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I'm starting to suspect someone let the air out of my tire.

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by dhanson865, Sep 23, 2014.

  1. M in KC

    M in KC Active Member

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    You can spot check your wheel/tire with a bottom of Windex. There is just enough surfactant in there to bubble up if a leak is present. If no leak you have a minty fresh clean wheel and tire.

    If you think someone is messing with you, you could take a Sharpie and mark your valve stem and cap. Odds are if someone is messing with you they wont align the marks back up after their deed.
     
  2. dhanson865

    dhanson865 Expert and Devil's advocate

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    fwiw, The tires are still on the car, got a 60 mpg trip two states over and two states back at high highway speeds. Tires haven't lost pressure since they tightened the valve stem.
     
  3. Stevewoods

    Stevewoods Senior Member

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    Gosh: Everyone must have been pretty bored when you first posted this, considering the number of replies you received.

    But as a contribution to the knowlege base, I kept having a mysterious super slow leak on one Prius tire that we could never find. I ended up replacing the tire after about a few months of hassling it.

    Then after about 18 months, the same deal with the new tire. I took it in about three times, never could find a problem. Finally, fourth time, I told them to dismount and then remount. That worked. It's been about four months and no problem.

    I am thinking there might be something about that particular wheel/rim, or whatever it is called. I would not be surprised if sometime in the next year, that tire starts to lose air again.
    If it does, I might consider replacement of the wheel/rim, but considering how much $$$$....I might just live with it.

    The valve stem is one of the first things I check, if I see no other obvious signs of trouble. Bought one of those handy stem tools some 30 years ago when I was in my 20's I think it cost me 50 cents or something.

    Gave it away to my daughter about a year ago and bought another one for myself. Daughter used it to fix a slow leak on one of her tires.