Steel wheels

[Lewis07]

What options are there for a straight swap for my alloys? Fed up of loosing pressure because of rubbish wheels.

 

[Graham]

Hi Lewis,

What alloys are you on?

Are you sure it's the alloys leaking the air, not a valve or tyre?

Never heard of a 120 series alloy being leaky.

Gra.

 

[Chris]

Let the air out and stick 500 ml of OKO in them. Not the pink, the green.

Sorted for a few quid. If, as Gra says, it's not a leaky valve.

Chris

 

[silvercruiser]

If you have the original metal valve in them, spray some bubble solution around it, if this is leaking get them changed to the standard rubber ones. Thats where my leaks were.
or if not then Chris's solution.

 

[Lewis07]

Chris

Do you mean let all the air out? Never heard of OKO. Happy to give it a go though.

I bought 4 brand new tyres a month ago by the way.

Thanks

 

[Chris]

Well you aren't going to be able to get sealant in with air still in the tyres are you?

You take the valve core out then connect the tube on the bottle and squeeze the goop in and re inflate your tyres. There are two sorts, the pink stuff is supposed to be for car tyres but Crispin used it and it went solid, possibly as a reaction to something in the tyre material. So I use the porridge coloured one for agricultural tyres. it's been debated at length on here. I have it in ll my tyres including my quad and both trailers and both sets of cruiser tyres. I pay £7.50 for a 1250ml bottle. In a regular tyre just to seal a leak I'd say that 500ml per tyre would be plenty.

I'd be asking your tyre fitter why they are leaking. Cruiser wheels aren't know for leaks. It could be a s simple as the valve core not being quite tight.

Chris

 

[stumog]

one thing you need to check as we is there corrosion on the rim where the tyre would sit. is it all tyres ? have you fitted something like a 16.5 tyre onto a 16 rim?
if there is corrosion you just need to take the tyre off rube down and repaint the rim where the tye sits let it dry and refit.

stu

 

[Graham]

one thing you need to check as we is there corrosion on the rim where the tyre would sit. is it all tyres ? have you fitted something like a 16.5 tyre onto a 16 rim?
if there is corrosion you just need to take the tyre off rube down and repaint the rim where the tye sits let it dry and refit.

stu

.
.
I would be asking not about the 16,5 inch tyre on the 16 inch rim, but how the hell he managed to lose an inch from the standard 17 inch wheels.

Gra

 

[Chris]

Stu is right about a good rub down; which of course any tyre fitter worth his salt should have done as a matter of course.

Chris

 

[stumog]

sorry gra i have no idea about 120 series just an example we used to fit 15.3 on 15 rim as you could oly get the dumper tyres in 15.3 just used to run tubes.

chris not many tyre fitters do this any more from what i have seen and i amusing this is in south america.

 

[Lewis07]

Tyre fitter did rub rims down. It was he who said he thought it was the wheels. 3 out of 4 loose pressure. Between 4-6 PSI over 4 weeks or so.

 

[stumog]

are the rims cracked at all ? did they leak air before you had new tyres put on?

 

[Chris]

You can actually get porosity in alloy wheels - in other words the metal has tiny holes in it. But this is highly unlike on a factory fit wheel. It doesn't sound like a lot of loss. I think OKO would probably cure that.

Chris

 

[stumog]

You can actually get porosity in alloy wheels thats interesting chris they do say you learn something new every day!! i supose its the same as the later RR blocks!

 

[Paddler Ed]

Get them to use some bead sealer when they fit the tyres; it's often a horrible black gloop, but it's worked a treat on my old alloys on my V70; the tyres held their pressure for most of the time it's been parked up, dropping about 10psi over 2 and a bit years.

The places are reluctant to use it because they have to pay for it, but it's a good fix.

My alloys went around the bead, and even with being rubbed down they wouldn't seal unless I did a full refurb on them. Bear in mind the car had about 200,000 on it at this time.

Second on checking the valve... I discovered the core was loose on the wheel barrow and that was why it kept going flat!

Good luck!

 

[Gary Stockton]

If you really want new rims rather look at forged alloys unless you need to bang a steel wheel back in shape in the bush somewhere. Forged alloys will be stronger and possibly slightly lighter

 

[Crispin]

You can actually get porosity in alloy wheels - in other words the metal has tiny holes in it. But this is highly unlike on a factory fit wheel. It doesn't sound like a lot of loss. I think OKO would probably cure that.

Chris

My neighbour had a similar issue with his SL. Eventually someone found a tiny hairline crack in the rim. Could it be that?

 

[Chris]

That has to be the absolute worst place to get a hairline crack Crispin. Very nasty

C

 

[Lewis07]

I've now replaced all the valves, so fingers crossed. Dealer reckons it should do the trick. We'll see.

 

[Lewis07]

I've now replaced all the valves, so fingers crossed. Dealer reckons it should do the trick. We'll see.

So where is your money? I will be checking pressures this weekend....