One of my tires has a small leak in it. Not sure where its coming from. I cant see anything that may have punctured it. They're about a year old and still have good tread but they're out of warranty. Anybody ever tried some of the sealants out there like Slime? I seen it on the shelf at a Pep Boys



http://www.slime.com/shop/tire-sealant/

 

Don't use that stuff. It gets all over the rim and becomes a hassle to clean off.

Take it to a tire shop and have them plug (not patch) it. That's cheap enough and makes a great seal in most cases, that is unless its on the sidewall and then you're SOL.

 

Do you have a Discount Tire / America's Tire in your area? They do free tire patching/repair even if you didn't buy from them.

 

out of this entire statement the only thing i agree with is dont use slime



patches work better than plugs, plugs can fall out while driving. plus to me, fixing a hole by making a bigger hole sounds pretty retarded.



sidewall punctures can be fixed and are legal to do so

 

I've never had good experience with patches personally.

As for plugs, the hole is ground out more to remove burs that could damage the plug, I've never had a problem with any plugged tire. As for side wall, you can, but I'm of the old school paranoia.





More to the point, Slime/fix-a-flat, etc =

 

a lot of places won't touch or work on the tire if they know or you tell them there is puncture seal or slime in it.



I worked as a grease monkey at a GM dealership years back and we patched tires (it's called vulcanize). If done right, it's a much stronger/better repair than a plug. Either is better than anything in a can.

 

The main question is where is it coming from. You could have corroded RIMS and leak from there. Get yourself a spray bottle with soapy water and inflate and remove the wheel. Spray the whole thing down and where it bubbles, it's leaking.



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Slime is for high-reliability-requirement automotive tires, people who don't ask for advice, and bicycle inner tubes. If you don't 100% NEED to be up and running, with never ever stopping for inflation after running over nails or whatever, use slime. Everyone else, use patches or plugs. I had a tire that I drove BALD that had 5 plugs in it and none of them leaked* but if I were going to have someone else work on a tire, I'd have them patch it from the inside.



If there's a cut on the shoulder, that might kill a tire. I'm not a fan of patching sidewalls but a small hole might be alright to patch.



*Even after repeated rotations, none of the other tires would collect road debris, just that one! Must have been magnetic rubber or something. The plugs didn't leak though so whatever.