Tyre Pressure Warning

[mopardave]

My tyre pressure warning light is coming on every two to three weeks. It's the same tyre but I can't find any damage/nails etc. As slow punctures go, this is very slow.....if in fact it is a puncture? I don't think it's the valve....I've spat on it and no bubbles. Could it possibly be the tyre against the rim not seating properly for some reason? I'm scratching my head about this???? Logic tells me it IS a puncture.....but there's no damage I can see. Any thoughts?

 

[Shredder]

Assume you carry a digital tyre pressure gauge to check cold pressures anyway.

What's the pressure drop from when you pump the problem tyre to it's correct pressure and reset the TPMS and then 3 weeks later when the TPMS goes off again??

I think the pressure drop is quite significant to set off the TPMS, so my thinking would be that you would easily notice without wondering why the TPMS has gone off. Therefore, issue may not be tyre or valve but sensors or such ??

 

[Pete C]

Are you actually losing pressure ?

Pete

 

[Alan Walsh]

Mine has only ever gone off once in the 2.5 years/55k miles I have had it and it turned out I had a slow puncture. Another screw from site!

 

[mopardave]

Are you actually losing pressure ?

Pete

I should've said.....yes, I am. Approx 5psi every 3 weeks. I'll check it tomorrow. Generally, I have them pumped up quite high.....about 48psi all round. I'm on 17" Devonports.

 

[Sjacko20]

Take it off, drop it in the bath and watch for bubbles or if you don’t fancy that, mix up some washing up liquid and water then pour it over the tyre and look for bubbles forming. We had a similar problem on a car that turned out to be a poorly fitted valve, took weeks to drop but kept doing it so took it to the local tyre shop and it was leaking around the base of the stem.

 

[mopardave]

Take it off, drop it in the bath and watch for bubbles or if you don’t fancy that, mix up some washing up liquid and water then pour it over the tyre and look for bubbles forming. We had a similar problem on a car that turned out to be a poorly fitted valve, took weeks to drop but kept doing it so took it to the local tyre shop and it was leaking around the base of the stem.

Right.....I'll try that tomorrow.

 

[Dellmassive]

5psi over 3 weeks is a small leak, but a leak all the same.........

last time i had this was on a BMW 530D 17" alloy rim (low profile tyre), the Tyre shop over inflated the Tyre to its max - say 50psi,

then got a squirty bottle of water&washing up liquid mix and covered the whole tyre and valve with soapy water (inner and outer edges).

it took about 3 mins . . . . but . . . . eventually we saw a tiny bubble appear by the rim/tyre seal..

when they took the tyre off they said there was slight corrosion around the alloy rim causing the slight leak....... they painted this black gungy stuff (made for this purpose) all around the rim edge, then refitted the tyre.

never leaked again . . . .

 

[Hactus]

Had the same issue on my Devonports. Took the van into the tyre centre and they put the wheel into a bath but couldn’t see any leak so just cleaned the rim, fitted new valve and re-fitted the tyre.

Two weeks later same again. Back to the tyre centre with intention of having the front tyres swapped onto a different rim but the tyre fitter wanted to put the wheel back in the bath. This time for around 30 minutes and they found a very small puncture which has been repaired.

One week into seeing if the leak was the problem, if I get past next Saturday then that should be it.