OT - VERY slow small tire leak

My snow blower (tubeless) tire went flat. Took it off, pumped it up, & did under-water bubble test. Negative; no bubbles. Watched it: went from 20 psi to 17 over 2 days.

What now? Any better way to check for leak?

Thanks, Bob

Reply to
Bob Engelhardt
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Just put a tube in it!

Reply to
Tim Wescott

Or the green snot, not sure of the right name, but its for sealing leaks on ATV type tires.

Reply to
Karl Townsend

Way back there was a aerospace test for determining if hermetic seals were good. It was called the " Joy " test. At that time Joy dishwater detergent in water produced the best bubbles.

I think that sometimes a tire does not loak if the tire is off the vehicle, but does leak when the tire is supporting a load and in in the right orientation.

I assume you checked the valve stem and checked that the bead did not leak.

Dan

Reply to
dcaster

dcaseter pointed out the "don't forget the stem and valve" part, what pressure did you use for the test and did you have big-enough tank of _still_ water to be able to fully submerse the whole thing? Be careful, of course, but over-pressure some to give a little extra "oomph" to the leak...

Or, while I hate have the stuff in the tires, use the sealer.

Reply to
dpb

I agree with Dan's comments. Would also add that just the act of checking a small tire with a pressure gauge lowers the pressure. Depending on the size it could be a significant amount. With smaller tires I usually give them another small shot of air after fuddling around checking the pressure and then call it good.

You can try over pressuring it some too, might reveal the leak.

You probably already gave it a good inspection but if not carefully look it over. Small tacks and nails can seal-up quite good but leak during use. I've actually have a couple tires plugged with small rivets. Just can't bring myself to ram a 1/4 inch repair plug into a hole/leak that is the size of needle. And I'm too cheap to buy a specialty repair plug and lazy to dismount the tire ;-)

Reply to
Leon Fisk

Also be carefull, because a tire may leak a lot more slowly from the rim/bead interface when the pressure is higher.

A tire may loose 1 psi per day at 40psi, and then loose 2psi a day when the pressure drops to 30 PSI, and go flat overnight from 20.

On a tubeless tire a hardened rubber bead combined with a rusted steel rim (in the bead seal area) is a very common cause of air leakage.

Also age hardened and Ozone damaged rubber cam allow air to "ooze" throughthe rubber carcass.

Generally installing a tube in the tire after making sure there is nothing penetrating the tire carcass, and no roughness on the rim, is the best way of sealing a small low-speed tire.

Reply to
clare

How long did you watch? In chasing a similar sort of leak it turned out that one millimeter-sized bubble appeared every couple of minutes. It took about half an hour with a stopwatch to be sure the bubbles were from a leak and not just trapped air. The water and tire must be perfectly still, if the timing is regular you can be pretty sure it's worth investigating.

Patience, patience and more patience.....

8-)

bob prohaska

Reply to
bob prohaska

My lawnmower front tires were a problem because of all the spiny bumelia and mesquite thorns. Had them filled with urethane foam. Rear tires would be too heavy (and expensive) and tear up the drive train.

Reply to
Pete Keillor

I'd bet on a rim leak, wire brush the tire/rim interface and apply a bit of sealer before reseating the tire.

Reply to
Tom Gardner

Rim leaks show up well if you spray a little soap solution on the horizontal tire. Tiny bubbles stay where they form instead of being lost in a larger pool.

Some laundry and dishwasher detergents intentionally don't form long-lasting bubbles.

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Those meant for washing cars or dishes by hand may serve better to reveal tire leaks. I keep a spray bottle of ~10% Simple Green near the outdoor hose and have had good results with it on leaky tires. Its bubbles aren't so persistent that I can't clear off the inevitable ones from applying it.

--jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Who filled them, what was the cost, and what's the product used, please? My problem here is thorns from blackberry bushes.

Reply to
Larry Jaques

It was an outfit up I-35 that does huge excavator tires, towmotor tires, etc. It's a pretty dense urethane, very heavy, had to leave the wheels a day or two to allow cure time. Cost about $25 per.

Them must be some badass blackberries.

Reply to
Pete Keillor

Multiflora rose, wild blackberries and autumn olive here. It's the wimpy 2 ply tires that are the problem. We need some 6 ply heavy duty replacements...

They are why I have some little rivets plugging holes in my mower tires. I've got acres of the nasties, too many to exterminate...

Reply to
Leon Fisk

Get a magnetrak or some other crawler -

Reply to
clare

Agree. The small tires just don't hold very much air. You're much better of f filling with a tire chuck that has a built-in gauge. I don't think you ca n do an accurate reading of "it lost x psi in y days" with a tire gauge tha t isn't permanently attached to the valve.

That said, the goop that goes in the tire and stays slimy seems like a good way to go in this case.

Reply to
rangerssuck

I've avoided using it because of this claim:

"Seals multiple punctures repeatedly up to 2 years."

From:

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Crap nowadays I blink my eyes and 2 years have passed. The mower I would use it on is 8 years old. My rivet fix has been holding for 7 years... No experience but I've heard horror stories about trying to fix/replace tires that have had slime put in them. It seems to be an expedient fix but bites back another day (shrug).

Reply to
Leon Fisk

Man those look so cool! But way out of my affordability zone. Hell I think they are even more expensive than the Green machines. I had to pick myself off the floor after looking at the price...

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Reply to
Leon Fisk

I had a problem with one of my wheeled generators like that. 4 X 10 tires, Two piece rim, Stripped it down, installed a new tube with slime in it, thin layer of silicone between the rim halves. bead sealer on the tire. Result, still leaked down in about a month !!!

Solution, bought solid 16" replacements and added a taller front support. Made the problem go away and made it a lot easier on my back to work on that thing.

Reply to
Steve W.

I had to demount and hose it out from tires I had put it in, since it didn't reach and seal bead leaks. Other than the nuisance of prying the tire off and back on it wasn't hard to remove.

--jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

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