Leak around tyre valve

Horizon81

I’ve got a very small leak (1 PSI drop every few days) on one of my alloy wheels. It’s not a slow puncture, it’s coming from between the rubber valve stem and the hole in the alloy wheel where the valve comes through. There is some bubbling of the wheel’s paint finish due to corrosion around this area, so it would seem that the valve stem is not able to make a perfectly airtight seal in the hole.


Before I head to a tyre fitters for advice, what’s the normal way of fixing this? Wheel refurb? Wire wool to get the loose rust off and some bead sealant on it? Or live with it, as I fear any 'fixes' may make the problem worse?!

nobbysn*ts

Horizon81 wrote: »

I’ve got a very small leak (1 PSI drop every few days) on one of my alloy wheels. It’s not a slow puncture, it’s coming from between the rubber valve stem and the hole in the alloy wheel where the valve comes through. There is some bubbling of the wheel’s paint finish due to corrosion around this area, so it would seem that the valve stem is not able to make a perfectly airtight seal in the hole.


Before I head to a tyre fitters for advice, what’s the normal way of fixing this? Wheel refurb? Wire wool to get the loose rust off and some bead sealant on it? Or live with it, as I fear any 'fixes' may make the problem worse?!

I had this on an old set of alloys, mine were unpainted, so it was a simple matter of getting the valve out, cleaning up all the surfaces, lightly polish, then a new valve. Cured it completely.

colino

Your local tyre fitter will come across this every day, maybe someone damaged the valve hole or it is just corrosion, but demounting the tyre, cutting off the old valve, doing a clean up and fitting a new valve and refitting the tyre isn't going to cost you more than £10-15.