FWIW, my truck is a 1995 Nissan XE 4-cylinder pickup. The rims are stock.
The original tires held air just fine for about 3 years. The quick-lube joint filled them with air every 3500 miles or so, but that was it. I never gave a second thought to tire pressure.
Then, one of the back tires tore apart, so I went ahead and bought two new back tires (Futuras). These back tires held air for about a year and a half, then developed slow leaks. They still have slow leaks to this day, about a year later. I fill them with air twice a week.
Both front tires tore apart in the last three months. Both have been replaced with brand new tires. Both of the new tires now have slow leaks, too – but last about 2 weeks between fill-ups.
Is it possible for me to get a set of four new tires that guaranteed will not lose air so easily? What could be happening?
The rims/wheels might be pitted and leting air seep out. That might be fixed by cleaning and sanding the area where the tire meets the rim.
Also if the wheels are the type made of two pieces welded together, there might be leaks at the weld. That can be fixed by putting a sealant all along the weld.
This sounds as if you have some dented rims, all the way around. Do you take this vehicle off-road often? That would be my first guess. Potholes can have the same effect.
Have you by chance been buying tires which do not exactly meet the specifications spelled out by the auto manufacturer? If, for example, you decided to go for a beefier look by buying 225s instead of 195s as recommended, you could be suffering from poor bead seating.
Unless the tyres themselves are damaged, most likely the problem is with the seal between the tyre and rim. This could be caused by rust.
Another posibility is that the valves are at fault, either the core could be leaking air or again it could a problem with the seal caused by rust. I’m assuming that you do have dust caps on them.
The obvious one is of course that there’s a hole in the tire from a nail or sharp piece of junk on the road. This is more common than you might think. But, you have new tires, so it’s not likely to be the case unless you’re really unlucky and live next to a construction site or something.
So my second guess is just that the tire was mounted less than superbly on the rim. If you’ve ever changed a bike tire, you know that there’s no real hard connection between the tire and the rim. The tube just presses the inner edge of the tire against the rim so hard it never slips. Well, car tires are the same way, except car tires are tubeless! That is, the only thing keeping the sidewall of the tire pressed against the inside edge of the rim is air pressure.
Getting the rim and the tire to mate right can be tricky. If you have a slow leak and it’s not the valve stem (where you fill the tire up) and it’s not a hole in the tire, you can probably guess it’s the bead where the tire and rim meet. You can try using a spray bottle of soapy water and spraying down the bead area and looking for bubbles. I also understand some tire places have a very sensitive air-leak meter they can wave around the bead area and it’ll find slow leaks. These can be fixed by taking the tire off the rim, and putting it back on - correctly this time, one would hope.
So, I’d say, first get a really good metal cap for the valve stem to make sure it’s not leaking. Then try the soapy water spray-bottle thing around the bead to try and find any obvious leaks. If that doesn’t work, take it to a mechanic or tire shop and have them inspect the surface of the tire for punctures or screws/nails/etc. And if they have the super-sensitive leak meter, have them play that around the bead.
-Ben
All righty bub… I’ve got an 87 nissan pickup XE that doesn’t leak at all, nada, zip, zero… well, you get the picture. What the heck are you doing to ruin so many tires?
Seriously though, I concur with the rest of the folks here that it’s probably related to rim damage of some sort. The cheapest and easiest way out might be to just pay to have tubes put in the tires.
Yes, they can still put tubes in tires. No, the tire folks won’t normally suggest them to you. Yes, they work quite well. I had them in the back tires of an old oldsmobile I used to own for many years. I vaguely recall that it was about 8 bucks each for the tubes back then, significantly cheaper than new rims.
In my experience there are 2 culprits to slow leaks in multiple tires at once.
A) check the valve stem with the soapy water trick. The tire guys just seem to plier it in without checking it. This is the cheapest thing to fix. They usually replace it when they do the tires. The last guys to do mine shredded the threads for the valve cap.
C) With steel rims, the tire guys used to grind the inside edge of the rim where the bead is to remove any rust. They still do that for aluminum rims. Problem is that aluminum has a nice shiny coating on the rim to protect it, and then they grind it off exposing the alum. to the air and moisture. The alum. rust (which looks white and powdery) may affect the seal that the bead has on the rim. Again the soapy water trick will indicate this. I don’t know if there is a sealant you can use on the bead.
I have tires on steel rims that have been fine for 10 years, and alum. rims that lasted 3 years.
Put air in them & then spray them with a hose & see if you can find where the air is going. You really should though get the proper tires for the way you are driving.
I’m driving on interstates to and from work, plus a three-hour drive to New Orleans every 3 or 4 weeks! No tire abuse … honest! The truck NEVER goes off-road.
Three years ago, I DID drive a lot on potholed streets for a 5-6 month stretch, but I drove like a little old grandma – >15 mph – specifically to avoid tire/rim damage. Does it only take a single good shot to mess up a rim? I thought they were sturdier than that – especially on a pickup.
Sofa King, I do buy the exact tire size that originally came with the truck. I don’t care about having a show truck with fat tires or anything like that.
I think ModernRonin’s suggestions make the most sense to me. I need to break down and spend the cash for top-flight diagnostics – and maybe for new back rims. I just really hate sinking money into my truck, but this is pretty important, as I put about 2000 miles a month on th truck.
Engineer_comp_geek, I’m intrigued by the tubes you mention. I have never heard of them, but they sound worth checking out.
Cantara, handy – the soapy water trick was tried last summer by a less-than-motivated gas station attendant last summer. He said he could see nothing. Well, forget him – I’ll have to take my truck care to a higher, pricier level.
i’ll bet that if you check those leakers, you will find road debris stuck in them. modern tires will self-seal pretty will with a big nail or screw, but will lose air over a short period of time. there is an amazing collection of crap on the roads.
i am not a tire expert but i can tell you even normal tires (no leaks, mounted perfectly yada yada) lose air pressure over time. your orig post stated tires “tore apart”. tires should never tear apart if they are checked regulary and rotated. you may want to pay closer attention to them in the future, as the visual check isn’t acurate worth a shit with many new tires.
have your tire guy patch any holes caused by debris, replace your stems and check for rust on your rims and you check that pressure regularly!
(my wife and i have 10 cars, including a nissan just like yours and we are always having leaks in something, but we live in the boonies and have more hazards to deal with, but the overwhelming majority of leaks are caused by road debris)
I have a 94 nissan pickup. it has the same problem, but only on the rear pasenger side tire. I replaced the tires last summer, and after a few months, the same rim developed another leak…it bugs the hell out of me, i air up that tire once a week
Aluminum is an extremely reactive metal. So reactive, in fact, that all of the aluminum you have ever seen is covered with a microscopic layer of aluminum oxide. Unlike your typical reddish iron oxide, however, aluminum oxide is tightly adherent to the underlying metal and forms an airtight “passivating” layer that prevents further oxidation. If you grind aluminum, exposing unoxidized metal, it oxidizes very quickly. Any aluminum “rust” that forms is again very tightly adherent. I can’t imagine what you are thinking would be white and powdery on an aluminum rim.
