Tyre pressures

Air coming out of tyres:

Faulty valve Punctures

Try swapping one for the spare and see what the spare thinks.

Also: If your tyres are going down to 20psi in one week then you need to blow them up every couple of days, running around for the end of your week with terribly under inflated tyres is a BAD THING. Plus, I bet your insurance company wouldn't pay out if you caused an accient.

--Nick.

The other possibility is that the wheels are knackered. Could the rims have been damaged by a large pot hole for example.

The message from Nick contains these words:

Or possibly corrosion on the rims preventing the tyres from sealing properly.

Guy King wrote on Mon, 31 May 2004 10:23:29 +0100:

Or, as happened to me (perhaps I should have sued the council), going over a large pot-hole at 25-35mph (NSL, but single track road) can bend the rims and let air out. In my case, it only really seemed to leak out when I went over speed bumps..

If the car is oldish, and has alloys, it's common for the seal between the tyre and rim to 'go' due to corrosion. The only long lived cure is to have the wheels reconditioned at a specialist who will strip the paint and replace it. A tyre place will offer a temporary fix which involves cleaning up the rim - but this will expose even more bare metal which will quickly corrode again.

Thats where the smart money is ;)

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IME a good wire brushing to the bead area of an ally wheel, followed by a good coat of silver Hammerite will last for years. Mike.

Might well, but you won't get Kwik-Fit to do this. I suppose you could get them to remove the tyre and perhaps clean the beads on their tyre balancer, then paint it at home.

Is Hammerite OK direct to alloy, though? Can be tricky stuff to get paint to stick to well.

Well, the car is a 2000 Mondeo and its done about 50K miles. The car has standard Ford alloys on it, which seem to be in generally good condition.

Is it wise to ask whoever changes my tyres whether he can spot any problems with the wheels? Or do you think they are just likely to try and sell me something I dont need..? Im due a couple of new fronts in about a month.

Thanks for all your help though. :)

Stephen. :)

Or remove the tyre yourself. Not that difficult with good levers, once you get the bead into the well. Replacing is even easier. Only feet and a mallet needed. :-)

Found one tyre on my older Celica (the ST165, not the ST185) was leaking from the rim after using washing up liquid on the rim. After removing the tyre, and seeing the corrosion, decided to paint it. I know Hammerite is not supposed to be an ally paint, but of the paints I already had, it seemed the best one to use. Nice and thick, with a hard finish., and it did stick really well. Replaced the tyre the next day after it had dried. No leaks. When a new tyre was fitted, about 2 years later. I had a good look at the rim again. The paint was still smooth with no sign of cracking and the new tyre was not leaking 18 months later when I sold the car.

Can be tricky stuff to get paint

IME sticks well to any rough or corroded surface. So yes. I'd say Hammerite is definitely OK on ally. Mike.

Ah. I wouldn't expect those sort of problems on wheels that new.

A good tyre place will put the entire wheel in a tub of water to check for leaks - although many just seem to squeeze some soapy liquid round the rim these days. That didn't show any leak on a tyre of mine which was going down about 10 lbs/sq.in in a week. But putting the tyre onto a 'new' wheel i had cured it - so I must assume it was leaking at the seal.

Nothing more annoying than a slow 'puncture'

The message from StephenH contains these words:

They'll put 'em on the back and move the backs to the front.