Van

Wheels also crack... Especially replica ones.

sydneyman

its weird, ive never had this issue before... replica wheels, stock wheels, 6 sets in all... i had a guy in a shop tell me yesterday that they could try painting the inside of the wheel to seal any leaks... anyone heard of that being successful?

sydneyman

this is what im extremely afraid of. it took me long enough to find a set of even replica cup 1's and now i might have to find just one in a certain size... ugh.

Van

Look for something like this: https://rennlist.com/forums/996-foru...d-is-this.html

sydneyman

"I have a wheel from my wife's passat as my hose reel. It had a crack exactly like that (although it leaked air.) "

Nice.


well that was a depressing read. although since these are replicas that are cast (i assume) they can be repaired can't they?

and what is it with this month and wheels?! im like the 4th thread about wheel damage...

AScholtes

my opinion... yes it ca n be prepared if you have the intestinal fortitude to drive on it afterwards...if it were my car... i would be stressed every time it left the driveway...

M758

It could work for a time.

I work in aerospace and one of the products I have experince with are aluminum castings. Sand cast, investment cast etc. All castings have porosity in them and it takes much higher casting grades to prevent them. Routinely aerospace parts are pressure tested to ensure no leakage. Some parts go thorugh an impregnation process to seal up leaks. That is putting the part in vat of specal epoxy and pressurizing it. That process pushes the epoxy into the pores sealing them up.

Paint will probably work, but only for a short time.

Cast wheels will suffer the same issues. Replicas could be make with less strigent materal specs or testing processes which leads to greater chance of leaky wheels getting to the customer.

The best fix would be to find the leak and weld it up. Chances are the wheel is structurally sound, but just does not hold air. Now you need a good welder to do this work and some machine time after to try to get the wheel back in balance. It may cost you far more than just getting new wheel.
You could also contact the manufacturer as this is a material defect that they should not have let escape. However you will need to find the leak place first and would need to show it was not result of damage from curbing or hitting anything.

sydneyman

joe, thanks for the help. I just looked at the wheel onthe inside and outside and saw no visible stress or cracking but its marinating in some windex right now so i'll get back in a little bit... hopefully its a valve stem...

944Ross

I had this problem on a motorcycle alloy rim. Would drop 5 psi in a day but wouldn't trigger any bubbles. Valve and stem OK. I took off the tire and found that the mounting lubricant had dried into a powdery residue on the seat of the rim. These are hard tires to mount, so I guess they used something other than soapy water. I had to scrub the seat and tire bead with scotchbrite to remove it. After that it holds for months.

sydneyman

im hoping its something like that. the po had the wheels painted so im hoping its some paint defect along the bead...

sydneyman

found the leak! i used the windex with low pressure (25psi) and found some frantic bubbles at a single spot at the bead. hopefully taking the tire off and remounting will fix it...

Mr.Rodgers

I have the same exact problem with my Real Cup IIs. Very slow leak, a little more so when there are big temp swings. Started with my last set of tires towards then end of their life, so I thought it was associated with that. Unfortunately, I still have the small problem.

I thought for sure that it was the valve stem a few days ago, but the shop inspected it, said it was fine, but gave me a new one anyway.

It still leaks.

Im down to simply checking the pressure every day and topping it off whenever it needs some air. Good thing my factory Porsche pump still works

sydneyman

found the problem, i hope! im probably going to regret using this term, but here goes! there were a few "nipples" caught between the wheel and the bead. didn't even have to dismount the tire. just pulled them through and the leak stopped! for now anyways... hopefully that won't pave the way for a new path of least resistance... thanks for everyone's help!

Fintro11

I haven't read the whole response (on my iPhone) if you have aluminum rims if there is corrosion were the tire meets the rim it can cause leaks, if you can take the tire off and clean the inside of the rim

sydneyman

thanks Fintro, thats basically the issue. just a rubber nipple between the bead and the rim!