Octostar Question

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Battery

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Hey I just had one of my tires lose all of its air while I was driving. After leaving it in the driveway overnight, another tire went flat to the ground. One other tire was low and the last was fine. Over the last few weeks I've found myself needing to add air once a week or so. I took the car to Firestone where I purchased the tires in December. They replaced the flats for me for free which I was happy about.

The guy working there told me that as chrome rims age they begin to corrode under the chrome and it breaks the seal between the wheel and the tire, and that this is why all of my tires are losing air. Has anyone ever heard of this or is the guy just giving my some BS explanation? Thanks.
 
Yes this can happen, BUT the tire guy should have taken steps to avoid this problem, scuffing the bead and applying a proper dead sealer should solve these problems...
 
Mine are just as old as yours and never leak air but, mine have always been down south too. Did they put new valve stems in? All of this happening at once don't sound right. It's almost like you might have drove across something that put holes in the tires. KK is right about the bead scuffing if the tire tech noticed any chrome peeling. Tire guy seems to know what the problem is but can't put tires on and make them seal? All I know is that I have the same rims with BF Goodrich tires and they never lose any air. I would make sure the valve stems have been replaced and aren't old dry rotted ones. I also get my tire guy to put my balance weights on the inside of the rim, not on the outside. They aren't good for the chrome and they are ugly being on the outside to be seen.
 
Chrome wheels should ONLY have tick on weights in the barrels... If a tech ever put hammer on weights on my wheels... there would be hell to pay...
 
ive never seen the chrome go into the bead area usually there is some trace of nickle but no chrome they can lightly scuff the bead and apply a sealer i think the problem is else where also i highly reccomend nitrogen it costs a little but it does what they say
 
Mine are stick on square kind on the inside. If I have a hammer on weight, it has to be on the inside too because I have never noticed one (never looked) but I have seen the squares in the barrel.
 
i had some blizzaks put on my Lincoln chrome rims could never keep air in the guy at the dealership said the rims were so rotted that they had to put a tar like substance on the inside to keep a decent seal
 
i have taken tires off octastars, chrome 10 spokes, and chrome 20 spokes that had tons of chrome flaking off the bead, it happens, specially when you chrome plate aluminum, over time the aluminum gets oxidized under the chrome and just lifts it off in sheets. a wire wheel on a drill or a 4 inch grinder, or even scotch brite cookies on an air grinder is all you need. once you clean the beads real nice, some bead sealer will fix it all up.
 
I've had that happen with the chrome directionals I had on my 95 and on my 03 LS. Gotta love FLM using cheap ass chrome plating on 40k plus cars.
 
kustomizingkid said:
Yes this can happen, BUT the tire guy should have taken steps to avoid this problem, scuffing the bead and applying a proper dead sealer should solve these problems...
Click to expand...

Had that happen on some chrome rims I had on my Continental. I had one rim that would not hold air. I saw the guy go around the rim with the sander/scuffer (not sure) then he put the sealer on but the rim wouldn't hold air. Makes me wonder if he knew what he was doing or the rim was just in bad shape.
 
mine just had bad valve stems, this reminds me i gotta check my air pressure, see if they havent gone down :)
 
cmack said:
Had that happen on some chrome rims I had on my Continental. I had one rim that would not hold air. I saw the guy go around the rim with the sander/scuffer (not sure) then he put the sealer on but the rim wouldn't hold air. Makes me wonder if he knew what he was doing or the rim was just in bad shape.
Click to expand...

Could be cracked too....
 
it was common for the cast mustang SVO wheels to leak.

The fix was to clear coat the the area between the beads of the rim and it would last indefinately.
 
i had that problem with my left front 20 spoke.....its pretty bad, chrome on the bead and around the valve, scuffed it up, some sealer and never a problem again
 
Also another thing to think about. Do you have any enemies in your neighborhood? Maybe some crazy phuck is taking your air out or putting screws or nails behing your tires....It happened to me.
 
Mine went down recently because of failed valve stems. Don't forget just recently there was a recall on valve stems.
 
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