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Mon Jun 08, 2020 3:56 am

Kafer Wolf wrote: My current tires have been serving me for around 9 years now.
I changed rims and now running tubeless.
The front passenger tire keeps leaking air,
but the shop couldn't find any puncture.
Recently, the rear passenger tire went dead flat.
So I thought, it's probably best to get new tires.
If your tires are actually 9yrs old, they are probably cracked and in need of replacing. Check this. Even unused tires have a shelf life. Even less when exposed to sunlight.

Does your tire shop have a tire water tub? This is a tub for checking for leaks. Fill the tires up with air (actually over fill them for this test - 40psi). Dunk the tires (or have the shop do it) in the tub of water and look for air leaking out. Look along the treads and side walls. Also look at the valve stem where it comes out of the wheel and the valve inside the stem. Then take the tires out and lay them on their side. Run water along the seal between the wheel and the tire. Look for bubbles. Flip the tire over and check the rim seal along the other side.
The reason to check for this... if there is air leaking out along the rim of the wheel, it could mean a bad seal caused by rust of a crack. Installing new tires will not seal this type of leak. Often when installing tires you want to sandpaper the sealing surface to clean off any rust of rubber bits.

If the tires are good but the wheel is not able to maintain an air tight seal with the tire you can sometimes opt to use an inner tube of the same size as the tire. The tube will maintain the air tight seal even when the wheel to tire seal is bad.

Mon Jun 08, 2020 5:37 am

Another downside of running tires on a wheel width smaller than recommended... by pulling the sealing edges of the tire inward it basically causes the tread surface to “bow” outward. This results in premature wear in the centerline of the tread. To compensate, you often want to reduce the tire pressure. This is problematic with Beetle wheels as the front 18psi is already near the minimum to keep a safe level of pressure in the tire. Expect to see odd wear on your tires.

Mon Jun 08, 2020 6:16 am

Jimbug57 wrote: I put 4 Nexen SB802 165/80R15's on my car a year ago. They are a great tire, and I've bought many sets of tires over the last 50 years. Great in rain and snow, take massive potholes no problem, and they stick like glue in the corners.

Seriously, I can't recommend a tire more, and they are inexpensive. They are made in a brand new factory in, I think, Korea. I called the office in California and they let me talk to one of the back house people - I don't remember what his title was. They developed this tire for our cars.

I never hesitate to call the manufactures of products I buy for more information.

Same experience here. These are the only tires I put on my Bugs, even w/5.5" rims.

Tue Jun 09, 2020 3:46 am

ashman40 wrote: Kafer Wolf wrote: My current tires have been serving me for around 9 years now.
I changed rims and now running tubeless.
The front passenger tire keeps leaking air,
but the shop couldn't find any puncture.
Recently, the rear passenger tire went dead flat.
So I thought, it's probably best to get new tires.
If your tires are actually 9yrs old, they are probably cracked and in need of replacing. Check this. Even unused tires have a shelf life. Even less when exposed to sunlight.

Does your tire shop have a tire water tub? This is a tub for checking for leaks. Fill the tires up with air (actually over fill them for this test - 40psi). Dunk the tires (or have the shop do it) in the tub of water and look for air leaking out. Look along the treads and side walls. Also look at the valve stem where it comes out of the wheel and the valve inside the stem. Then take the tires out and lay them on their side. Run water along the seal between the wheel and the tire. Look for bubbles. Flip the tire over and check the rim seal along the other side.
The reason to check for this... if there is air leaking out along the rim of the wheel, it could mean a bad seal caused by rust of a crack. Installing new tires will not seal this type of leak. Often when installing tires you want to sandpaper the sealing surface to clean off any rust of rubber bits.

If the tires are good but the wheel is not able to maintain an air tight seal with the tire you can sometimes opt to use an inner tube of the same size as the tire. The tube will maintain the air tight seal even when the wheel to tire seal is bad.

Yep we dunked it in the water tub, but no bubbles anywhere.
Was thinking maybe the whitewall inserts are to blame?
I have them installed and they are a bit old.