How Often You Have To Put Air In Your Tires?

How old are your rims ?

If they are relatively new, you should not be adding air every few days (also assuming the ambient temperature does not fluctuate greatly)

Steel or alloy rims?

I have not had to put air in my tires for, I cannot remember when.
If you are losing air, your tires need to be checked and maybe reset on the rims.

Time to get your tire looked at.

If you are some what handy, you can check the problem out yourself fairly quickly with some soapy water (use soap that makes a lot of bubbles) and a spray bottle... just remove the tire from the car and spray some of that soapy water on the joint between the rubber and the rim as well as the tread and the air nipple as those are the common areas where you might find leaks - the tread as there might be a puncture creating a slow leak, the air nipple as they have been known to be defective or just need adjusting, and the joint as the tire may not have been properly mounted on the rim in the first place. If you see any bubbles forming in one location, that's where your problem is for that tire.

100% you have a leak... You should only need to top up the air after every seasonal changeover. Or when the temp drops, they lose a few psi. +1 for the soapy water method to see if you can locate it

My winter alloys are pretty corroded, and lose about 5 psi per week. So I pump them up that often.

I've had tire shops "fix" the problem several times before. But I'm pretty sure that just means taking the tire off and slapping on more bead sealant.

Pumping them up so often is getting pretty annoying, so I'm currently weighting my two options: have these wheels refinished, or buy a new set.

MusicBox wrote: ↑It might be a silly question to ask but I want input to see if its just me. I have to put air in any of my 4 tires every 5 or 6 days, meanwhile there's an abandoned vehicle in my underground parking lot that has not been moved or maintained for 6 years but yet all its tires are okay, none of them are low. How's that possible?
BTW, I've noticed that my front left tire is the only one I never put air, what makes it different than the other 3? Maybe they don't brush them when they are mounted on the rims?? Or air just escapes no matter what you do? Will nitrogen make all this hassle disappear?

Nitrogen is a waste of money.
I fill my tires once a year when I do the seasonal swap.

Are you swapping your tires every season on the same set of rims? That's a good way to damage your rims/tires. It's much better to mount your winter tires on a 2nd set of rims.

cheapmeister wrote: ↑Steel or alloy rims?

+1

derass wrote: ↑ My winter alloys are pretty corroded, and loose about 5 psi per week. So I pump them up that often.
I've had tire shops "fix" the problem several times before. But I'm pretty sure that just means taking the tire off and slapping on more bead sealant.
Pumping them up so often is getting pretty annoying, so I'm currently weighting my two options: have these wheels refinished, or buy a new set.

You might have pin hole leaks in the alloy. Soap bubble test or dunking the wheel in a bin of water to look for bubbles can help you find it. Pro tip is to jack up the pressure to over 50psi to help make the leak more obvious.
I once found a pinhole leak in a rim and sealed it with a bit of silicone caulking. No leaks after that.

MusicBox wrote: ↑ It might be a silly question to ask but I want input to see if its just me. I have to put air in any of my 4 tires every 5 or 6 days, meanwhile there's an abandoned vehicle in my underground parking lot that has not been moved or maintained for 6 years but yet all its tires are okay, none of them are low. How's that possible?

BTW, I've noticed that my front left tire is the only one I never put air, what makes it different than the other 3? Maybe they don't brush them when they are mounted on the rims?? Or air just escapes no matter what you do? Will nitrogen make all this hassle disappear?

I would guess older aluminum rims. If that is the case you need to take them in to a tire shop have the tires removed from the rims, clean up the rims add rim sealer, balance the tires and install on car.

I have owned vehicle where I never put air in the tires. And vehicles where I have to put air in the tires every month or two. If a tire frequently goes low, it means you have a bad valve stem, bad sealing, bad rims, or some other problem. On one tire I have now the tire pressure sensor goes off at 34 psi. The recommended pressure is 35 psi. But tire pressure will vary based on temperature. So it has a bad sensor.

I will correct the pressure to exactly 35 psi whenever my wife complains.

engineered wrote: ↑ Nitrogen is a waste of money.
I fill my tires once a year when I do the seasonal swap.

Are you swapping your tires every season on the same set of rims? That's a good way to damage your rims/tires. It's much better to mount your winter tires on a 2nd set of rims.


+1


You might have pin hole leaks in the alloy. Soap bubble test or dunking the wheel in a bin of water to look for bubbles can help you find it. Pro tip is to jack up the pressure to over 50psi to help make the leak more obvious.
I once found a pinhole leak in a rim and sealed it with a bit of silicone caulking. No leaks after that.

+1. I had air leak problems with a set of alloy wheels where I swapped my tires every winter season. I never had this issue with a set of steel wheels where I did the same.

I check my tires pressure every few weeks and also will check it before a road trip. I usually do a quick walkaround most days so i can tell if a tire is REALLY low.

If you're filling up constantly you have a leak. Any tire shop or mechanic should find it, although some might rush it this time of year because they're slammed with tire changes.

Once a week because one tire will display +/- 1psi off and annoys the heck out of me.

I check and correct them once a month.

I add air twice a year.

Sounds like a slow tire leak. You should get the tire inspected. A tire shop will spray soapy water and look for bubbles.

My previous stock old Michelin tires had a slow tire leak in one tire. The tire shop inspected it and thought they found the leak and plugged it. A week later, the slow air leak came back. In the end, I replaced the whole set of 4 tires to fix the problem since the tires were old anyways.

Check once a month.

MusicBox wrote: ↑ Will nitrogen make all this hassle disappear?

No.

But whatever you use, the air needs to be clean, no moisture. Or else the rims will corrode from the inside and lead to air loss.

I put on my winter wheels and all three of my old aluminum wheels had zero pressure. The one new aluminum wheel had pretty good pressure. I have had old steel rims loose all the air too. The air comes out the rim seal. These are truck tires. Have not had the problem with my car.