Do you always have to top off your tires with air?

jimbofoxman · May 1, 2019

I am always having to add air to my tires. One I could add 2-3lbs every week, so that may be a legit leak. Two of them I have to add 2-3lbs probably every 2-3 weeks. 4th one seems to be the slightly longer than #2 and #3. I had them check one last rotation, which I thought was the worst one, but I think I told them the wrong one. The only thing the guy said "could" be possible is the rim had a little corrosion on it maybe messing with the seal a bit. But he couldn't find anything in the tire.

2015 Silverado

Original Tires, the horrible "ALL TERRAIN" Good Years

18" Aluminum Rims

37,200 miles

CombsL83 · May 1, 2019

Could be leaking from the tpms as well. Have the same issue on my Mitsubishi I’m just to cheap to buy a new sensor and have it installed.

KARNUT · May 1, 2019

Normally once a year at the first cold snap.

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diyer2 · May 1, 2019

I check our tires regularly.

I would put some new tires on it.

GN2018 · May 1, 2019

That’s not right. That sounds like more than seasonal fluctuation. Plus, it’s getting warmer, the pressure should be increasing. Need to get them checked out.

aseibel · May 1, 2019

good tires with a good seal should not be losing 2-3 lbs per month if the temps are steady.

Of course you need to add air in the fall/early winter when temps drop due to the lower volume of cold air. But you definitely have a slow leak. I went through that on my grand am with aluminum wheels, they corrode around the rim and you can't get a good seal. takes some elbow grease to clean up the edge.

you have 37,000 miles on them- how long do you plan to keep the current tires? You can live with checking the air weekly, or you could buy a new set of rubber and have the rims cleaned up to make sure they are sealed right.

Edited May 1, 2019 by aseibel

jimbofoxman · May 1, 2019

9 minutes ago, aseibel said:

good tires with a good seal should not be losing 2-3 lbs per month if the temps are steady.

Of course you need to add air in the fall/early winter when temps drop due to the lower volume of cold air. But you definitely have a slow leak. I went through that on my grand am with aluminum wheels, they corrode around the rim and you can't get a good seal. takes some elbow grease to clean up the edge.

you have 37,000 miles on them- how long do you plan to keep the current tires? You can live with checking the air weekly, or you could buy a new set of rubber and have the rims cleaned up to make sure they are sealed right.

I was going to wait for a while. But this winter started thinking I was just going to replace them before this coming winter to something more aggressive and up a size. Because the stock ones just look silly. So maybe late fall of this year. Just ride it out for spring and summer and early fall. Not like I'm putting huge miles on it (Started with 11k in Aug 2017)

m3n00b · May 1, 2019

Normally once a year at the first cold snap.

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This.

Mikebtte · May 1, 2019

Are you checking pressure with a gauge or are you going off what the TPMS are reading?

mikedeezxxx · May 1, 2019

My tire pressure is usually all over the place. Drives me nuts. I dont even look at the monitoring system any more. The weather I find affects the pressure. One day it’s good. The next day it says there is more pressure. Than the next day it says there is less pressure than I started off with. Totally annoying.

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jimbofoxman · May 1, 2019

49 minutes ago, Mikebtte said:

Are you checking pressure with a gauge or are you going off what the TPMS are reading?

Use the TPMS as trigger to check, but I always check with a tire gauge.

aseibel · May 1, 2019

36 minutes ago, mikedeezxxx said:

My tire pressure is usually all over the place. Drives me nuts. I dont even look at the monitoring system any more. The weather I find affects the pressure. One day it’s good. The next day it says there is more pressure. Than the next day it says there is less pressure than I started off with. Totally annoying.

are you parking outside, two tires in the sun, two in the shade?

the pressure also increases after you're driving (warms them up).

You are supposed to check them when cold.

Grumpy Bear · May 1, 2019

So....how OCD are you?

You can figure about 1 psi difference for each 10 degrees F in temperature change. PVT equation.

In my area, Northern Illinois, the daily average temperature swing is roughly 20-25 degrees F. or 2 to 3 pounds by TPMS readings.

Largest daily swing here was 50 degrees according to NOAA.

Winter to summer can be what, 130 F plus different from peak to peak. That wont happen all at once or stay for very long.

Weekly temperature swings can be 30 degrees or more.

Normal driving on a tire increases pressure roughly 2 to 3 psi.

Simple sunshine can raise pressure on a parked cold car 2 to 4 pounds above the shady side.

I've seen this happen mid summer while driving all day traveling west that left side gains more than right side to a lesser extent.

Tire position and alignment can have one tire a pound higher that the rest. Drivers side front normally.

Time..even a well sealed tire will loose air over time. Ever store a car? Set it on blocks in the fall all aired up in that nice heated garage and find them 10/15 psi low or more next spring. Only five or six months. Old tires worse than new.

Those are just the 'normal' reasons for tire pressure fluctuation.

Think all the abnormal reasons others have covered.

jimbofoxman · May 1, 2019

I only fill when they are cold, like first thing in morning before going to work. Yes I always see the fluctuation when driving which I understand is normal. Other than work it is parked in a garage.

I'm not talking about checking everyday. Like the one that is always the fastest it seems like checked when my sensor said 31 and topped it off to 35 the next morning. That was last week sometime and this morning is was 32. The other two I topped off a couple weeks ago were at 32 this morning. Yes the weather has been fluctuating, it's spring in Michigan.

The one may have a leak, I'll have them check that one.

kickass audio · May 1, 2019

I had one of my rims that had a rim leak on the inner part of the tire. Being the genius I am (haha) I tried to deflate the tire and use a block and break the bead from the inner part of the rim and clean it up and reseal it but I wound up putting a little dent in the lip on the rim. Nothing that hurt it at all though for longevity.

Anyway I found the leak by taking some super cheap hand soap and watering it down and spraying it all around the rim and let it sit for 10 minutes. It had taken that long to show the leaks and I had a good mound of bubbles around the bead. I was losing around 3 psi a week and was just filling it up every time because I was ordering my BFG's in another few months so I just dealt with it.

Double check with soapy water if you have a rim leak like I did as well as check the tread area for any pin holes or cracks in the tire. I had the same mileage on my 14 when I ditched the factory SRA's and the one tire leaked 3-5 psi a week depending on how cold it was outside and the other 3 leaked a pound or 2 a month. My new BFG's don't leak an ounce of air and I noticed that the front tires heat up faster than the rears so my pressure is always 2 psi higher in the front tires than the backs until I drive around awhile.