cyber_x

Yesterday, I noticed my car very noticeably pulling to the left upon accelerating, and pulling to the right upon deccelerating. Upon checking my tire pressures, I found that my driver's side rear tire was low. It was something like 20 psi or so, and was visibly "sagging". So, I pumped it back up to 32 psi.

Since doing that, I've driven about 40 miles, and the car feels fine. However, my commute takes me through the mountains, where a tire problem could potentially kick my ass, so I can't help but feel paranoid about it. My question is this...

#1.
Is it "normal" for tire pressure to drop from 32 psi to as low as 20 psi? That seems like an enormous drop. Granted, this rear tire was just put on about 8k miles ago, and I never personally checked its pressure...I had just assumed the shop did it right...so it could have potentially been low to begin with. But then shouldn't I have felt the car pulling before it dropped as low as 20 psi?

#2.
If that tire does have a serious leak, should it have already made its presence known in the 40 miles since pumping it back up?

If I feel paranoid enough, I might take the car to a tire shop and get it checked out, but since I'm stuck at work for the time being, I thought I'd get you guys' feedback first. Thanks a lot...

3ngin33r1

My advice, get someone to take a look at it. No matter what anyone here says, you're always going to worry about it.

mxt_77

Yeah... and monitor pressures more regularly. Do a visual inspection every time you get in the car, and actually check them with a gauge every week or so (and more frequently now that you are concerned about it).

cyber_x

Yep, will do both of the above - thanks. I'll be checking the pressures more regularly, and if time permits, will try to get a tire shop to check for leaks at lunch.

Still...could a good tire (i.e. no leaks due to punctures) drop in pressure from 32 psi to 20 psi? I don't know if this happened gradually and I just didn't notice, or if it happened all in one day.

3ngin33r1

Seems a bit extreme to drop that much overnight without some sort of leak, unless the temperature dropped 50 degrees, even then, 32 to 20...

cyber_x

3ngin33r1,

Thanks...that's what made me paranoid. Guess I'll get it checked at lunch. Hopefully the shop can do it quickly so I can get back to work.

I wish I had been more rigorous about checking tire pressures prior to yesterday. That way, I would have known what the original pressure was (I can only assume it was 32 psi but don't know for sure). I also had to borrow a crappy not-very-user-friendly pressure gauge from the gas station to do it, so I don't even know if my readings were fully accurate. Oh well, chalk it up as a lesson learned.

Thanks again!

andrewewing

I would almost guarantee that you have a "puncture" in the form of a nail or secrew or similar object sticking in the tire. If the puncturing object stays in place then you, in some cases, can get a very slow leak that can take hundreds of miles to drop the pressure significantly. However, if cornering forces or centrifugal force causes the object to come out then you will lose pressure immediately.

Do a thorough visual inspection of the entire tread area. I bet you'll find something.

toosteeley

I actually had the same problem on one of my rear tires. I would pump it up to 32psi and a couple weeks later it would be down to 20psi (did this twice). Took it to Honda last night to get checked out expecting there to be a nail or something in the tire - turns out the valve stem had a small hole in its base which was gradually letting the air out. Honda replaced it under warentee and everything seems fine now. Have a tire place check it out for you - sounds like what was happening to mine. Hope this helps.

Cheers.

pphamr6

i have been experiencing the same problem, when i accelerate the cars pull to the left. so i check tire pressure and the front tires were at different psi than my rear. i decided to air all tires at the same psi when i came to notice that the front tires had a different psi max. than my rear. the front ones were 50 psi and the rears are 44 psi (different manafacturers), so my question is what is the recommended psi for the S, and does it matter that the rear's psi max. is different than the front?

3ngin33r1

32 psi all around and 60 psi in the spare.