New Tires Leaking Air
 

I bought a new set of ZLE rims, tires and TPMS sensors. Had my detailer mount and balance them, but the tires keep losing air. The tires were very low when I got home so I filed them up to 34psi. After two hours, they already dropped down to 33psi. What could possibly be leaking if everything is new?

It's possible that they installed them wrong. Mine were like that, the valve was installed weird and was leaking.

Spray them with a soapy/water mixture. It could be the valve cores not tightened/torqued, the TPMS stems missing a gasket/seal, or TPMS nut not completely tightened/torqued, the tire bead not sealing to the rim (unlikely being new wheels and tires), but being low profile the installer could of torn the tire(s) trying to mount them? Also there should not be any leakage coming from around any clip weights seeing it should of been balanced with tape-weights both inner and outer. Whip up some soapy spray and see what you find...

I sprayed them with soapy water but didn’t see anything obvious. It’s definitely a slow leak because each tire dropped 2 psi overnight. Gonna see if the installer can fix the issue. I’ll let you guys know what the issue is

Last time I had tires put on I had the same issue. Turns out a bristle from the bush they use was stuck in the bead.

Its entirely normal if you saw a 1lb drop after having driven it home and time for the tires to have cooled, 2 hrs, dropping pressure.

I had an issue where the surface machining wasn't compatible with the TPMS sensors I bought. Had to get new sensors with a different seal design that fixed the issue. Mine were aftermarket forged wheels and OE sensors that didn't work. Had to get generic sensors that sealed properly.

I could understand if the tire was warm but it lost pressure just sitting in the garage overnight. The tire was cold when I filled it. One of the tires lost 15psi from the time it was balanced to now, which was a week.

This situation has me stumped. Everything is new and oem. My detailer pulled a wheel off and sprayed the entire thing with soap. We didn’t see any bubbles and they sprayed it multiple times. They filled the tires with nitrogen.........so far so good. Hopefully they hold

Ok you didnt say 15lbs in a week

I probably mentioned it in the other thread and forgot to on this one. My detailer filled the tires up to 32psi last week. When I took the car home a couple of days ago, it was driving weird. I checked the tire pressure about 5 hours after I got home. The tires in the rear were sitting at 15psi & 25psi. The fronts were 21psi & 30psi.

I’m not a tire expert in any way, but if you have the same problem happening on multiple tires, then the tire itself isn’t like to be the cause, so keep that in mind as you’re going down the troubleshooting tree 🙂

Good luck!

Geoff

Re-reading first post, since everything is new then yeah maybe an incorrect install or an incompatible TPMS sensor, as has been suggested.

Geoff

No question the 15 psi tire has a leak.
I would start by making sure you have an accurate tire gauge. Amazon has good digital ones for less than $10.
Fill all the tires to same pressure (32 sounds low to me, but probably ok).
You should not be losing more than 3 psi overnight on any tire unless there is a severe temperature drop.

If you have a suspect tire, I would remove it and overinflate to like 40 psi. Then hit it with the soapy water. I use dish soap mixed in spray bottle. More soap than you would need to clean dishes. Maybe a tablespoon per 8 ounces. When searching for a leak, you have to make sure the soap gets to the flat surfaces of the tire. It tends to roll off, and then it will not bubble. This is partially why a "thicker" soapy mixture is better. The mixture they use in a tire shop adds glycerine, which is the same stuff added to kids' bubble-making fluid. Bigger leaks can quickly pop bubbles made from a too thin mixture.

The bit about the car driving weird and the tire pressure dropping so much makes me think they did not seat the beads completely when mounting your tires.

The TPMS sensors should be fine. I got the oem sensors because the aftermarket sensors are not reliable. Maybe it didn’t seal properly
My detailer pulled off the 15 psi tire. He inflated the tire to 48psi and sprayed the entire wheel with a soapy solution. He placed the wheel on the ground so the soap wouldn’t drip off but we still couldn’t find any bubbles. We decided to fill the tires with Nitrogen (32psi) and so far they are holding the pressure. I have two gauges and both are reading between 31 and 32. Maybe the beads didn’t seal properly. I guess the gap is big enough for air to leak out but not Nitrogen