how to repair a tubeless tire?

**NorCal1.8T** · 08-31-2008 10:03 AM

Drove 4 hours here to lake tahoe, found that my tire deflated the next morning, thought it was the altitude, so I went to chevron put some air in it, held up well during the day yesterday, but this morning found it flat again. Tire is kumho AST ku25 225/40/18. What's my best solution for fixing it?

**ILoveT** · 08-31-2008 10:05 AM

Find the leak and go from there....

**andyrew** · 08-31-2008 10:13 AM

Take it to a tire shop. Who do you use for tires/ext? If you use them alot and your in there books they may do it for free (like American Tire)

Is the leak on the sidewall or the tread? If its on the sidewall, new tire time.

**mike-2ptzero** · 08-31-2008 10:36 AM

If it is a performance tire you want to go with a patch on the inside of the tire. Discount/american tire will do it for free. If it was just a normal tire you can use a plug.

**NorCal1.8T** · 08-31-2008 10:44 AM

Unfortunately there is no discount/american near where i am right now, i am about 4 hours from home so i guess i will have to use the spare for now, and take it a tire shop up here and see whats going on. I really do not see any nail punctures on the thread.

**37doc** · 08-31-2008 10:50 AM

take the wheel off , put air in the tire and use a spray bottle, hose , cup ,ect with water to find the leak, if you add a little hand soap it will really bubble when it gets on the leak, also check your valve stem and schrader valve....

**37doc** · 08-31-2008 10:51 AM

windex or window cleaner will work well to and its already in a convienient spray bottle !

**37doc** · 08-31-2008 10:53 AM

if the puncture is in between the outer most tread grooves you can repair it, if its from the groove towards the sidewall no one will repair it , most respectable shops have the more modern patch plugs that pull through the tire from the inside out.

**mike-2ptzero** · 08-31-2008 11:04 AM

carson city is only 1 hr away if you need to find a tire shop. There is also Les Schwab tire shop in Tahoe City.

**MattzWarsteiner** · 08-31-2008 12:09 PM

Agree with all suggestions above to find the leak. Suggest you over-inflate by 5-10 psi to assist with the leak location. Check your valve stem using the same methods. The soapy water/windex trick not only bubbles, but the wetting agents assure water gets onto all of the surface area of the tire.

**Ado** · 08-31-2008 03:55 PM

andyrew and mike are correct. americas tire will talk care of you for free. you want to get a patch on the inside of the tire and a plug to fill up the whole in the tire. what you can also do is get a gas station plug to stop the leak and when you come back to town take you tire to americas tire and they will pull out the gas station plug and install a new plug with a patch. you might just have a bad valve on the wheel. air up the tire to 35-40spi and spray the valve see if any bubbles come up.

**andyrew** · 08-31-2008 07:39 PM

Put on the spare, its a full tread spare so you can run it for a while.

OR buy an air compressor. Get a good one and keep filling your tire every hour.

I assume your leaving tahoo tomorrow? Call an american tire about 3 hours before your ETA, tell them whats up and that you want to try and be in and out and if they can schedule you in. they'll tell you to "Just bring it in and we'll take care of you" but tell them you want to make an appointment so you can be in and out in 1/2 hour. Drive in on your spare, if they take care of you imediately you'll be running on your patched tire in 20 mins..

Patched tires are perfectly fine to run on and my 18's have 1 patch in every tire. I even autox'ed on them (I have 16's with sticky street rubber now..)

GL!
Andrew