bruincaster

Heya all! My situation is this: I have one tire, front driver side losing air constantly, but slowly (1 PSI per 1-2 weeks). I started watching TPMS since I had a flat about a year ago and ever since I remember this has been happening.
This particular tire has never received any repairs to it. I do physically add more air to it every month or so, just the one tire. I never use a external tire pressure gauge.

1. The car drives differently especially after i refill the air every month or so, gives a not so pleasant driving experience when the cars feels uneven.

2. I had to replace my brembo brake pads early, because I believe one of the inner brake pads were near worn but all the other pads were at 50%. Changed out at 15k miles.

3. My tires have uneven wear patterns, that particular tire has no center tread wear.

4. I have been to the dealer for various reasons, starting with power steering since the car would behave funny with one tire at 28 and the others at 34. then about 4 other times so they could "dunk" the tire and re-tighten the stem. The 3rd time I told them specifically to take the tire off to inspect and replace if necessary the TPMS sensor. They didn't remove the tire or so they said, but my rims are trashed because it looks like they took a blue crowbar to it. They told me I probably hit a handicap curb... but I know better, it looks like it was damaged when they were remounting the tire.

Anyhow, since then I got them to change the TPMS monitor, and that wasn't the problem.

What should I do? IF a customer didn't rotate or check tire pressures, they would have to buy new tires early. My tires still have about 50% life. I feel like they owe me at least one tire, and now one rim.

Aman

sounds like you may have a tiny hole in your tire. If it was me, i'd take it to a trusted mechanic and have him check it out, because obvuiously your dealership doesn't give a crap about your car.

ecliptics

whats your question? low tire pressure will affect your gas too since its not rotately nicely plump like it would like

csmeance

keeping at tire inflated at less then 25 PSI will damage it forever. What happens is the sidewall bends too much and the rubber flakes off the inside. This weakeans the tire and can cause blowouts.

You say you experience a different feel, the suspension geometry and setup on the TL is VERY sensitive. On normal cars it takes about 14g of weight to cause a vibration, on the TL it can be caused by one off by about 8 grams. The same is for tires, a few PSI here and there can change the feel of the car completely.

You have no center wear on the tire, this means the tire has been wearing on the outside, meaning it's been under-inflated, you shoulders on the tire should have a brunt of the wear.

For the dunking, they did the right thing, but had the wrong solution. The dealer saw that the stem was leaking, did they ever bother to check the stem by replacing it? If they did and it still is happening, have they bothered to measure the hole diameter on the rim to see if it is too large due to a manuf. defect?

As far as rim damage, any scratches should be black or brown, they use brown paste when putting on and taking off tires. Blue means that they either curbed it when putting it on/off the lift or hit a handicap curb.

I suggest that you have them replace the rim, it's probably the problem. If it is, they should give you the difference between another tire and that tire's wear, so if you others are at 5/32, and that one is at 2/32, they owe you for 3/32nd of extra wear.

bruincaster

Thanks for the advice csmeance.

the thing was i know if they used the usual rubber crowbar thing to mount tires there wouldnt be a problem, but maybe he couldnt find it and went to town with somethihng else?...

either way, im going to ask them to see about replacing the rim.