[arvi86]

Originally Posted by arvi86

On another note, me along with a couple of my cousins are off to Masinagudi and Mudumalai today in the Civic. There are plans of visiting Ooty for a day too if time permits. So, yet another new destination and a lot more snaps of the Civic to come to bore you guys to death!

As already stated, off we went to Masinagudi / Mudumalai / Bandipur in the Civic. All of you might already know that the above destinations only have forests and wildlife for company and there are not much sight-seeing to be done in any of these places. But since we like wildlife and wanted this trip to be dedicated to animal and bird spotting, we had booked for a two night stay at Masinagudi. Otherwise, all these places can be completed as a one day trip from Ooty. A short drive experience and a lot of photos would be put up shortly in this thread.

Immediately afterwards, work-related travel and a couple of personal trips kept me busy for almost a month now, so much so that I never even got to check my e-mails, let alone browse Team-BHP. I was on and off in Chennai and the Civic was only used once or twice in a week for the whole of October.

I have a peculiar problem with the Civic's tires. Ever since our return from Masinagudi, one or the other of the 4 tires are under inflated every time I take the car out. Agreed, I took the car to places where I am not supposed to take it during our stay at Masinagudi (the Safari/Scorpio territory) and the car came out unscathed, courtesy some seriously careful driving in those tough conditions. I was glad that it went well but ever since I came back, I have this problem.

If this under-inflation happens constantly in one particular tire, I can understand that it could be a puncture. But it has happened one by one in the front right, front left, front right again and recently in the rear right tires. The pressure was as low as 12 psi in the rear right and the under-inflation usually ranged between 18 - 24 psi on the front tires. Every time I take it back to the fuel station and inflate the tires, it becomes normal. What could be the reason for this phenomenon? Will it happen again and should I check all 4 tires for possibilities of a puncture? I request all those who have experienced something similar or anybody with the technical know-how on the related stuff to please reply back with your suggestions. It would help me in understanding and solving this problem.

Just for info, I usually inflate the tires with Nitrogen to 32 psi for city driving and 36 psi for long drives on the highway. I regularly inflate the tires every time I go to the fuel station (usually once in 20 days). The car is shod with Michelin Energy MXV8 tubeless tires.

[Akshay1234]

Looks like all your tyres are punctured. Not to worry take them to any good tire wala and get them repaired.

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

Looks like all your tyres are punctured. Not to worry take them to any good tire wala and get them repaired.

Oh my dear Lord! That would be bad, really bad!

All along, I was thinking that I was really kind on my tires. My 2006 Pulsar 150 had its first puncture early this year, its 5th year of ownership and the Santro Xing that I owned previously never picked up a puncture in my 16 months and 15000 km of ownership. I really need to spare some time this weekend to check whether its actually a puncture or not and to get my tires sorted out.

Thanks for your reply, anyway.

[Akshay1234]

Originally Posted by arvi86

Oh my dear Lord! That would be bad, really bad!

Oh no no, its not bad. It happens to everyone. I'm saying puncture because IMO only a 2-3 psi drop over a few weeks would be fine. Yours seem to be going pretty low with 12 and 18psi and all. They probably will be small punctures.

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

I'm saying puncture because IMO only a 2-3 psi drop over a few weeks would be fine. Yours seem to be going pretty low with 12 and 18psi and all.

. But the problem I have is quite peculiar. Once I fill in nitrogen in an under-inflated tire (say, for example the front right), the next time when I go to fill in, that particular tire remains intact and retains the 32 psi while it is another tire (front left) that is under-inflated. This act repeated itself with 3 combinations in 3 times. That is why I am left surprised.

Anyways, I would be visiting a nearby tire shop this Saturday and hopefully, things would get sorted.

[Habanero City]

Originally Posted by arvi86

. But the problem I have is quite peculiar. Once I fill in nitrogen in an under-inflated tire (say, for example the front right), the next time when I go to fill in, that particular tire remains intact and retains the 32 psi while it is another tire (front left) that is under-inflated. This act repeated itself with 3 combinations in 3 times. That is why I am left surprised.

Anyways, I would be visiting a nearby tire shop this Saturday and hopefully, things would get sorted.

RV, the problem seems to be rather strange and the probability of all 4 tires getting punctured the same way is very rare.
It would be advisable to visit the tire shop that you trust and get it checked thoroughly.
It could be for reasons other than puncture as well.

HC

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by Habanero City

RV, the problem seems to be rather strange and the probability of all 4 tires getting punctured the same way is very rare.
It would be advisable to visit the tire shop that you trust and get it checked thoroughly.
It could be for reasons other than puncture as well.

It really is strange Habanero City. As I already said, I am planning to take it to a tire shop this weekend and sort it out.

[ScorpWarp]

Nitrogen leaks very slowly, that's why you would observe that tire with nitrogen mantians the pressure. Also, because of tiny punctures in other tires and the difference in tyre pressure the air is leaking rpaidly from other tires. Get tires checked for small puntures. If you really want to check, fill all tires with nitorgen. All tires should behave the same then - deflate slowly as compared to air filled tires.

[hiren.mistry]

This might also be related to the valves in your wheels. I had a similar problem in my car, after numerous topping up the air pressure I changed the valves for all the wheels and the problem disappeared.

It should be around 150-180Rs. per valve.

[dot]

Originally Posted by arvi86

But the problem I have is quite peculiar. Once I fill in nitrogen in an under-inflated tire (say, for example the front right), the next time when I go to fill in, that particular tire remains intact and retains the 32 psi while it is another tire (front left) that is under-inflated. This act repeated itself with 3 combinations in 3 times.

Is it possible that someone is fooling around when the car is parked!!

Small punctures in a tubeless tyres is difficult to judge as air/N2 leaks very slowly. So when you are filling one under-inflated tyre, that one stays ok for sometime while the others lose pressure. It is quite possible that all tyres have minor punctures. Once I had both my front tyres punctured at several points (5 +3) and didnt notice them for weeks.

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by ScorpWarp

If you really want to check, fill all tires with nitorgen.

I guess you slightly misunderstood it ScorpWarp. All 4 tires of the car are always filled with Nitrogen only.

Originally Posted by hiren.mistry

This might also be related to the valves in your wheels. I had a similar problem in my car, after numerous topping up the air pressure I changed the valves for all the wheels and the problem disappeared.

It should be around 150-180Rs. per valve.

Thanks, the valves could also really be the problem here. Let me get into the root of this problem first and then it would be clear which is the actual culprit.

Originally Posted by dot

Is it possible that someone is fooling around when the car is parked!!

Very much possible dot! Many a times at my workplace, I have come back in the evenings and noticed, to my horror, a few deliberate scratch marks in the car. My boot still has a few hard-to-notice scribbles on the top - those that are caused when someone scratches a sharp thing like a key onto the car's paint. So, it is also possible.

Originally Posted by dot

Small punctures in a tubeless tyres is difficult to judge as air/N2 leaks very slowly. So when you are filling one under-inflated tyre, that one stays ok for sometime while the others lose pressure. It is quite possible that all tyres have minor punctures. Once I had both my front tyres punctured at several points (5 +3) and didnt notice them for weeks.

I guess, if nothing else, my car's tires would also be looking at a similar number of punctures or, possibly, even more.

[arvi86]

Tell me about work taking precedence over everything else in life. That is exactly what had happened to me since I posted a couple of weeks back about the nitrogen leaking out from the tires.

Just by looking at it, I concluded that the rear right tire has suffered a punctured. It was so obvious, but with my eyes, I just couldn't spot the location of puncture. After 10 days of allowing the Civic to gather dust at home, I was finally able to spend some time in getting the car back to shape. The Civic was really struggling with uneven tire pressures all around resulting in less-than-perfect ride and louder thuds over broken patches of road.

Finally, on Saturday, I took the car to a nearby tire shop. As suspected, the right rear had 'a' puncture - but a mighty one at that. It was caused by a 5 inch long nail that had cruelly pierced the tire. I really do not know where I picked it up but since then, the nitrogen has been leaking out slowly. Just for added peace-of-mind, I had all 4 tires removed and checked and except that 'solitary' puncture, all other tires were perfect. At the end of it, I had the Wheel Alignment done too and, if not my interference, the operator would have aligned my car's settings similar to that of a Honda City. He thought that this car was a City and had selected the appropriate settings in the software which I promptly corrected.

Habanero City, akshay1234 & dot - You guys were spot on. Now, three days after the issue, I have been observing all the tires everyday and there seems to be no visible loss of pressure. Like I mentioned earlier, the reason for the front tires getting under-inflated is still a mystery and I have to watch out for it. Thanks to hiren.mistry, I also had the valves checked and there was not a problem with them too.

Good times are back again!

PS: This is the culprit that had been troubling me all along.

[Habanero City]

RV good to see that the problem is resolved and it was only one tire that had puncture.
Continue to monitor the tires daily as usual.
Did you keep the repaired tire as spare?
How much was charged, when I repaired the WagonR tire I was given 2 options, one for Rs. 150 and the other for Rs. 350 (good quality).
Since it was the first time for me I chose the "good quality" and still kept the repaired tire as spare.

HC

[arvi86]

Originally Posted by Habanero City

RV good to see that the problem is resolved and it was only one tire that had puncture.
Continue to monitor the tires daily as usual.

You are right. I was fearing for something much worse like what dot had said before. He once had 6 to 7 small punctures in a tire it seems.

Originally Posted by Habanero City

How much was charged, when I repaired the WagonR tire I was given 2 options, one for Rs. 150 and the other for Rs. 350 (good quality).
Since it was the first time for me I chose the "good quality" and still kept the repaired tire as spare.
HC

Now, this is something strange to me. What does that so-called 'good quality' have in it to charge such a premium? Did you observe anything different in the process in which they fix the puncture?

I was not told about any such stuff and was straight away charged Rs.150 for that particular tire that had this puncture. But, since I had asked them to check all 4 tires, I was charged Rs.30 per tire for checking whether they had punctures or not. My tires are relatively new with just 5000 km covered, so I am still running the same tires after fixing the puncture.

My spare tire is old as I did not change the spare tire when I changed to these Michelins. So, I have left it untouched and prefer to keep it the same way in future too.

[Habanero City]

Originally Posted by arvi86

Now, this is something strange to me. What does that so-called 'good quality' have in it to charge such a premium? Did you observe anything different in the process in which they fix the puncture?

I was not told about any such stuff and was straight away charged Rs.150 for that particular tire that had this puncture. But, since I had asked them to check all 4 tires, I was charged Rs.30 per tire for checking whether they had punctures or not. My tires are relatively new with just 5000 km covered, so I am still running the same tires after fixing the puncture.

My spare tire is old as I did not change the spare tire when I changed to these Michelins. So, I have left it untouched and prefer to keep it the same way in future too.

Thanks RV for sharing your experience.
In my case I checked the 2 different materials that were shown for fixing the puncture (sorry I don't know the technical name).
The ordinary one was white in color while the special one was red in color.
The red one "looked and felt" better and may be imported I am not sure.
I was told that the red one will endure better than the white one.
I am not sure about this theory and quality of materials and so wanted to know from your experience.
Anyway glad that the problem is resolved, drive safe.

HC