Wife hit my car, now my tire won't hold air pressure

[Striker's Stinger]

Speaks for itself. Wife drove my car to work "to have fun" and parked it behind her car in the driveway when she got home, we have a 3 car driveway btw. Next morning she decides to take her car, and forgot she parked my car behind hers. She didn't even see the car lol, turned on her car and reversed directly into my beautiful stinger. Front bumper needs to be replaced, blah blah. Anyways, I turned on my stinger that day and somehow back right tire said 6PSI. I figured she popped it. Put air in it because I had nothing to lose. Got it to 36 PSI, it actually held air pressure! Then it got cold 2 days later with this "artic blast weather" and all of the sudden my tire is reading 21 PSI. 19 PSI currently and staying there. I have Michelin all season tires on my GT1.

So there's my wonderful story. Insurance is taking care of my front bumper and her rear bumper. Question is do I need a new tire or can I get away with getting this one worked on or just putting air in again? It's not bald, I don't "really" race my stinger or run it hard, yet (JB4 and Injen intakes just came in this week!) I run 91 octane. 93 when I get it tuned next week. I'm thinking there's a leak, but it held pressure for 48 hours and currently holding pressure at 21 PSI.

 

[ChaneRZ]

Wow really? No looking and ignored rear camera?! Just have it replaced.

 

[Striker's Stinger]

Wow really? No looking and ignored rear camera?! Just have it replaced.

yes. parked behind her car, forgot she parked it. Walked to her car next morning, didn't see or remember my car parked directly behind her. Slammed it. Her car rear bumper needs to be replaced too. I still love her <3

And darn, these tires are still virtually brand new, so much tread left. Haven't even burned them out yet. Ufff, will likely replace at the Kia dealership.

Thanks for your input!

 

[bfglitch]

Not sure what the temps were when you filled it, but cold temps can drop tire pressure quite a bit..although usually not that much. I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to top mine up tomorrow considering it was in the 40's-50's and tomorrow it'll be like...15. Either way you should probably top it back up (along with the rest if they're low due to the temps) again and keep an eye on it. When the temps go back up you'll probably have to let out some air.

Also, when it's not freezing cold out, you could whip up some soapy water and cover the tire as well as the valve stem and schrader valve inside the valve stem. If you see any bubbles appearing, there's your leak.

 

[NS_Stinger]

Your tire issue could be a million things.

How I would handle it in my garage. Remove tire, inflate to 40lbs, spray trend with spray bottle filled with water and dish soap to identify where leak is, this will work around the edge of the rim as well. Find hole or nail or whatever is wrong and use a plug kit to fix it.

If you dont have the gear or know how to do any of that you have to take it to a garage and they can figure it out pretty easily for you. Just tell them you have a tire leak and it needs a repair and they will figure out if they can patch it or if it needs replacement (usually damage to sidewall would mean it needs replacement).

 

[Snicklefritz]

either your right rear tire bead got compromised by the hit which is hard to imagine, being furthest thing away from the impact, or your wife picked up a nail. your tire is not ruined.

 

[nhcowboy28]

Part out.

 

[bfglitch]

Part out.

Which, the car or the wife?

 

[ChaneRZ]

Both

 

[JSolo]

It's a good thing the stinger has this backup crash avoidance technology. Had she been driving it, the car brakes automatically for obstacles detected in the rear or front.

 

[hayagix]

That's got to be worth a year of "favours".

 

[JSolo]

That's got to be worth years of "favours".

Corrected

 

[Snowwhite]

my wife has backed her car into the garage door more than once, with a backup cam, with PDC, even with the kids screaming at her that the door is still closed. And she wonders why I won't let her near my car...

 

[JSolo]

^^All the more reason to back in. Well, maybe not. A garage door is cheaper to fix than a wall of the house.

 

[Snowwhite]

^^All the more reason to back in. Well, maybe not. A garage door is cheaper to fix than a wall of the house.

oh she's hit the toolbox in front of her car several times too. I had to get a full width 4" tall parking stop like you see at commerical parking lots so she wouldn't bump into it again.

 

[JSolo]

^^There's the audible alert when backing up, the camera, but also, I have an old mcy tire strategically placed behind one of the rear wheels to allow a gentle cushion before hitting hard objects .

 

[Striker's Stinger]

the replies are priceless !

I don't have the proper gear to look into it myself, I'll try to soap technique but ultimately I'll just take it to the dealership (getting my oil changed next week anyways, also JB4 + sparks and injen intakes next week) and have them take a look at it. Any other replies are welcome!

 

[Snicklefritz]

Any other replies are welcome!

just don't forget us and tell us what happens.

 

[turboAWD]

I had a similar experience - all of a sudden, tire is showing 25 psi (we dropped from 60s to 30s overnight), I thought it was the cold. Pumped it up a few times, always held close to 32 psi, but was slowly losing 1-2 psi per day. Finally had time to take it off the car and look at it - found the nail in 3 seconds.

 

[JSolo]

I recall reading in general, tires lose about 1 lb per 10deg F drop in temp. Going from mid 30's to 0F should result in ~3lb drop in each.

Slow leaks can either be a puncture or a rim bead leak. The latter usually on older wheels with rust/corrosion.