Car tire losing pressure after tire rotation? Very confused

Maintenance/Repairs
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The sub-division that I live in started Phase I about 25-years ago. The sub-division behind me started its Phase I about 20-years ago. Over the years, both sub-divisions have continued to build various phases. The neighbor that shares my back property line lives in the other sub-division…

About 7-years ago, almost all phases were complete, then the county noticed that the plans that were approved included connecting roads to each and they justified it with Fire and Police response and both sub-divisions had to turn “walking paths and play-ground space” into roadways.

Well that did not go over very well with the folks from both sub-divisions who lived next to those areas and they took it to court, but lost. The roads were built; then, mysteriously, folks who took those “shortcuts” experienced a lot of flats. Someone or several folks from both sides started dumping roofing nails on the road. The Sheriff’s Department got involved and even had some “late night” stakeouts, but no one was caught. But it got so bad, both sub-divisions put in security cameras on those roads. No one has ever caught. Our HOA fees still pay for those cameras and I do not even know if they are ever monitored… But it seems to have passed.

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Took it to firestone today. There was a screw in the tire. Glad to find a reason why it was leaking. The mechanic has pacthed it. Lets see if it fixes the problem.

Thanks everyone for your help!

@cdaquila still waiting for the username change. I already sent you a PM.

Thanks

2 Likes
46

I gotta share this… A while back, I came out and found a tire flat on the car. I changed it and took it to “a major tire merchant” to have them patch it… I rolled it in and the “manager” handed it over to one of the “tire specialists” to patch. The specialist had to ask, “How do I find the leak?” and the manager told him to put it in the tub of water. He did, but he never put any air in it. I did not say a word… I instead wrote a note… After a while, the manager came over to see what was taking so long. I handed the manager the note and told him, that his specialist was not going to fix that tire and if he did not have someone else, qualified, to fix it, I would take it elsewhere and write Corporate and demand reimbursement since they had no one qualified to fix it. The manager apologized and he said he would fix it and he did…

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lol… pretty funny story. I can see how something like that could happen tho, new employee never had fixed a flat before. Seems poor business practice to not have someone experienced use your tire to show him how it is done. Teenage me worked a part time job at a service station, one Saturday night I was the only one there and a guy driving a pickup truck w/his gf, dressed to the nines, out on a date I guess, come in with a leaking tire. Fortunately the night before one of the experienced employees showed me how to fix a flat using the station’s tire machine and equipment. His truck had huge tires, but still fitted the equipment, and the first tire I fixed entirely by myself. I sort of surmised water would be a good way to find where the leak was located I guess.

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I guess I am doing something wrong . I don’t seem to have problems like Mr. Thunder . Sure makes life boring.

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I gotta say kids patched bike tires all the time. Then if you bought an inner tube for the lake from the gas station, most of the time you had to patch them. Can’t imagine how a kid would get to working age and not have done it.

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My son got two flat tires one week after I replaced his water pump, I patched the tires. One event has nothing to do with the other.

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Only exp;anation I can think of is that you ticked off one of the kids in your neighborhood and you can’t see the rear drivers side tire from your house so they are letting the air out to drive you mad.

1 Like
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Someone deflating the tire(s) would not be as consistent as a common puncture.

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As Bing noted, I patched bicycle tubes from a young age. Started working at a flying horse (don’t want to say Mobil) gas station at 16 years old. If low tire was on the vehicle, we put the car on the hoist, sprayed it with soapy water. If simple puncture, got a plug. We used a mushroom shape plug through a gun that worked very well. Other than simple puncture, tire got an internal patch.

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But you did anyways. :rofl: :rofl:

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How did those mushroom plugs hold up over time?

Better than those rope style plugs, at least?

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Mr. VO,

I do not question your life’s experiences as you do mine. Eventhough I may have “war stories” untold that would make your hair curl…

I am a Boomer, I hung around garages since the early '50s. I learned to patch a car’s inner tube by the time I was 7. Back then, you pulled the tire, ran your hand around the inside of the tire looking and feeling for whatever caused the flat (nail, screw, etc…), filled the tube with air, and tubbed it. You sanded/buffed the hole, and then you placed the patch over the hole…

Back then, professional tire patches (not the type for bicycles tires - rubber cement and a flexible piece of sticky-back rubber) came mounted in a small tin in the shape of the patch, on the inside of the tin was a flammable material like sterno…

With the patch in place, you then clamped the patch over the hole. The clamp was somewhat like a C-Clamp but with a flat base so it would stand up and the clamping head was shaped like an “X”. You tightened it down and lit the “sterno,” as it burned, it volcanized the patch to the inner tube giving you a patch that was now a permanent part of the tire…

As a kid and a teenager (started as a “tire buster” in Western Auto), I patched a lot of tires, so I know of what I speak/write…

Additionally, as a retired Air Force Vet, with over 30-years in the service, I’ve lived in 17 different locations, on five different continents, in 7-different countries, and in 6-diffent states (some a couple of times…).

So, my life’s experiences are far more varied than someone whose whole world is a microcosm of society.

Now, I’m imagining the if you did not serve in the military, in different locations (various countries and states), then you would of course not have had the life’s experiences I have had nor seen the problems I have seen. And that’s not something I hold against anybody.

One of my oldest friends is what I call, a “home body,” he has not ever left New York State. He’s a firm believer that if he can’t get home by dark, there’s no reason to go. He has never been to NYC (south), Vermont (East), Buffalo (West), nor Canada (North).

As for kids today, the military is having a recruitment shortfall, they are either overweight, or cannot pass the entrance exams. And I remember some of those questions: you were shown an illustration of a Phillips Head Screw and you had to select the proper tool to use on it: a hammer, a chisel, a common screwdriver and of course a Phillips screwdriver…

Now I ask you to search your memory, how many times have you seen a kid riding his/her bicycle down the street with a flat tire? I bring this up because about a year ago, one of my neighbors had their kids bicycle upside down in the drive way for a few hours. Dad had taken the flat back tire off the multi-speed bike and could not figure how to remount the tire… First off, the tire had a quick release lever, but Dad unscrewed it completely and remove all parts, then after I showed home how to reassemble the axle, He pumped up the tire, only to find out that he had numerous holes in the new tube from his prying with screwdrivers. I had him buy a new tube, I figured teaching him to patch would be a wsted effort. With new tube, We got his kid back on his bike…

I am enrolled in some college classes now and “those kids” cannot print fast enough to take notes, they do not know cursive. And it’s not like they are even interested in the class, they set up their phones on stands to record the class, but use their tablets to check/update Facebook. Some even post on TiKTok with photos of the class while the class is going on…

Mr.Thunder…

2 Likes
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Same here, including Pegasus.

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Heh heh, I remember at 21 just out of college taking the aptitude test. Trying to do good to stay out of the nam swamp. The only one I got wrong was the lathe dog. I knew what a lathe was but had no idea what the dog was. We could never take shop in high school if you were college prep. So all my knowledge is from the school of hard knocks.

Ps Volvo is not allowed to discuss his military background for fear of being shot.

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Like I said earlier, I can’t speak for anybody else . . . but I enjoy your stories :smiley:

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Here is an old file photo off Google Search that shows the old style vulcanizing tire patches. You can see the patches mounted to the tins. The “white” covered the clean patch, and the sides “beige-gray” was the sterno like stuff you lit… And the Clamp that pressed the soften patch onto the tube.

camel
camel800×588 66.9 KB

Bet you thought that when you lit a Camel, you could smoke it…

Also, in the era I grew up in, all gas stations were service stations with mechanics on duty. Back then, any kid could bring their bicycle with a flat tire to any garage and they often got “front-of-line” repair on their bicycle. It was a different world back then.

Years later, as I hung around garages, we talked and this fact came out that it was “good business” to fix kids tires and maybe even offer the kid a soda. You see, back then, Dad often would go outside after dinner to have a cigarette and check over the car: check the oil, wash the windshield, dump the ashtray, etc… then stop by the local gas station to fill up and gab with “Joe” the station owner and get the latest “Detroit” news. Families were closer then and the kids often went for a ride with Dad and the kid would say, “Go there Daddy, they fixed my bike tire…”

I know, my father did this, and my friend’s father did this and on many occasion, when all the guys were over at one or the other’s house, that father might pile all the kids in for a trip to the station for gas and a “pop…”

Yeah, I know, “There he goes again…”

Just think of me like turning on the Oldies TV Station showing the original TV series of “Our Gang”

2 Likes
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We just went to the shell station down the street where a friend of the family was. We had that round red can though. Can’t remember what brand. Rough the tube up. Spread cement, light it on fire, and put the patch on. No clamp, not as sophisticated as you folks.

3 Likes
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Yup!
We used to buy that kit in a can from Pep Boys, and it always seemed to work for us.

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They seemed to, the puncture was reamed and rubber cement on the plug.

1 Like