I notice the drivers side front wheel has been loosing air pressure for a while- its weird because it was doingthat last year than sort of stopped and the problem apparetnly went away. It now appears to be back, so took it to kwick fit to check that it isn’t a slow puncture, but they said the tyres were fine and that the seal round the rims was the likely cause. i think the wheels are original (MK1 1991), and my question is if re-furbishing them would solve the problem, or whether I may be fighting a loosing battle and should just buy a new set of wheels.
also, does anyone know if a good place for re-furbishing around the oxfordshire/buckinghamshire area?
No, don’t buy any new wheels, just go to a decent tyre place and explain what is happening and get them to take the tyre off the wheel and wire brush all the corrosion off. They can then brush some sealant, not silicone, around the rim before refitting the tyre. This will solve your problem. I have had this done on three of the wheels on my Rav 4 car about 6 weeks ago and and I haven’t lost any air from the tyres since then.
As for refurbishing your wheels why not DIY. There is an archive in the forum on how I did mine but you may not have the machine I had but you can still do them with hand tools.
I concur. After having new tyres fitted on my wife’s roadster we noticed a ‘slow puncture’ on the offside front.
Took it back to the tyre fitters and they removed the tyre, cleaned the inside of the rim where the tyre bead sits, re-lubricated and re-fitted the tyre and it’s been fine ever since. That was over a year ago now.
Slight corrosion or a bit of dirt not allowing the tyre to seal properly against the rim, that was all it was.