So my daughter's $50 tire goes flat

[Darrell KSR]

After a discussion with the manager, they agree to replace the tire for free, given the issues it has had. Without boring you, it has been back a couple of times to Walmart, where she bought it, and first they told her nothing was wrong with the tire, then they fixed the tire stem and said they had the problem solved. Then this last time it was completely flat, and would not take any air. Of course, she has no spare tire, so we have it towed to Walmart.

So she takes it home with the new tire, and in one day, it goes flat again. I'm now thinking that her rim may be part of the problem, or maybe even the entire problem. So I decide to remedy the situation myself. I run to Harbor Freight to pick up some items that she does not have simply to take the tire off the car. $86 later, I'm wondering what the heck I'm doing since its a $50 tire. I'm not kidding about the price, it's a Dextero Tire, 14 in and the price was $50, plus the add-ons.

Sometimes I amaze myself with my lack of good judgment. But it will be fun to have a new jack, new four-way lug wrench, and new air compressor. I think that will make four air compressors I have, although two of them are currently in Atlanta. My son had one he did not tell me about until after I got back home.

Actually, now that I think of it I also have an extra jack.

What a disaster.

[BigBluePappy]

You may very well be on to something about it being the rim. A little over a couple of years ago, had a tire get kind of cheeky on me. Took it to the local Big O and had them look at it as I could not find a nail or anything else in it myself and the set of tires had less than a couple of thousand miles on them. Put it a trough and the inner weld on the rim was failing. Went to a local boneyard and they wanted over $200.00 for a wheel with tire. I told the gentleman no thanks and set to searching the intergoogles. Factory Wheels (https://www.originalwheels.com/) did me right. For $125.00 (at the time, same wheel would be $150.00 mow) they fixed me right up. You can look the rim up by make of car and further drill down, and they will probably have a picture associated with the wheel.
Photo of the type of wheel I had to purchase: 7168
Good luck. Hope this helped and you can never have too many compressors or jacks, or jumper cables or...

[Darrell KSR]

Ordered from Amazon (is there anything you can't order from Amazon) a replacement wheel. Should be in today. I think I'll just replace it.

Now, here's the next dumb question.

The tire would not take any air. I removed it from the car last night. I can see no holes at all in the tire. Does that mean the tire is still good, and is there an "inner tube" or something inside it that just needs to be replaced?

My preference would be to have them remove the tire from that wheel, throw that wheel away (I looked at it, and it has some beat up parts to it, and even rusted parts to it and just looks like it needs to be replaced), and put the new tire (two days old) on the new wheel, with a new "inner tube," if they can do that.

Can they?

Is that a good idea?

Also, I have an old tire in her trunk that I want to do the same thing with--order another wheel, and have it put on the wheel. Will a tire shop do that for me, and add the "inner tube" (do they have inner tubes? I guess they do, or else how do they get inflated?).

Hyundai sells their cars--at least their compact models--with no spare. Not even a "doughnut" temporary tire. Instead, they have some piece of crap portable inflation/Slime type device they include. There is a wheel well, though, so you can provide your own wheel and spare tire, so that's what I'm doing.

[Darrell KSR]

OH--one other dumb question.

So the car has the TPMS air pressure monitoring system, including the wheel that I'm replacing. Can you take that TPMS device off and put it on the new wheel? Or do I need to buy a new one?

Also, I've been told before when one TMPS device is going out due to battery life, might as well replace all of them at the same time. Is that what I need to do here? She has a 2012, so they're not *that* old--can I get by with buying one (if I need to buy one at all and I can't replace it with the one already on the "old" wheel), and then hopefully in 4 or 5 years, replace all of them when one of the other three goes out?

[Catfan73]

Passenger car tires don't have inner tubes anymore, they have an internal liner that holds the air; not a dumb question at all. If the wheel is corrupted it might not be allowing a good seal with that liner. So there might not actually be anything wrong with the tire but a $50 tire? I didn't know those even existed lol.
No idea about the tpms. I always just thought it was some sort of sensor.

[Darrell KSR]

Possibility that the liner is bad, and can be replaced separate from the tire?https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180817/66efede516de314beab07584cef35529.jpg

[Catfan73]

Now I'm picturing moths flying out of your wallet whenever you are forced to open it on rare occasion lol. I'd ask them to try to air it up on the new wheel and if that doesn't work just buy a new one. Did it come with any sort of warranty?

[Darrell KSR]

Yeah, it has a 45,000 mile warranty, AND I bought the road hazard warranty on top of it.

It has 3 miles on it.

4.5/5.0 rating out of 257 reviews. Pretty good tire, supposed to be, at least for the price. Singapore company, Giti Tire, pretty large tire company, $3 billion in sales a couple of years ago. I think Dextero is a Walmart-only label.

I actually think it's user error here. The user being Walmart Tire Department. They should have realized the wheel had an issue (that's really what I think is the problem), and should not have installed it on that rim.

But we'll see. I ordered a wheel on Amazon yesterday, and shockingly, it is being delivered today, free shipping. Fed Ex original estimate was Monday, but at least according to the tracking, it was in Birmingham this morning out for delivery at 6:43 a.m. scheduled for delivery by the end of the day.

[KeithKSR]

This is why I don’t buy Walmart tires, there service people don’t look for things a real tire shop looks for.

The tire could be failing to seal, which is common around the bead. Excess rubber gets built up around the bead seal on a rim and can be removed with a grinder with a wire brush attachment.

I take my tire repairs to will put the tire in a submersion tank, something Walmart doesn’t usually have. The submersion tank is a big tank of water that has an air operated device that pushes the tire completely in the water. Once submersed leaks are easy to find.

I had a trailer that had wheels that failed to seal around the bead, the repair shop used bead sealer and that took care of the leak around the rim.

https://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/xtra-seal-32-oz-hd-bead-seal-14-101a/28200234-p?c3ch=PLA&c3nid=28200234-P&adtype=pla&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsdqg6Pb23AIVEqrsCh3_1Q-BEAQYAyABEgJAo_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CKHsh_D29twCFcFqwQodxroJ6w

I’d also recommend going to a local junk yard and purchasing a spare. A guaranteed way to have tire issues is to not carry a spare. A spare should be much cheaper than a tow.

[KeithKSR]

Yeah, it has a 45,000 mile warranty, AND I bought the road hazard warranty on top of it.

It has 3 miles on it.

4.5/5.0 rating out of 257 reviews. Pretty good tire, supposed to be, at least for the price. Singapore company, Giti Tire, pretty large tire company, $3 billion in sales a couple of years ago. I think Dextero is a Walmart-only label.

I actually think it's user error here. The user being Walmart Tire Department. They should have realized the wheel had an issue (that's really what I think is the problem), and should not have installed it on that rim.

But we'll see. I ordered a wheel on Amazon yesterday, and shockingly, it is being delivered today, free shipping. Fed Ex original estimate was Monday, but at least according to the tracking, it was in Birmingham this morning out for delivery at 6:43 a.m. scheduled for delivery by the end of the day.

Run water over the wheel and you should find the leak. If it is around the bead you can remove the tire and lay it flat, run the water over the bead area and it will bubble. If it is around the valve or a failed weld you can spray water with dishwashing liquid in from a spray bottle and it will bubble, just like checking for gas leaks.

If it is a bead issue you should be able to wire brush the wheel and mount another tire on using bead sealer for use as a spare.

[Darrell KSR]

Well, a tow is free. But that's because with six vehicles on the road, it seems AAA is sort of mandatory :).

Going back to Wally World in a minute, with the tire and a new wheel as well. I'm thinking even if the "old" wheel is ok, I'm going to replace it. Thing is bent around the internal rim part on the inside--how the heck does that happen, anyway--and looked all beat up. Maybe they always look that way and I've never noticed, but it just would make me feel better to do this.

Keith, failing to seal--that sounds very plausible. If you see this before I arrive there, would that mean that everything is still ok with the tire/liner, and can be placed on a new wheel fine without problems?

[Darrell KSR]

Run water over the wheel and you should find the leak. If it is around the bead you can remove the tire and lay it flat, run the water over the bead area and it will bubble. If it is around the valve or a failed weld you can spray water with dishwashing liquid in from a spray bottle and it will bubble, just like checking for gas leaks.

If it is a bead issue you should be able to wire brush the wheel and mount another tire on using bead sealer for use as a spare.

We can't even get any air in it. I mean, it just won't take air.

[Darrell KSR]

Finishing my coffee, but remember--this tire has ** 3 ** miles on it. Literally. It was driven from Walmart home. The next day, it was flat.

EDIT--as usual, my wife tells me I am wrong. (And she's right).

We got the replacement tire on Tuesday. She took the car to work Tuesday night, drove 6 miles to the hospital where she works, worked overnight, and drove home the 6 miles the next morning. It was fine then. After she parked it and it sat for 10 hours, it was flat.

So it has 15 miles on it, not 3.

[kingcat]

Plenty of air pressure going in?

Otherwise, faulty rim, wrong size or faulty tire.

[Catfan73]

Might be a bad valve. Does the inside of the tire off the wheel look okay? No worn spots or chunks missing?

[Darrell KSR]

Plenty of air pressure going in?

I think so.

I have a brand new one that I really like (the old one was finally left out in the rain after years, and something happened to it). It inflates a tire from 0 to 32 in 3½ minutes. Does a nice job for a $35 air compressor (Harbor Freight).

I have two others I also used, one a "nice" one by Slime that isn't as powerful, and the other a smaller portable one, but none of them put any air in.

[Darrell KSR]

Might be a bad valve. Does the inside of the tire off the wheel look okay? No worn spots or chunks missing?

I haven't taken the tire off the wheel; just took the wheel off the car. I'm not touching the tire so they can't accuse me of anything. You know, since they are the "experts."

(Keith's point about the Walmart tire installers is a very good one.)

[kingcat]

The tire maker opened U.S. factory in South Carolina in 2017 if it comes to that. Some tires can be stubborn taking a seal. Try sitting on the center of the tire while airing it up.

Smaller the tire the more seal problems can arise. Ive seen ratchet straps used on trailer tires and such

Those DTR1's show good reviews.

[Darrell KSR]

The tire maker opened U.S. factory in South Carolina in 2017 if it comes to that. Some tires can be stubborn taking a seal. Try sitting on the center of the tire while airing it up.

Smaller the tire the more seal problems can arise. Ive seen ratchet straps used on trailer tires and such

Very interesting. I did not know that.

I saw the AAA guy push down on the tire while the tire inflation was attempted. I guess I should've sat on it.

[kingcat]

Highly compressed air might be the solution. I doubt those compressors will pop the tire out like a shop compressor. Besides pressure, you need more than the volume of air contained in the tire at your disposal.

Way more really

[Darrell KSR]

Manager got right on it. Looked at the inside of the rim, saw the dents and divots and said they were wrong to try to mount a tire on it, that it would never get a good seal.

Putting it on new wheel now and balancing.

[Darrell KSR]

Home, new tire put on. Fingers crossed that fixes it.

[KeithKSR]

Once the bead seal comes loose on a tire it takes a lot of air pressure to push it back on the seal. One the farm we have used the ether (starting fluid) trick to pop tires on the bead. Spray some ether in the tire, which is explosive, then light it on fire. Pops it right on.

My question is, why did this occur when putting a new tire on that rim, but didn't impact the tire that was on the rim previously? Sounds a lot like a dirty bead that had old rubber or rust built up on it, or someone messed up the rim installing the tires.

[Darrell KSR]

Man, I hope this one doesn't go flat. Keith, I love hearing those farm stories. You guys know how to make things work. I respect that, and wish I had some element of that in me, but I don't (at least on those type of issues!)

Long story that I left out part of, but the rim was bent some time ago. I talked to the mechanic who was fixing something on the car, and mentioned that I needed to get a new one. He said in the old days you could hammer them out straight.

When I came to pick it up, he told me he had hammered it out straight. So I knew the rim had issues, but it's been good for awhile.

I got a non-OEM, 4.6/5.0 new steel Hyundai rim for $60, free shipping, no tax, delivered overnight. I can't complain about that.

[BigBluePappy]

That is a good price and you are correct, sir, that is hard to beat.
One trick to the ether is to spray a circle around the tire/wheel and leave a trail of ether about 3' away from it. Strike the match and drop it on the stringer, while simultaneously moving in the opposite direction.
The resulting explosion can be quite shocking, others not so much...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-FEkBcepII


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-3U-TRkJx8

[KeithKSR]

That is a good price and you are correct, sir, that is hard to beat.
One trick to the ether is to spray a circle around the tire/wheel and leave a trail of ether about 3' away from it. Strike the match and drop it on the stringer, while simultaneously moving in the opposite direction.
The resulting explosion can be quite shocking, others not so much...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-FEkBcepII


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-3U-TRkJx8

Obviously, you can use too much ether.

[BigBluePappy]

And not enough common sense.
My dad and my father-in-law both had a saying, "common sense isn't so common anymore".