Is this a good fix for slow leaks in tire???

$160 sounds high to me. I would go back to Boch and ask them to fix the slow leaks, using a generous coating of bead sealer on the inside of the wheels. I used to call on them, and they had a good service department at that time.

Nitrogen is becoming more common to fill tires. It supposedly leaks out more slowly.

The nitrogen won't hurt, but it's largely irrelevant. The problem is the rims, and the guy's got the right idea. Are these aluminum alloy rims?

I'm Ernie Boch! Come on down!

I don't know if he's still alive or not, but I believe he retired a few years ago. Um...quite a few...

As Joe says be careful "grinding" rims - we've had 3 Avalons and all had had aluminum alloy wheels..

Costco does mount/balance/rotate/fill with Nitrogen for $16.00 tire if you are a member and didn't buy them there. I've never had a tire leak at the bead that was properly installed and any decent tech will clean it properly before installing Ron

Ernie is quite the character - he also happens to be the Subaru distributor in New England. He used to joke that he wouldn't retire until he was a billionaire, and our guess was that he was about 3 quarters of the way there. His local house was an unassuming raised ranch, although he had the requisite mansion on the vinyard were he spent weekends.

That's a good one Ray! I hear Argon even leaks slower than Nitrogen, it's "thicker". LMFAO!!

Then it should work!

How about Hydrogen? Not only might it leak slower, it would also reduce your unsprung weight!

Not only that, but you could open the valve cores slightly and use a remote igniter for a JATO assist over that pesky overpass or rush hour traffic. That might become trendy and popular with the discriminating young pimp-my-ride crowd.

If you really want tires that will not leak, check out the cushion tires used on forklifts.

LOL, not that it matters but stuff like a/c refrigerant lines were a 1oz leak per year would be huge is leak tested with nitrogen gas.

In an ironic universe, possibly. H should leak faster than any other gas, thanks its atoms being the smallest. I'd expect this to hold even for its heaviest isotope, Tritium.

Anecdote: in the 1960s (maybe 70s), there was a deep-sea-living experiment that involved a habitat anchored to the sea bed. It had everything needed for a reasonably comfortable modern life, including a normal TV set. Occupants could only come and go by diving, using high pressure breathing gear supplying a mix with hydrogen in it, a mix also employed in the habitat. The TV set CRT display eventually became useless, as hydrogen atoms leaked through the CRT glass under pressure and spoiled the vacuum.

Say again? AFAIK they've never used a Hydrogen and Oxygen blend for diving, if for no other reason than the extreme fire and explosion hazard...

Helium and Oxygen diving breathing mixes however have long been used with relative safety. And Helium would easily sneak into a CRT, too, since it's a really slippery molecule.

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(KICKS SELF) Not hydrogen but helium: next-smallest atom FWIW, so hydrogen would have been even worse -- and flammable.