Leaky Wheels

So I have chrome wheels on my car and I checked the tire pressure the other day to find they were ALL low. My car came from Ohio where there's snow, so I'm guessin' the wheels are all shot.

This sucks.

I hate to lose them because they look great. For those of you that have this problem, what have any of you done to fix your leaky wheels? Are these problems endemic of all Riv wheels?

I was thinking about replacing them with a set of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190093344029&fromMakeTrack=true

Try to go to a tire shop and get them to clean up the inner lip and reseal the tires.

The problem is that resealing the bead may not take care of the small pinholes that you likely have in the wheels.

Orca wrote:

I was thinking about replacing them with a set of these:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190093344029&fromMakeTrack=true

Those are the stock wheels that were on the early non-supercharged Rivs'.

some guy on clubgp is selling a VERY nice pair of 17" bonneville rims for 400 shipped. I think they would look nice on the riviera

i would not get the ones you linked
i know this sounds stupid but, mine were leaking a little b/c the chrome was peeling so i over inflated them (to fully seal the bead) and then let the air back down to norm. (32/36) and they have been fine since.
as said before most shops will reseal the bead.
as a last resort you could shoot a very small amount of fix-a-flat in the leaky tire to see if it seals it up. but do not use too much or your tire will be really off balance until its cleaned out.

Havn't experience that yet.........

Fix A Flat doesn't fix bead seal leaks, or at least that's what it says on the can. Makes sense, the stuff just runs to the bottom of the tire, probably won't coat the rim area.

Mine have leaked for some time now. I just have them sealed every now and then, keep tabs on the PSI... fill 'em when needed. At least that way you get into the habit of checking often. I always know my pressures because I check every 2-3 days.

http://www.cadillacfaq.com/stsfaq/tsb/data/tsb/05-03-10-003.pdf

Jim, according to that bulletin:

"If the porosity leak is located in the bead area of the aluminum rim (where the tire meets the rim), the wheel should be replaced."

Doesn't help our case much.

http://www.wheelcollision.com/

http://www.rimandwheelworks.com/

http://www.wheelmedic.com/

For the record, when I had new tires fitted a couple months ago, I mentioned the leak problem to the Firestone tech, and he must've known what to do, because they hardly leak at all now. Maybe a couple PSI on two of the wheels every 2 weeks, but not at all like it was. One or two of the wheels don't leak at all any more.

I think some tire techs know how to fix this problem better than others. No idea if this will last, but for now I'm very happy with whatever they did. In the past, the bead seal only lasted a couple weeks at most, then it would start to leak again.