Losing Tire Pressure

I have a 2006 Ford F150 with the factory 20" wheels. I have a set of ProComp all terrains mounted up for the last 50k miles.

I keep losing air. I don't know what's causing the rapid lose of pressure. It's worse in the winter months. There could be braked dust or maybe the clear coat from the wheels peeling up at the interface of the bead and the wheel...

Now, if I was keeping the truck for more than a year, I would just go and buy new tires and hope that fixes the problem. But I plan on getting rid of it in the late spring or early summer.

Maybe the valve stems? I don't think the wheels are bent at all.

I put air in last night and I lost almost 5 psi when I checked it about 14 hours later. The pressure gauge I used is not the best but it should be consistent with it's self. Its the style with a round needle gauge and a short length of hose and button to release excess air.

Last year, it seemed almost every week I'd need to add 10-15 psi at the coldest of the year. Real fun waiting for a crap gas station compress to full up 275 width tires that are 33" tall with an ambient temp of -15°F.

I am thinking about getting 4 spare tire/wheels from local junk yards.

What would you do/try without investing in $1400 worth of new tires?

spray whole tire with soapy water and look for bubbling to pinpoint your leak?

Had a similar problem w/ aftermarket aluminum rims after 5 or so years of use. Tire shop broke 'em down, cleaned the rim and tire bead and sealed w/ bead sealer. No more leaky. New valve stems while they're down too.

Get a dollar store spray bottle. Put a healthy squirt of dish soap in and top it off with water.

Air the tires up to max pressure (or more...but you shouldn't drive them that way says the guy who dodges liability for the company on a daily basis) and spray the tires down thoroughly (you may have to refill the bottle with those big tires).

Wet them down thoroughly. Get the valve stem-to-wheel interface. Take the valve caps off and wet the cores. Get the bead area, the sidewall, the tread...everything.

Wait patiently...you'll see where it's leaking. Bubble fuzz will grow notably at a slow leak. But you will have to be patient.

Edit: Failboat beat me to it...I wrote a 4 minute post, evidently.

Watch the TPMS sensors/valve stems, we had two that started leaking in our RAV4 and caused air pressure loss.

Thanks guys. I'll try to 'hose' it down with soapy water tonight.

Also remember, from a guy who works at a dealership and deals with this day in and day out, temerature change WILL make your low tire light come on. Every 10 degrees of temperature change = 1 psi of tire pressure change. Colder = less pressure, hotter = more pressure. When we get a cold snap, I get at LEAST 20 cars a day come in for this stuff.

Sounds like yours is an actual leak though. Soapy water spray as suggested will show it.

It sprays the soapy water looking for leaks or else it gets the hose again.

You could always put SLIME in it.

Nail, corroded bead, or valve stem. Easy.

If you're planning on selling it, I would just slime the tires. You won't have to deal with the mess.

Or 25 bucks for a patch at tire kingdom. Real easy. No work involved.

I drove straight to the fleet tire store on the way home from work. $50 total for all four tires was the quote. He said its probably corosion and they will cean them up and install new valve stems.

Removing the valve core, and replacing it with a new one is an easy thing to try and is cheap. 12 bucks for a full kit at Walmart. Air down before you unscrew the core, or it may shoot out at you. Always good to have kit around anyway, so money well spent.

Conquest351 wrote: Also remember, from a guy who works at a dealership and deals with this day in and day out, temerature change WILL make your low tire light come on. Every 10 degrees of temperature change = 1 psi of tire pressure change. Colder = less pressure, hotter = more pressure. When we get a cold snap, I get at LEAST 20 cars a day come in for this stuff. Sounds like yours is an actual leak though. Soapy water spray as suggested will show it.

ran into this with Mom's new Fit … temp dropped to the high 20°s … she went to a Bible study that morning … came home and said OMG THERE'S A ORANGE LIGHT ON MY DASH ….

I eventually was able to figure out the pictograph was a tire … assumed it was for low pressure (because of cold air) … checked her tires and all were at 28psi .. got the compressor cranked up and raised them to 32psi and drove it down the street and back … the light went out

Good suggestions so far. Annoying slow leaks that you can't find with soapy water are caused by crap in the bead.

So I brought my truck to an out of the way tire shop that looks like it does a lot of fleet work and is maybe a small regional warehouse. This is the place! It cost just over $50 and they 'wire-wheeled' the corrosion off of the bead area of the wheels and for them to replace the valve stems. All 4 wheels.

He says it's pretty common for the aluminum wheels to corrode there. He said most manufactures had this problem but Dodge had to actually buy a bunch of wheels back or something like that.

I post this to give this thread some closure.