Valve stem leak - how to fix?

My knowledge of fixing tires is pretty much limited to tubed bicycle tires. I've discovered that my front tire has a slow leak - I lose about 5 PSI a day. Doing the old soap water trick, I think the leak is limited to the valve stem. I'll try attaching a photo of it. If it doesn't work, here's a flickr link. I'm getting a small bubble under the washer that sits against the rim.

Is fixing this a matter of backing off the two nuts and cleaning/replacing something under that washer (it looks a little rusted)? Or is it more involved than that? The tires are about 5 years old with very minor sidewall checking. They were put on by a bike shop.

The answer to this is probably in my Haynes manual, but somewhere between my house, garage, car and work, I've mislaid it. Thanks for any leads.

 

Had the same problem. My fix (right or wrong) remove nuts & washer, clean washer and area around stem. Install a small o-ring over valve stem with a small amount of silicone and replace washer, tighten nut & jam nut.

 

The corrosion between the washer (steel) and the rim (aluminum) has created a biproduct (exfoliation) that is allowing air to escape. Best fix is replace the valve stem with a new one, but this means dismounting the tire and rebalancing it if you dont' use the exact same stem type (weight difference is the concern here). My stem has a split grommet so I could, in theory, replace the top rubber grommet with a new grommet. I would use the process Ken outlined above and make sure the surface of the rim is cleaned of all corrosion and crud to ensure a good seal. Good luck to ya!

 

Thanks guys. I got cocky before when I said there was not much left to replace. . . .

 

Or - at 5 years of age just replace it... and how exactly did you make a tire last 5 years

I'm teasing - I wasn't going to post but you've gotten some good response so I don't feel as bad...

 

Yeah, I know - bad rider. I meant to add to the 'minimal checking' that they also only had about 2,000 miles on them. Damn life gettin' in the way. . . .

 

The valve stem has a rubber gasket inside the rim between the wheel and inner valve stem shoulder. You could simply tighten the nuts a small amount see if that works.
The silicon idea might work to if you get some inside on the gasket, might be possible to get some in there with a small pocket screwdriver.

But I'm with woot, break one bead swap out the stem and air it back up.
I don't think you'll have to remove the tire from the rim, if you have a bead breaker you can probably do it right on the bike. Local dealer should have plenty of them in stock.

 

re: Life getting in the way.

I've got a plan for this summer - take random sunny days off and go for a full day long ride every so often. I've got 21 days left of vacation and the miss has ear marked most of hers for christmas... that leaves 9 fun days this summer for me

 

You know, sometimes I make things harder on myself than they need to be. The nuts were both fairly loose. I backed them off anyway and cleaned things up. After tightening them back up and refilling, no bubbles.

I'll check the pressure in the morning. Thanks again guys. I shouldn't assume EVERYTHING is doom and gloom I guess.

 

I can't F-ing believe this.

The valve stem stopped leaking.

Now I'm getting soap bubbles from around the rim - which I wasn't before. Not big bubbles, more like a foam from a whole bunch of tiny leaks. I'm hoping for the best (just a bad bead seal that can be reset) but expecting the worst (new tire).

For some reason I just don't want to tackle this and am thinking of taking the wheel to a shop since I don't have bead breakers, tire irons, etc. Anyone want to persuade me one way or the other? For now, I'm going to ignore the tire until I get the carbs cleaned up, back on, and running right.

 

That's strange that it started doing that when you didn't touch the bead - I suppose it is possible the preasure got low and it got unseated a bit when it was being moved about.

You might be able to get it to reseat by dropping the preasure down a bit - wrapping a tie down strap tightly around the circumference of the wheel and repreasurizing it.

Honestly, I'd be tempted to put air in frequently until I sorted the kinks out and then put on a tire. A cheap new tire would have to be at least as good as an unkown 5 year old tire.

As for mounting a new tire - taking the rim to the shop will save you some money and you won't have to buy the tools. I don't change enough tires to worry too much about getting into doing my own.

 

Here's a good read if you decide to tackle it youself.
http://xjbikes.com/Web_Links/l_op=visit/lid=6.html

 

Woot, this is very much my own thinking. It's down on the list, but I'll be certain to make sure the tire is sound or replaced before I put any serious miles or a passenger on it.

As for the problem just cropping up now - it could be that I missed it before, but don't think so - I ran the soap water around the entire rim and watched carefully. The really strange thing is that the bike is up off the wheels right now, so even when I had all of the air out to clean/tighten the valve stem, there wasn't any bike weight on the tire to mess with the bead.

I'll try the tie-strap trick. Failing that, once all the other work is done, I'll just take the front wheel to a shop.

jdrich, thanks for the link, I'll check it out but I'm inclined to let the pros handle it. I tend to think the front tire is even more important than the brakes, so I'm only going to trust myself so far in fixing it.

 

I've got a follow-up question on this tire. The reseating tricks haven't helped - the bead is still leaking. The tire itself is in great shape, though. I vaguely recall somewhere in the past reading that you could run with a tube in the tire, but that it was less than ideal for one reason or another.

Can you run with a tube on our rims inside a 'tubless' tire?

If so, what are the disadvantages, if any?

I'm going to take the tire to a shop at this point, I just want to know if putting a tube in is a realistic fix, or if I should just plan on buying new front rubber.

Thanks.

 

If your horn works, you don't need brakes.

 

If the tire doesn't roll, I don't need brakes OR a horn

 

Just a final (hopefully) follow-up on this tire issue, I took it to the shop and a half day and $36 later, they took the tire off, cleaned some funk off the rubber and oxidation off the rim, remounted and balanced the tire. Voila - she holds air!

 

Awesome... I've had to do that before with old lawn mower tires... infact I spent a day with fine sandpaper scrubbing both the rim and the tire. I guess that would have been a helpful comment for awhile ago :-/

I didn't expect the same problem with a bike tire - just how old is it? j/k have fun on it - just take it a bit easy to size up what that tire will feel like.

 

It's OK woot, I didn't have the tools nor the wherewithall to pull the rubber myself.

As for age, the rubber is about 6 years old, but only has a few thousand miles on it. It's still good as far as dry-rot and checking goes. I think the problem is that it sat flat for a couple years at a stretch, giving the rim a chance to oxidize where it otherwise would have been protected by the rubber.

 

>shudders<

Are you trying to push my buttons? I'm teasing...

You're back on the road now?

<-- Loving your signature... classic moments in time.