Tire Pressure Question

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bsl394

Joined
Jul 6, 2016
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I own a 2021 HE that I took out on a rough dirt road about a month ago. The morning after I got a tire pressure warning for my front driver side tire (26 PSI). I filled it back up to 34 and hoped I was good to go. Two days later I got another warning, back down to 27 PSI. Once again, I filled it up to 34 and hoped for the best. It has been at 31-34 for the past week, but I've noticed it slowly dropping to the high 20's when I start the car, then registering in the low 30's after I've been driving for a while.

I don't see any visible damage and only have 7k miles on the tires so I don't want to replace it. I was thinking of just filling it up on a regular basis because I don't want to replace a tire at 7k miles. Any danger in doing this? It seems like it probably does have a leak, but if it's taking a week to leak from 34 to high 20's I can't imagine it's anything major. Any thoughts?
 
Discount Tire fixes flats for free, if I'm not mistaken.
No need to take to dealer, unless that's your cup of tea.
Could be as simple as a valve stem needing replaced or you could have a hole in the sidewall that can't be fixed but get it checked out, don't be THAT guy.
 
Inflate to about 40psi and get a spray bottle with dish soapy water in it. Spray around the rim and tire (start at the valve stem). If you see bubbles, you found your leak. If it’s the valve stem try tightening down the nut that holds it in. When I had my last set of tires fitted.. the tire shop left two of my valves stems slightly loose. Pretty much the same problem as yours. Lost about a 1-2 psi per day.

I also second all the thoughts on not just putting air in it frequently. You will feel real dumb if something bad happens at any speed.
 
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Factory Toyota TPMS won’t leak. This is a puncture, and as long as it isn’t too close to the sidewall can be easily fixed. Just bring it to discount.

The risk of not getting it fixed is it getting worse suddenly and leaving you stranded. Or being used to the tpms light and not realizing it is getting really low and dangerous.

And don’t let them wire brush your nice painted brake rotors or wheel mounting surface. They love removing the coatings intended to prevent corrosion.
 
Turns out I have a nail in the tire, and they don't have any replacement in stock. I want to get a stock tire as the others only have 7k miles. I've found Dunlop AT23 Groundtek 285/60r18 in stock, but are they all the same? I'm looking for the M+S marked ones, but the ones I'm finding online don't seem to have that. Is there an easy place to go to get the stock replacement that anyone has used before?
 
Why not have it repaired? A good repair will easily last the remaining life of the tire.
 
bloc said:
Why not have it repaired? A good repair will easily last the remaining life of the tire.
Click to expand...
The guy at the shop I went to seemed to indicate that if I was going to be doing any major driving I'd want to get it replaced and not repaired. The nail is all the way in there, and it's not on the sidewall or anything (right in the middle of the tread). Do you think this is a viable option? I've never had a tire that didn't go completely flat or have sidewall damage that made it unrepairable so this is new territory for me.
 
I’ve plugged those myself at home and had them go 30k miles without issue.

He’s trying to sell you a tire. As long as the guys actually doing the work know what they are doing it will be fine.
 
bloc said:
I’ve plugged those myself at home and had them go 30k miles without issue.

He’s trying to sell you a tire. As long as the guys actually doing the work know what they are doing it will be fine.
Click to expand...
Awesome - I'm going to swing by another place right now and see if they can fix it up. Appreciate the advice!
 
A nail is the best case scenario for a puncture.
A plug is supposedly permanent but a a patch is superior.

Would i choose to go off-road on a plug? Probably not, I would rather have it internally patched.
To say that a nail is not patchable though is a lie probably intended to sell a tire. Even more so if they keep yours to resell behind your back.

I do not approve of Discount Tire but i buy all my tires there for the warranty.
Anything more than the above uniform hole and it gets swapped out.
 
Well, I tried to plug it today and it was a disaster. I had an appointment at a tire shop to do the repair on Tuesday but I thought what the hell, I'll watch a few youtube videos, buy a tire plug kit, and do it myself.

I thought I could pull it off doing it while the tire was still on the vehicle. Nope. Removed the screw (and removed all of it) and air started to stream out. Couldn't get the plug kit to ever go into the hole. Tire went flat so I decided either way I'm going to have to put the spare on so I did that and still couldn't get the plug kit to go into the hole. I'm not sure if it's not a straight hole or what - I was straddling the tire putting all my might into it but just couldn't "punch through" the tire. It was a very small screw so I'm wondering if that had anything to do with it (i.e., by trying to "punch through" I'm using a tool that's twice the size of the original hole, so I'm almost trying to create a new hole).

Ended up getting a good lesson in changing the LCs tire - nice to know the spare matches the tire size, even if the rim doesn't (on a $90k vehicle it would have been nice if the spare included a matching rim). Ordered a new OEM tire online and will take it to a tire shop and have it put on the old rim.
 
bsl394 said:
Well, I tried to plug it today and it was a disaster. I had an appointment at a tire shop to do the repair on Tuesday but I thought what the hell, I'll watch a few youtube videos, buy a tire plug kit, and do it myself.

I thought I could pull it off doing it while the tire was still on the vehicle. Nope. Removed the screw (and removed all of it) and air started to stream out. Couldn't get the plug kit to ever go into the hole. Tire went flat so I decided either way I'm going to have to put the spare on so I did that and still couldn't get the plug kit to go into the hole. I'm not sure if it's not a straight hole or what - I was straddling the tire putting all my might into it but just couldn't "punch through" the tire. It was a very small screw so I'm wondering if that had anything to do with it (i.e., by trying to "punch through" I'm using a tool that's twice the size of the original hole, so I'm almost trying to create a new hole).

Ended up getting a good lesson in changing the LCs tire - nice to know the spare matches the tire size, even if the rim doesn't (on a $90k vehicle it would have been nice if the spare included a matching rim). Ordered a new OEM tire online and will take it to a tire shop and have it put on the old rim.
Click to expand...

From your description it seemed like an easily and safely repairable puncture. Did your plug kit have a reamer and lubricant, as well as the insertion tool and plugs? Here’s the one I carry; there are other good ones.

Amazon product ASIN B075CR4J3W
 
Also.. if it helps?..and I assume it doesn’t, regular LCs come with matching spares, but since you have an HE with the fancy wheels, it doesn’t come with matching spare
 
Sandroad said:
From your description it seemed like an easily and safely repairable puncture. Did your plug kit have a reamer and lubricant, as well as the insertion tool and plugs? Here’s the one I carry; there are other good ones.

Amazon product ASIN B075CR4J3W
Click to expand...
It did - I couldn't get the reamer / insertion tool to "punch through" the hole. It would go maybe 1/2 an inch in and no matter how hard I pressed (or at what angle) it wouldn't go any further. It was lubricated and everything.
lx200inAR said:
Also.. if it helps?..and I assume it doesn’t, regular LCs come with matching spares, but since you have an HE with the fancy wheels, it doesn’t come with matching spare
Click to expand...
Yeah - it's nice to know that I have the same tire / can drive on it if I need to. I ordered a new tire - thought about just having the spare tire put on the flat tire rim but then I'd be left without a spare.
 
For what it’s worth if the plan was to keep the tire for a long time the internal patch that a tire shop would install is much better than the at-home plug method, if it is an option. The times I’ve used the plugs were generally when the tire shop refused based on the location of the puncture or age of the tire.

Also if you had the heritage wheel under the spare tire location it would just end up damaged by the rubber bumpers down there anyway.
 
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