I have an extremely slow leak in my pass rear tire. When I say extremely slow...I mean between like 3 and 5 psi per day. I try to fill it every time befor I go out to 32 psi. Lowest I saw one day was 12 psi when I first noticed it a month ago.

I did the soapy water thing around the entire tread of the tire about 3 times, nothing. No nails no punctures nothing. Put some around the valve stem and may be saw a few tiny bubbles but I can't tell for sure if its from the stem or the bottle. If I squirt it directly inside the stem there's bubbles (normal?)

The wheels and tires were bought new about 6-7 months ago, since then I've put maybe 2k miles on them. Anything else I can try before I go to the tire place? (Trying to avoid that...they weren't so kind to the lip on the last set I brought to them)

 

First part may be your problem right there....bubbles growing from inside the stem, that's your leak. Next thing may be that they damaged the lip of the tyre so it's not seating properly against the rim. Even if it isn't damaged, I'd say change the valve, and get them to break the tyre from the rim and grease the lip before reinflating it.

 

You should put it in a dunk tank and look for air bubbles. If you don't have one, a pool or if you don't have that then use a kids pool that's about a foot deep so you can dunk the wheel/tire and check for leaks...if spraying soap didn't work and you are afraid to take it back to that shop, then try this before giving in....

Follow the tire around the wheel on both sides (where it meets up with the tire). Notice any deformations or anything that doesn't look right? It should be nice and straight all the way around...no wavy lines or nothing.

Just my suggestion.

 

i had a similar problem a few weeks ago, ended up just being the valve stem core.

 

If you don't mind a little dirt, you can dunk it in your bathtub. Turn the wheel a couple of times before looking for bubbles. Air will get trapped in the tread blocks and appear to be leaks as they escape, so if you turn it a few times it will help get rid of them and let you focus on the real issue.

 

I worked through college as a tire technician. if the only bubbles that you are seeing are from the inside of the valve stem, then it could either be a bad valve stem core, or the core is not tightened all of the way down. The valve stem cores screw into the valve stem. Any tire shop should be able to check the tightness for you for free. If the core itself is bad, then they should be able to give you an extra off of one of their trash replaced valve stems. Another thing to check is if there is leakage around the valve stem itself. Move it around after you spray soap solution on it (assuming that you have a rubber valve stem). If you have a metal valve stem there is not much to move unless the nut on the stem is loose. Good luck. Make sure that you have a high enough pressure when you are checking for leaks. A dunk tank is sometimes the only way to find certain leaks.

 

is it at the base of the stem? if so it is probably your valve stem.

Also, leave the valve cap off for a day and see if it is still leaking. At my old job we had a lady that made us replace her rim and tire 3 times. They finally figured out that it was the valve cap causing the leak.

-Taylor

 

It ended up being the valve stem core. Fixed it right up and no more leak. Thanks every one! Y'all gave some good tips to remember if I ever have another leak!