). Mustn't be forgotten that if you get a nail/screw/puncture in a tubed tyre you're talking instant deflation which isn't very clever at any speed.

[Vanny]

i was under the impression that the 'magical cans of gue' where exactly that and coat the entire inside of the tyre and rim in gunk making them totally impossible to carry out a further correct repair and really messy when changing the tyre next?

I have no practical experience, but the two places i take my tyres to totally swear against it (perhaps they just want my money for a correct repair), my own better judgement tells me that a quick fix is usually just that, a short term bodge, probably right up there with billys experience.


Anyone ever used one of these cans then tried to get the wheel correctly repaired?

[cavmad]

I reckon you could get rid of tyre weld easily enough to affect a repair to the tyre, and I'm petty sure we used to. The ones that were trouble were the old 'Dunlop Denovo(?) TD' run flat tyres which came with that sort of gel coating from new. Once you got a nail through them, and assuming you could actually find a tyre house willing to repair it, you lost the run flat capability.
The very best way of repairing a tyre incidentally is to have it vlucanised. The patch is heated on and if done properly is actually the strongest point of the tyre. Tubing tyres which have a nail or similar through them is a no-no unless you have repaired the hole too as eventually, and unexpectedly, the hole will chaff into the tube and deflate it immediately.
Tubes should only really be used in situations where rim leakages occur and you just can't get them to seal and even then I wouldn't recommend it.
Rear tyres more susceptible to punctures because usually the front wheels pick the object up and it's launched at high speed towards the rear tyres and tyres when wet are far more susceptible to punctures. Oh, and according to something I was told a couple of years ago it's now been discovered that the sudden deflation of a rear tyre will actually cause more instability to the vehicle than a front one blowing out.

[MULLEY]

Doesnt happen with hydraulic citroens, the ride just gets bumpy as the tyre starts shredding to bits when its blown out. Other cars its normally a case of holding on for dear life to avoid spinning out of control.

Unless u r running runflats on a modern car of course....