cerro Posted June 3, 2012 Share Posted June 3, 2012 I have a Fiat 2.8 with 13000 miles on the clock and its layed up during the winter, my problem is the tyres keep going down and at £15 pound a wheel to have them glued and as they only last six months to a year and I am told I cant put an iner tube in its getting expensive anyone have a better ans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crinklystarfish Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 Don't really understand. Are they fully deflating? If so have they or the rims been damaged? What's 'glued' mean? Some pressure loss would be expected but it should be an easy job to simply re-inflate and enjoy. Ideally if left for such a long time they should have the weight taken off them or at least be kept fully inflated and rotated a bit to stop them 'squaring'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted June 4, 2012 Share Posted June 4, 2012 The pressure in a tyre alters quite significantly according to ambient temperature. A tyre inflated to a certain pressure when the ambient temperature is, say, 15°C will produce a significantly higher pressure-reading when the temperature is 25°C and a significantly lower reading when the temperature is 5°C. Assuming that ambient temperature variiations are allowed for, as CS advises some pressure loss should be considered normal across a period of several months. For example, if your motorhome's tyres had 70psi in them in November, I wouldn't be too surprised if the pressure had decreased to 60psi by the following March. A major pressure loss could be caused by a puncture, tyre degradation, poor seal between tyre and wheel-rim, a leaking wheel-rim or a faulty valve. But, if all your tyres are losing pressure relatively slowly and at a similar rate, there's probably nothing wrong. As you are an ex-garage/petrol-station owner, I would expect none of the above to be novel to you, but it's the best I can offer. I assume by "glued" you mean using a sealant of the type shown here http://www.tyre-sealant.com/ I've no practical experience of such products but, if your tyres are losing air at an unacceptably high rate, it would be wise to try to identify why this is happening before trying to cure it with a sealant. (Might be useful to have some details of your motorhome - make, model, age - and how old its tyres are.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerro Posted June 6, 2012 Author Share Posted June 6, 2012 The motorhome has done 13000 miles so the tyres are in good condition the rims have not been damaged one tyre I had done in Feb is still Ok after the Tyre was taken off and glue put round the iner rim to seal it £15 the other three tyres one gos flat after about three weeks, and the other two are half deflated, I keep them pumped up in the hope that they will seal them selfs I am looking for a perminant solution rather than pay out £45 to last the summer then the same problem next year after being off the road all winter. Air is obviously leakin past the rims.When we used to MOT a car with a bad tyre we sent it to the tyre people, and years ago we put a iner tube in there must be a way.The motorhome is a Timberland is very lightly used.Hope this helps Thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pepe63xnotuse Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Personally,I'd be just taking it to a reputable tyre fitters/outlet(..NOT one staffed my chavvy,bits of kids,that look as if they should be working on a funfair....)and get them to remove and re-seat them all,complete with new valves... ..and see how it goes from there... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tracker Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 You don't say the ages of the tyres or the van or whether it has alloy wheels? Tyres can go a bit porous as they age as can alloy wheels. Have you checked both inner and outer tyre walls for cracking? The only time I ever had a porous alloy car wheel - Citroen - two wheels!) the tyre depot put tubes in them and the guy told me that it was not uncommon especially on 'after market' alloys - which mine were not. I wonder why you cannot do this too - it's not ideal but it does work? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
laimeduck Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Just for info, you can find out who manufactured your tyres & other info from the DOT number, then use this table to ID the manufacturer. http://www.etyres.co.uk/images/dotcodes.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 Tracker - 2012-06-06 12:14 PM You don't say the ages of the tyres or the van or whether it has alloy wheels?... As cerro's Timberland has a 2.8 motor, it must be at least 6 years old and, as the vehicle has only done 13000 miles, it's probable that its tyres are originals. I've never heard before of tyres being glued to a vehicle's rims to stop air leakage (though I'm aware of tyre-glue being used for bikes, models, etc.). Tyre sealant of the type I mentioned earlier is designed to prevent air loss resulting from a puncture, so that type of product should certainly handle a slow leak and should address minor cracks in steel wheels or porosity in alloy wheels. It's well recognised that heavy vehicles regularly standing immobile for long periods can result in their tyres cracking. If the cracking takes place within the tread grooves (which it commonly does) then it won't be easily detected unless the tyre is removed from the wheel and deliberately flexed across the tread. As one of cerro's tyres goes from fully inflated to flat within 3 weeks, it would be reasonable to expect the source of the leakage to show if that wheel were removed from the motorhome and dipped in a water bath to look for air bubbles in the time-honoured manner. The practicability of using inner tubes with tubeless tyres depends on the design of the wheel rim. Tubeless tyres SHOULD always be fitted to tubeless-type rims (eg, rims with an inner hump or flat hump). Fitting of inner tubes to tubeless tyres on such rims is definitely not recommended but, if a tube must be fitted, special care must be taken to allow any air trapped betwen tyre and tube to escape. Any tubeless tyre fitted to a tube-type rim must be fitted with an inner tube, as must any tube-type tyre fitted to a tubeless rim. Some background information might be helpful. If cerro has owned the Timberland from new, or for some time, and the pressure loss only began to occur last year, then I'd suspect age-related tyre or tyre-valve degradation. If unusually high pressure-loss has always been present to some degree, then perhaps it's the wheels themselves that are the problem. Presumably the tyre on the spare wheel does not lose pressure? It's tempting to suggest that just pumping a tyre sealant like "Ultraseal" into the tyres should stop the air loss - and it should - but there remains the real possibility that the tyres are permanently damaged and tyre sealant won't cure that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cerro Posted June 8, 2012 Author Share Posted June 8, 2012 Thank you everone for your help, The van is 2001 but it was stored for five years due to a push bike accident which his wife never recovered from so I bought the van with 2000 miles on the clock and it was just like new, so I am thinking may be its something to do with the storage? but I went to south Turkey and back three years ago with no problems. I will buy some of this sealant and put in via the valve. Thanks again. Gordon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinhood Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 ....if the tyres are the originals, and now 11+ years old, I'd be thinking of changing them anyway, regardless of mileage. :-S I would also recommend Pepe's advice from above - find a reputable tyre shop, and get them to check them out and advise. Unless I'm overlooking something in the foregoing postings, I'm not sure whether we've established whether the wheels are Alloy or Steel, but whichever, a good dunking in a "Tyre Bath" should reveal the location of any leak. With an Alloy in particular, very often it is not the wheel being porous that causes a leak, but corrosion on the rim where the bead fits preventing it seating and sealing properly. I have suffered from this on a 7 year-old alloy on a car, and had my local (independent) Tyre Shop remove the tyre, mechanically clean the inside of the rim, and reseat the tyres, removing the problem. (the same wheel showed a similar issue around the valve seat, and this was treated at the same time). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fjmike Posted June 8, 2012 Share Posted June 8, 2012 cerro - 2012-06-08 2:18 PM . I will buy some of this sealant and put in via the valve. Thanks again. Gordon Be very careful if your doing a DIY job as you must put in the correct amount to avoid problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek Uzzell Posted June 9, 2012 Share Posted June 9, 2012 cerro - 2012-06-08 2:18 PM Thank you everone for your help, The van is 2001 but it was stored for five years due to a push bike accident which his wife never recovered from so I bought the van with 2000 miles on the clock and it was just like new, so I am thinking may be its something to do with the storage? but I went to south Turkey and back three years ago with no problems. I will buy some of this sealant and put in via the valve. Thanks again. Gordon The tyre industry advises that, irrespective of mileage, tread-wear or visible condition, a tyre should be replaced no later than 10 years after its date of manufacture. For leisure-vehicles (caravans, motorhomes), that are often immobile for long periods and where the vehicle's tyres are generally run near their maximum load-carrying capacity, received wisdom is that tyre replacement at a lower age (say 7 years) is advisable. 3 years ago, when you visited Turkey, your Timberland motorhome's tyres would have been 8 years old - beyond the 'best before' age for replacement. They are now 11 years old, older than the maximum age advised by the tyre industry. They are also losing pressure at an unacceptable rate. The background you've provided (vehicle stored for 5 years), the age of the tyres and the pressure-loss all point to the tyres needing immediate replacement. A sealant may address the pressure-loss, but it won't revive senile tyres that should be scrapped before they fail catastrophically. I notice on another thread that, a couple of months ago, you were trying to sell your Timberland. If you are still trying to sell it (I note your advert is no longer on Gumtree), and stopping the tyre pressure-loss is to make the vehicle saleable, then I suggest you'll need to be careful about resorting to sealant. Unless you tell potential buyers that you've done this because the tyres were losing pressure, I believe you might be held liable for any accident that might subsequently result. 'Buyer beware' is one thing but, in your case, your Timberland has old tyres (that you've now been warned about on this forum) that are just an accident waiting to happen. Obviously, if you are going to keep the Timberland for a few more years, what you do about its tyres is your business. But, if you are compelled to change the tyres, say 1 year from now, because they start to fail, you'll have lost the interim period of safe usage that the next owner will benefit from. I doubt if many forum members with even basic tyre-knowledge would be happy to drive their motorhome on 11-year-old tyres, and I doubt if anyone would be prepared to drive their motorhome on 11-year-old tyres that were losing pressure like yours have been doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WA Michael Posted June 11, 2012 Share Posted June 11, 2012 Just a little line to tell you what our problem was. Continentals had served us very well until we were off on our big trip. Local tyre dealers were sluggish so, we asked out Fiat dealer to fit his recommendation. Then we had Federals{ taiwanese} fitted and from then on we were in danger. Driving from Perth to Adelaide was terrifying the vehicle went from handling like a giant go-kart to playing pinball on a destroyer. No input could be guaranteed, quite interesting with road trains swooshing past. BUT just after we'd crossed the Nullabor we kept getting one, just one tyre going down. A little bush garage diagnosed the problem, in the centre of the rim well we had a tiny, tiny hole in the steel. We fitted a tube, yes I know, this got us a bit further along until we could throw the NEW tyres away and get new Vanco Contis. Unfortunately we forgot that we were running a tube and we had a spectacular blowout later. Now that we are back home I have the task of explaining to the Fiat importers that we have a rogue rim. To test, stick 75 or 80 psi in the suspect wheel and dunk the lot in a tank of water. If your local bloke doesn't have one go else where, always, the leak is so small that you may not see it at first.But once seen etc..This problem only occured after the disturbance of tyre fitting. The vehicle is a coachbuilt Fiat Ducato 3 Litre. If you have a problem contact direct if you like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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