[SOLVED] Tire Pressure Issue: Bent rim?

This has been going on for a couple months. Only one of my wheels had an extremely slow leak. I went to Town Fair to get it checked out and they couldn’t fine an issue with the tire.
Come 2 weeks ago I wake up and the psi is down 10-15 psi. I run all tires at 43. I have 285/70r18 Nitto Exo Grapplers. Brought just the tire in to save time and they found no hole in tire or leak anywhere. They left it at 60 psi for 2 hours after dis/ass of tire and no leak. Brought wheel home and put back on truck.
Next morning down 10-15 psi again. Bring back in wheel they dis/ass and can find no issues. New valve stem and tpms rebuild.
Wake up this morning and its back down to 30 psi.
Could this possibly be a warped wheel? Seems to drop psi faster in extreme heat/humidity like we’ve been having. I’ve been looking at new wheels but want to eliminate possible tire issue.

 

Sounds like a bead seal problem.

 

They cleaned the tire completely loaded it up with new bead seal. 3 attempted repairs and still leaking. Could that still be the issue?

 

Spray some soapy water everywhere and you'll find the leak pronto. Could be many things.

 

I’ve tried that and they also had the tire in their water bath. It seems to only leak with the weight of my vehicle. I’ll try it again and see how it goes.

 

Spray soapy water around the base of the valve stem and apply pressure to the valve stem as if centrifugal force was applied when driving.

 

Just tried with and without the wheel on the truck. Sprayed the valve stem and applied pressure as you suggested. Sprayed. Every inch of the tire and no bubbling. This could be my excuse to buy new rims. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Get one of those plastic kiddie pools from the dollar store and submerge the whole thing to look for bubbles.

 

I’ll try that tomorrow I have a couple out back the kids use.

 

Its worth a shot. I think that would work better than trying to spray it.

 

Is the tire that loses air one that faces away from your house? Got any practical jokers in your family/area?

 

We had a guy at work that bought an old diesel Rabbit and loved to brag about him MPG. For fun we'd add a little locomotive diesel to his tank without his knowledge. Oh, he'd brag about that MPG until one of the mechanics figured out how to remove some of the diesel from his tank. That sure stopped him discussing his great mileage.

 

The tire tech asked me the same thing haha. It’s the tire facing my house/cameras. I also just rotated my tires the other day and the issue is the same tire. Doubt anybody would be able to pull that off.

 

Did you spray water on the wheel itself on the inside? Could have a hole or crack somewhere from corrosion.

 

Same experience on my old Chevy, after numerous trips to the tire shop and globs of bead sealer, replaced the rim and no more leak!

 

Check the cap for the valve stem. I have a friend who will wedge tiny pebbles/rocks in the caps of people who park poorly, or whom he feels are deserving in some other manner. The rock depresses the valve just enough to be a slow leak, and it's not in a spot anyone looks so it goes on for an eternity.

 

I’ll try that when I get home. I did with the wheel on the truck best I could. Going to try the kiddie pool method.

I already got the wife to okay new wheels I just don’t want have to buy a new tire also.

Nothing in the valve stem. I just aired up yesterday and this morning down 6 psi.

 

Do you happen to have valve stem extensions? I had a problem with them on one car.

 

Not sure if it helps, but I did indeed have a truck once that had *one* bad rim - was covered under recall. Supposedly the casting machine that formed the rims wasn't at spec for pressure, so it was microscopically porous.

 

I do not believe so.

 

Currently at 30 min of spinning this tire around looking for any leaks. Nothing found.

 

The rock or object would be in the cap; not the actual valve stem.

 

I think you went a bit heavy on the soap.

 

Try the valve core itself. I have had some leak only when cold when I lived in the high desert (Bend, OR) area. The wild temperature swings from day to night and the plastic seal on the core would get hard and leak. Worth a shot.

 

I've had my best luck finding leaks by inflating the tire to max pressure listed on the sidewall. Get a spray bottle with around a 99% water to 1% dish soap solution. Too much soap equals too many false positive bubbles. Laying the tire flat start by spraying the rim to tire junction until water puddles there. Sit back and watch for a few minutes. Then spray the entire sidewall getting 100% coverage in a small to medium size area before continuing around the sidewall. Repeat for the other side. Then stand the tire up on a flat and reasonable clean surface spraying and rolling as you go. While spraying the tread or actually better if done prior to wetting is to do a very thorough inspection of the tread for and evidence of a puncture. Lastly check the rim for leaks. The objective is to spray the solution in a way that bubbles are only created if there's a leak.

 

I didn’t see anything in the cap.

Yea a little squirt got out of hand. Thankfully the kids scooped out most of the bubbles and put in their other pool.

The tire shop “said” they replaced the entire valve assembly including the core.

I’ll fill the tire to 60 psi tomorrow and check. If nothing I’ll buy new wheels. And hopefully it’s resolved. Taking the tire on and off is getting annoying in this heat.

 

The entire valve assembly is the TPMS sensor.

 

They said they rebuilt the sensor and everything was new besides the actual sensor.

 

Now this is a long shot, and may not even be applicable on Tundra, but a tire pressure related story that may save someone headache- had a Tahoe reading (in car tpms) low on rear left and they did every check possible with no leak found on the tire. When I insisted they check pressure on all four, (it was low front right) a screw was found in front right. Apparently the car can get which tire is leaking wrong. Cars are getting so "smart", they really seem to be making us stupid/lazier. I've had a bent rim before that also slow leaked. So much so I bought a new four and was done with it. Good luck.

 

I have a jeep that had a annoying leak after getting tires replaced, it would leak down to 15 to 20 psi, sometimes it took weeks or days. So after a few moths i found time to find out how it was leaking. It turned out to be the rim and it was a small fracture under the weight clip, most likely happened from when they pulled the other weight off. The rim is aluminum and the cheep way i found to fix it was every few years i give it dose of tire slime and it's made it over 8 years. (Knock on wood)
A bottle of fantastic also works good but maybe try spraying it on with the weight on the tire in case you have a fracture or a bad casting for the rim. Good luck..