What's the usual routine for this? There doesn't appear to be any nails. Is it possibly a leaky valve stem? How do the tire shops typically handle this? TIA.

 

Take the tire off
Fill up tire with a lots of air.
Then use hose to wet the tire down.
Spot the leak... and mark it.

If it's in the valve stem... they can tighten it.

If there is a puncture, as long as it's not on or near the side wall, they can repair it. They should repair it from the inside of the tire with a plug/patch combo.

Which means they take the tire off the rim, patch it, then put it back on and check for additonal leaks.

 

quick and lazy way to check valve for air leak:
-take off valve cap
-a little spit on finger
-rub over top of valve to make bubble
-watch and see if bubble grows

 

OK, I'll try that. Thanks!

 

Called around. America's Tire Store will fix these for free. Just Tires wanted around $20. They claimed free but also qualified that as long as it's in the tread. I know the game, they're banking on finding a problem area and selling a new tire. Anyway, it's a good way to get you in.


Didn't appear to be the valve stem after using a little soap and watching for bubbles.

 

Well it was a nail that had entered the tread at an angle, causing the side wall to start poking out. Looks like time for a new tire. Tirerack.com has the Dunlop's for $71 each. It's at least a start and good bargaining point for some of the tire shop schysters out there

 

If you never use your car in snowing conditions, you should look into getting dry/wet (summer) tires. Also LRR tires.

 

Only need one tire so I'll just replace that. It turns out the tirerack.com option is best and having the tire drop shipped to a local installer. Should be just under a $100 for it.

 

Not proud of it, but I dinged one of my rims enough there was a slow leak until I had it fixed.

 

Be aware that replacing just one tire might cause problems. There were at least two threads here regarding folks who replaced one tire and then had a driveability problem. Don't remember exactly what was ever confirmed on those cases, though I believe it had something to do with tire circumference. The difference was being picked up by wheel sensors for ABS or some other system and caused problems with the computer. I personally had a problem believing this could happen with such a small difference in circumference, but when the second case was reported, I started to accept that there might be some truth to it.

You might want to search for and read throught those threads. Good luck with the single tire purchase, but if you end up with some type of driveability problem, at least you'll know why!