My car’s driver seat tire pressure drops 5-7 PSI every week. I took it to Honda Service and they did not find any leak. They mentioned that I can bring in next week and they would have to dismount the tire and check some tire beads … not sure if I understood it right.
What could be the reason… what should I do?
Without seeing the tire I could make many guesses . Go to a real tire shop . By tire bead they mean where the tire contacts the wheel .
It takes patience to find a leak that slow, it can take 5 to 10 minutes submerged in the water tank to spot the tiny air bubbles.
The “check for leaks” complaint during a maintenance visit is so common that many techs just inspect for punctures.
Dipping the tire in water could even reveal if the alloy wheel is leaking because it’s.porous.
Tester
The reason is that they didn’t want to spend time on it and find the leak. As @Tester said above, when you put the tire & rim in a bucket, you will see the leak. You can dip one quarter of the tire/rim at a time. Just have to wait patiently which was not cost effective for the shop.
Have a tire shop take a look, dad’s 2019 CRV had both of the left side tires with puncture’s, one he knew had a slow leak, this was our local Discount Tire which is close to the house and we’ve bought tires from them many times.
Spray the tire with soapy water. If you hit the spot where the leak is, you should see bubbles forming.
This method works well if it is pretty good sized leak. 5-7 psi per week is probably more in the range of a medium sized leak, so it might be hard to spot by that method. Another way is to remove the tire, then set it down so it is perfectly flat (use a level, shim as required), inflate to normal tire pressure, then spray (or brush) some soapy water along the bead (where the tire rubber meets up with the metal rim). The soap will stay in the bead area and the leak will usually show up within 30 minutes, may be hard to see at first, often shows up as a bevy of very tiny bubbles. If no bubbles seen in an hour, flip the tire over and do the same to the other side’s bead.
I’ve had to remove tires from the rim a couple times to repair bead leaks. Once the tire is removed it is usually pretty obvious where the leak is, corrosion (rust, etc) easily seen on the bead in that area. A little sandpaper, emery cloth cleans it up straight away.