Q: Tires not holding air?
 

My 2000 Saleen S281 driver side front tire is not holding air and I took it to a local tire dealer here in town and they said it was because the chrome rims can cause the tire(s) to lose air after a few years. Has anyone ever heard of this and if so, what is the solution?

bead sealant
 

One way of fixing this is by having an installer clean the wheel and use a bead sealant to reduce or eliminate the air loss.

leaking air
 

Where was it leaking from exactly? If the wheel/tire is leaking air on the regular, I would take the wheel off the car find out where you are leaking air from...with some soapy water and a spray bottle. If it's leaking from the valve stem, then it's the valve stem. If it is leaking from the inner lip...check for a crack, if it is leaking at the face of the wheel, then it is probably a flake in the chrome. A good dismount/remount/balance with a new valve stem, sand-down of the chrome near the tire bead, and with bead sealant neatly applied this should solve the problem. Have the shop check for a bend in the wheel too and also a nail in the tire. But odds are just needs some bead sealant as stated previously. Hope these ideas help. Let us know what you find. Good Luck.

For what it's worth, a local (to me) high volume tire dealer uses dielectric grease to reseal leaking chromed aluminum wheels.

Not sure where it is leaking from. I took it to a tire dealership to have them see if they could tell me why it is losing air and that was his explanation. He pretty much put the blame on the chrome rims which I had never heard of. I had taken my wifes car to have 4 new tires put on and had them check it while I was there. Thanks for all the info, I will let you know what I find out once I take it somewhere.

air leak
 

Yes, I recommend going to a tire shop where they actually WANT to help you. Any reputable tire person should be able to pin point the leak and that will lead you into why it is actually losing air. But to tell give you an explanation from 5 feet away with no dismount and dunk or spray, was meaningless and a waste of time. Hopefully you have more info on this and you are are on the trail. Let us know as I am super curious.

He said they took the tire off but not sure why they could not pin point where it was coming from. I will keep you informed and once again thanks for the reply

i had that problem for the longest on just one wheel from the original '00 saleen chromed wheels.... after a few visits to the tire shop and a set of new tires i figured it was just the flaking of the chrome which was pretty bad... no one in south Florida fully refurbishes chromed wheels.. i eventually gave up and bought after market wheels..now i have 5 original saleen chrome wheels just sitting in storage.

My xp8 wheels were horrible with this.
The chrome on the bead is causing the issue.
If you soap them up, it will be obvious.
On some parts of mine you could literally see that there were bubbles coming through cracks in the chrome closer to the face of the wheel.

You can grind them down and make them seal.

I too bought replicas in the end.

Later to find out i have a chrome place near me in NJ that is one of very few places that will remove chrome (don't even think about sand blasting, it's NOT happening).
Not sure it mattered, since i had the chrome removed from one wheel to see what it was like and they said they could powder coat that wheel, but wasn't suitable for chrome again.

Laser did all of your rims leak? I am wondering if I could replace the one that is causing the issue (front driver side)

Only one ... that one has so much flaking going on and a ip in the rim.. tire place confirmed it was the chrome flaking

You can probably find an answer from this article:

https://www.tires-easy.com/blog/when...20tire%20valve.

I eventually replaced all 4 of my saleen wheels with aftermarket for this exact same problem. Tires kept going flat because of the chrome flaking off and letting air out.