[Corvt863]

Here is something that I just found on my Eco-Cruze with polished rims. I suddenly was seeing slow leaks on two of my tires after adding air. I pulled one tire off to see if I picked up a nail, and saw nothing. I then sprayed soap around the bead and around the valve stem to the rim. I found that on both of the tires I was leaking around the valve stem. I'm not sure if this will work in the long term or for everyone, but I sprayed WD-40 around the valve stem and wiggled the stem back and forth and twisted it as much as I could without damaging anything. I reapplied the soap, no leak. It looks like there is micro-corrosion around the stem that is opening up a small leak path between it and the wheel. The WD-40 crept back in there and seems to have healed it for now. I'll update if the leak opens back up.

 

[Corvt863]

An update. The leak has not re-opened yet. I do agree that it will almost certainly re-occur over time, but this was a convenient fix to keep me home for Christmas. As far as damage to the rubber stem or tire pressure monitor, I am nearly 100% it won't damage the rubber in the near term, or at least until I change out my tires in a year or two. Something like a petroleum solvent would have damaged it probably, but WD40 is fairly friendly to rubber. If it lived in it, it would degrade it, but it is just on the surface. It was just a way to creep something in there to break up the corrosion and salt crystals...according to my non-scientific thinking. I'm surprised it stopped the leak myself, but it did.