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by Goldilocks on March 28th, 2006

Goldilocks

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Assuming that I do not have leaky valves on my tires, why do some of my cars tires lose air when left unused in a garage for 3 months? What's happening?

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Answers. 3 helpful answers below.

  • by Godfather Part II on April 7th, 2006

    Godfather Part II

    It is simply nothing can keep air tight indefinitely. Tiny holes in the tyre will allow air to escape very very slowly. However, after 3 months the effect becomes noticable.

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  • by scubabob on April 14th, 2006

    scubabob

    While I somewhat agree with the GodFather,his answer is not entirely correct.
    Air in your tires will always want to equalize with the ambient atmospheric conditions. If your tire and rim were completely "solid", i.e no spaces in the molecules that make them up and no spaces between adjacent molecules, air would have no place to go to equalize and hence wouldn't leak out of the tire/rim. There's no way out.
    For air to leave your tire it needs an escape route, it needs to find an opening it can fit through. Rubber is a great material, in that when made and formed properly for the purpose of a tire, the spaces between it's molecules are smaller than the a molecule of air acting as a "net" if you will, containing the air. Any puncture large enough to admit a molecule of air, will leak. Also, you need to take into account the mating surface of rim to tire. The rim is not perfect, it has pits and ridges.The rubber contacting it, does it's best to conform to these pits and ridges, but even rubber can not exactly match every bump and valley, required for a perfect seal in a mass produced item.

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  • by ev-dude on September 1st, 2006

    ev-dude

    A rubber tire is NOT a perfect seal. There are micrometer gaps
    all over the tire, so these will be larger than air moleculars, or
    pretty close. Tires always loose air, that is why you need to check
    your tire pressure at least every month.

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