Anyone know of a cure for air leaks around aluminum discovery wheels 96.
The rims have been filed many times but they still manage to loose air in the bead area. Is there a diy for this other than removing tires and refinishing/repainting the wheels?

 

Aluminum wheels are the worst when it comes to bead leaks. They gotta be super clean and it helps if they are clear coated or sealed from the elements. the aluminum expands and contracts (depending on the temperature) more than steel or mag rims.

I did have one aluminum rim that leaked through the rim itself. I ended up painting the inside of the rim to seal it up. Once that was done, it never leaked.

 

Been dealing with this a lot lately on factory alum wheels, corrosion around bead

Dismount tire

Wire wheel off all corrosion, loose paint etc

Paint bead with bead sealer mount and inflate tire


Now be sure there is not corrosion making the valve stem leak I'd so do the same on inside where stem goes through

 

good point but if im at a tire place all they do is take the crust off and put black sealer on then it still leaks when the weather changes ive had this done 2-3 times its better, then start to leak after a few months. you have to ask them and they dont do it right.
how would you paint the insides yourself unless you have a tire machine. i wonder if wd 40 would work

 

A tire place normally will not clean the rims ESP a chain store, insurance liability BS is what they will say

Unless you have a cracked rim but I can't imagine all 4 cracked, did you spray soapy water on the bead and look for bubbles? Will probly be very slight

Go to a small indy shop or have them dismounted. Take home , clean then return and ask for the black bead glue to be put on

Even the aluminum spare on my dads Buick needed this done cause it hangs under the car, I also had to do his avalanche wheels, his previous tires never held air kept taking it back

I Went to my buddies shop and pulled the tires the tire place was just trying to seal over bad corrosion instead of cleaning the wheels off

In my area I blame the brine they spray on the roads in the winter, gets in everywhere and eats everything ESP brake lines

 

ya, its corrosion. on my jeep i ran H2 wheels and those things leaked bad enough that i'd have two flat 35s in a week. get em cleaned up right and sealed and they won't leak anymore.

 

green slime

 

Can try slime but if it does not work you'll play hell trying to clean it out to do it the right way

 

ugh, no. all that junk does is make it worse. i wouldn't ruin a set of tires with that crap.

 

Yeah, they're right. Aluminum corrosion is worse than rust on steel (for wheels anyway) because it becomes a crusty, powdery mess and air will leak past it. What needs to happen is that ALL (not 90%, but ALL) of the corrosion needs to be removed. If it's just a small area or two, you could get on it with a file or grinder then smooth with a wire brush on a drill ..or fine sandpaper. If the whole area is mostly corroded, consider taking to a machine shop and ask them to glass bead blast (using glass beads, not SAND) the sealing part of the wheel. They have a cabinet they can put them into and do a nice job. But if you were to do this. I would carefully tape up the areas of the wheel that are good to protect the good looking surfaces so they don't get scuffed up too much being banged around in all the handling by a flunkie.

Once you have the corrosion completely removed, the bead around the rim needs to be coated with a product that is COMPATIBLE with aluminum. I would consider a self-etching primer (usually greenish) that you can buy in a can. Here is a very good product:
Read the can to make sure it is compatible with aluminum. Self-etching primer is a fantastic product. That single invention alone when mfgrs started using in car en masse in the 80's is responsible for extending the service life of millions of cars by a number of years. Dupli-Color makes a good product too, but Grey will match your wheels better. Napa sells it. Others do too. That should solve your problem. After spraying, I would cover with silver paint that better matches your wheel and clear coat over the silver too. The 'ideal' situation if you had the resources would be to use an autobody quality urethane basecoat/clearcoat system. Not only would it provide the best weather resistance, but look great too.

At any rate, let dry for a couple days at least so that when the shop starts banging in there with their metal tools they don't chip things away (which is probably what lead to the corrosion in the first place), then reinstall the tire. Yeah, you can have them use the goo over the paint if you think they need to. They might need to just to fill in any corrosion pits if any remain.