[Thig]

The driver side front tire on my 3 is losing about 4 or 5 pounds of air each night. I pump it to 32 and over the next 24 hours it will lose down to 27 or 28. A local tire shop took the wheel off and emersed in water but could not find anything. They said maybe the tire was still trying to seat itself to the wheel. They did not pull the tire off the wheel.

Any ideas? The car has 600 miles on it. It does not have the tire pressure monitoring system.

 

[bluntman]

My dad had that problem with his winter rims and tires on his 98 Beetle recently. Have the tire shop remove the tire from the rim and clean the inside of the rim and tire bead. Sometimes by simply removing the tire from the rim and reseating it (of course you'll have to rebalance the tire) in a different position will cure the problem. Good luck!

 

[dinu01]

Have te dealer do this, not a tire shop - why pay for this out of your own pocket?

 

[Thig]

I agree the dealer should do this, but he is about an hour away. Probably cheaper to me, conisdering the two hour drive, just to pay to get this done locally. I think the dealer needs to know however, just in case this does not solve the problem.

 

[raitchison]

Inspect the tre for nails if you haven't already, also check the valve stem to make sure it's tight, you can use bubble soap around the valve stem to try to spot te leak.

 

[rpc180]

I heard from others that have used RS-As that they are notorious for loosing air. I haven't fully inflated mine either, they're around 26-27 (its too cold to go outside).

 

[Thig]

Excuse my ignorance. RS-As ??

 

[bluntman]

The tires.

 

[Black7]

You might want to try this..
Take it to a garage that has air. Bring along a spray bottle with soapy water - Put about 50lbs+ in the bad tire a spray it down - first around the rim and then check the rest. The added air may help find the leak. I can't really see it being a rim (unless you bent one) - car's to new and there hasn't been enough time to build up any rubber deposits.. anyway, 2 cents ...

 

[Thig]

Found my slow leak. There is a hole in the wheel itself. It is on the flat area behind the spokes about half way between the beads. It appears to be a hole in the casting itself.

 

[raitchison]

Wow definitely get the dealer to replace that wheel, I'd be worried that the wheel may come apart while driving, sounds like the casting got screwed up.

 

[Thig]

Yeah, they want it back as soon as I can get it to them. They said this was the first time they had heard of this.