Leaking Tire Question

[drklain]

Left the office last night and had a red dashboard display alert about low tire pressure...Visually inspected tires and couldn't see anything. Drove slowly until sensors showed pressure and one tire was down to 21 PSI. I keep a portable compressor in the car and was able to charge it back up to normal/clear the alert and drove home. This morning (after about a 12 hour sit), pressure was down to 38 PSI. I drove to service station and charged it back up to 45 psi.

Leaving on a trip (back Tuesday) and fully expect the tire will be very low or empty at that point. I'm pretty sure the tire has a nail in it somewhere causing a slow leak. Tires are three years old but lots of tread life left. Car will sit in a garage in Northern Virginia while I'm gone.

In a normal car I would just take it to a tire place, have them pull tire and plug it. With the Tesla, options seem to be:
1. Call roadside assistance to report a flat
2. Try to schedule an appointment at service center and get the car in, but that may take a few weeks.
3. Take it somewhere
4. Do it myself (I have a jack and impact wrench and a torque wrench.

With respect to doing it myself, do I need a special jack adapter? Can I just use a hockey puck to avoid damaging the battery?

Do most tire places (Costco, National Tire, etc.) have the ability to safely jack and service a Tesla?

Is Roadside flat assistance going to just bring out a replacement tire, take mine to be repaired and then swap them out again? I assume this is not covered as a warranty item (and I have no problem with that). Would just rather not pay a couple of hundred bucks for a $30 repair...

Thoughts or recommendations?

 

[cookie99]

Hockey puck works fine. You can get nicer solutions that will stay on from Amazon or similar. Many car places can safely jack your car, if its just one tire you can just give them your hockey puck or block of wood and tell them to use it. For stuff like this, I would probably just take the wheel off myself and give them the wheel instead of the whole car.

Patching a tire is free in some places, don't do the roadside assistance for this, they're gonna charge you up the ying yang

 

[Takumi]

Look for the nail, if it's repairable then plug it!

I actually skip taking off the tire and just plug it while it's still on the car.

 

[ShawnA]

Hi Drklain,

Murphy's law jack pads are nice - They have magnets to hold them in place.
Like @heinzcatsoup said a hockey puck will work...

Some of the aerosol Fix-a-flat things will work as a temporary leak fix.
Be careful thought they may foul up the TPMS sensor on the tire...
It depends on how much time you have available before your trip.

I have the Murphy's Law jack pads for my cars and take them to Discount tire or Best one...
They work great...

Good luck,

Shawn

 

[drklain]

Look for the nail, if it's repairable then plug it!

I actually skip taking off the tire and just plug it while it's still on the car.

How do you do it on car? I assume you jack it up then look? I've fixed plenty of flats myself, but never on car...

 

[Jashev]

How do you do it on car? I assume you jack it up then look? I've fixed plenty of flats myself, but never on car...

Inflate the tire to at least 50 PSI. If this is a front tire, jack the car up in park (still might want to put a block of wood behind the rear wheel), take a spray bottle with a dishwashing soap solution and spray the tire as you slowly rotate it. Look for bubbles. When you find them, mark it and get your needle nose pliers to pull the nail and get your tire plug kit out.

Personally, I have done this without jacking the car up at all. I put someone in the car and have them move the car forward while I spray and look for bubbles. I've fixed many a nail hole without ever taking off the tire or jacking the car up.

 

[Takumi]

I use summon to move the car and use the soapy spray (spit will work in a pinch) only if I don't see a nail/screw. Don't forget to check the valve stem (base & Schrader valve), but that's usually on old cars with corroded rims.

I also use a piece of cardboard to lay on when working on it.

 

[drklain]

Thanks all for the suggestions. Will put them to use when I get home.

 

[drklain]

Just as feedback, got home to find the tire low, but not completely flat (probably around 20psi). Found the nail quite easily and positioned it at about the 6:30 position on the tire so I could get to it without removing the tire. I basically put it up so it was almost level with the body quarter panel behind it (was passenger side rear tire). That gave me the most room to get to it since obviously I was approaching it from below to be perpendicular to the tread. Pulled the nail, reamed hole and plugged it as normal. Only tough part was getting plug in, not a lot of room and difficult to generate a lot of force at that angle, but got it in without too much difficulty and now have a functional car/tire again without losing time tomorrow trying to get it serviced.

Thanks all for ideas and especially @Takumi for idea of plugging it without removing the tire (that's a first for me)!

 

[OldPro]

Left the office last night and had a red dashboard display alert about low tire pressure...Visually inspected tires and couldn't see anything. Drove slowly until sensors showed pressure and one tire was down to 21 PSI. I keep a portable compressor in the car and was able to charge it back up to normal/clear the alert and drove home. This morning (after about a 12 hour sit), pressure was down to 38 PSI. I drove to service station and charged it back up to 45 psi.

Leaving on a trip (back Tuesday) and fully expect the tire will be very low or empty at that point. I'm pretty sure the tire has a nail in it somewhere causing a slow leak. Tires are three years old but lots of tread life left. Car will sit in a garage in Northern Virginia while I'm gone.

In a normal car I would just take it to a tire place, have them pull tire and plug it. With the Tesla, options seem to be:
1. Call roadside assistance to report a flat
2. Try to schedule an appointment at service center and get the car in, but that may take a few weeks.
3. Take it somewhere
4. Do it myself (I have a jack and impact wrench and a torque wrench.

With respect to doing it myself, do I need a special jack adapter? Can I just use a hockey puck to avoid damaging the battery?

Do most tire places (Costco, National Tire, etc.) have the ability to safely jack and service a Tesla?

Is Roadside flat assistance going to just bring out a replacement tire, take mine to be repaired and then swap them out again? I assume this is not covered as a warranty item (and I have no problem with that). Would just rather not pay a couple of hundred bucks for a $30 repair...

Thoughts or recommendations?

Michelin Tires on sale at Costco for Tesla at $150 off a full set starting 12/28.