What the hell, Oppo.

"gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee" (gogmorgo) 03/10/2019 at 18:08 • Filed to: Suspicious thing is suspicious.

3

13

So I was taking out the recycling just now when I noticed my MJ is sitting kinda funky.

Sure enough, I go over, and notice the front tire is flat. Okay sure, the truck’s clearly been sitting there a while, but here’s a little history on the tires:

Purchased during my move from Mb to Ab in April 2017. They accumulated about 4000km between then and when I had to transfer over my driver’s license, which meant having to cancel Mb registration, and it needs a fair bit of work to pass the out-of-province inspection, which isn’t surprising at 535,000km. So it sat there on the tires from October 2016 to May 2018 when I picked up the ZJ, and moved the wheels and tires over to it. Fast forward to about six weeks ago, and the ZJ got new tires on a different set of wheels, so these wheels and tires went back into the MJ. They were fine on the ZJ for about 8000km with no issues to speak of, and the MJ’s only been sitting on them about a month. I suppose I could’ve been oblivious because there’s been some snow, but they went from perfectly okay on a moving vehicle to dead flat in less than a month of zero movement. And when I say they, I mean it:

As I was dragging the air hose out I realized it wasn’t just the front, but the rear on the same side is also sitting on the bead.

Why is this suspicious? Well around this time last year I had a similar thing happen. Front left tire went totally flat. I filled it, it was fine for a week, then overnight it was sitting on the bead again, and I had actually been paying attention every couple days that week. Not so far as checking pressures, but I had been comparing it to the other tires.

Now we have had some big temperature changes in the last month. We’ve seen as cold as -42°C, and as high as 5°C. We’ve even had days that started at -32° and hit 3° that afternoon. Officially it’s only 2° right now but it’s definitely Tshirt weather today. And I have no other evidence to be suspicious about tampering except for the knowledge some anonymous person has complained to my landlord that we’re taking up too much parking on our street, which is totally bogus, because this is the street:

This is a normal occupation less my roommate’s Juke because she’s out, my little MJ which is currently in the driveway, and aCamaro convertible that usually lives behind the ZJ. Our property starts near the lamp post, and goes as far as the sidewalk is bare (because we’re responsible neighbours!) and there’s room to park three cars behind the blue Subaru and two in front of the silver Focus without exceeding our own property limits. Parking is fully legal down both sides of the street except for where the hydrant is (behind the Frontier, and the outcropping of rock (plus a trailhead at the hydrant) means there’s four to five houses worth of street with no houses where parking is fair game, except I’m the only one besides the camaro that ever parks there. So I’m not convinced someone would be vindictive enough about semi-permanently occupied parking spots to let air out of tires. In the summer we don’t really see more parked vehicles except for the odd couple at the trailhead, outside of long weekends where the whole town is packed with tourist vehicles, and the locals either leave town or stay at home to avoid the chaos.

It’s just weird is all, to have a tire go totally flat for seemingly no reason, after being totally fine, and then after a year, have it happen again to not just one but two of the tires do the same thing, when they’re less than two years old with under 15,000km on them.

farscythe - makin da cawfee! > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 03/10/2019 at 18:14

1

if its fine when you re inflate it

then odds are someone is just airing them out... i mean.. all you need is a ball point pen or a screwdriver.. just press the thingie

CB > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 03/10/2019 at 18:19

0

Hm, that is oddly suspicious. I mean, you know what my suggestion would be, but if there's no damage, eh.

The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 03/10/2019 at 18:24

0

That sucks, but tell me more about your roommates Juke. 

Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 03/10/2019 at 18:35

2

It’s completely normal for improperly mounted tires or corroded alloys. I saw this all the damn time.

Chances are, the tires were not mounted with adequate bead sealer - if there’s any at all. Many shops don’t use it simply to save money. The completely normal hot and cold cycling of both tire rubber and wheel results in growth and shrinkage of the materials.

In colder weather, without adequate bead sealing, this will consistently result in the tire losing air and going flat. Which is why I consider failing to use bead sealer in temperate climes improper mounting. Bead sealer is a gap filler, and proper application will prevent this . The other primary cause is shoddy tire ‘techs’ who don’t clean up the rim sufficiently, which has the same effect. (Bead sealer can cover for this somewhat as well.)

‘Slime’ brand sealer is absolute garbage. Use Xtraseal (WARNING: FLAMMABLE AS HELL,) Steelman G10106, or Gempler . Do NOT use ‘Bead-Ease’ or ‘lubricant’ style products. Applying bead sealer REQUIRES dismounting the tire AND cleaning both tire and wheel thoroughly. 

atfsgeoff > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 03/10/2019 at 18:46

0

Check your valve cores. inflate to full pressure and just spray a bit of soapy water on the valve. If it bubbles, replace the valve core. Easy peasy.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock 03/10/2019 at 19:05

0

It’s white. 2014 or ‘15 I think. Something like 40,000km on it. It has an engine, an automatic transmission, and awd. Leather seats. Keyless entry, start/stop, and remote start that sucks the battery dry and turns it into a brick in the cold. A tiny air filter that plugs up and causes no-starts if you run the engine with wildfire smoke hanging around. It makes my other roommate’s 2005 Focus look large and spacious. I can’t sit in the back seat without repeatedly bouncing my head off the ceiling.

She parks it in the driveway when it snows because she’s concerned someone will run into it because it’s white and they can’t see it, which is an obnoxious  place for it to turn itself into a brick. At least it’s not boring.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > Spamfeller Loves Nazi Clicks 03/10/2019 at 19:31

0

Tires were mounted by yours truly in a fully equipped shop with a decent tire machine, just like the hundreds of other tires I’ve mounted for our fleet. Sealin g surfaces scrubbed with a wire brush. No bead sealer was used because we don’t normally use it on our fleet. It’s not a cost thing, we just don’t generally have problems not using it. B ut I did use mounting lube because I don’t see the appeal in tearing beads.

Tires were 100% okay for two years until now apart from the one going flat the couple times last winter when all I did was air it back up and it was fine for another year. I don’t if one of today’s was the same one last year or not because they’ve been shuffled between vehicles a couple times and I didn’t bother to keep track of which one came off which corner.

I suppose if they lose air again I can knock them back off and seal them up. The truck isn't legal so all they're doing is holding it off the ground. It hasn't moved an inch since I put the wheels back on it six weeks ago, and they were sitting in the shade. And like I said, they saw similar heat cycling on the ZJ for eight months with zero trouble. 

The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 03/10/2019 at 22:02

0

It’s a 2014. I t has the side marker in fender, the facelift (2015+) has it in the mirror cap & the facelift has a slightly different front end. The parking lights/turn signals up by the hood are more “check mark” like & are white LEDs where the pre-facelift is more smooth & uses an orange halogen.

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock 03/10/2019 at 22:11

0

Good to know. I’ve been calling it a 2014 but had this naggling thought in the back of my head that she’d told me it was a 2015. You can tell how much I care about it. Ha. But at the same time I’m not upset it’s around. The other two roommates with cars (I have one who doesn’t!!) have the focus and a newer Crosstrek... I think. Both manuals, so okay, but a F u ck us is still a Fuckus, and Subarus stopped being cool when suddenly  everyone had one. I can't even tell them apart any more. 

The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 03/10/2019 at 22:19

0

The other thing that separates them is the tail lights. The pre- face lift uses plain combination bulb, but the facelift has an amber turn signal.

You can easily swap the facelifted units on pre-facelift, it's on my list of things to do. 

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock 03/10/2019 at 22:22

0

My list of things to do on the J uke consists of exactly nothing. My roommate would hate basically all the improvements I would make, because all the “ wonderful features” that she absolutely loves would be gone and all that's left would be a car.

The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock > gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee 03/10/2019 at 22:26

0

It's unique desgin features is what makes it what it is. Remove them & it be another car. 

gogmorgo - rowing gears in a Grand Cherokee > The Crazy Kanuck; RIP Oppositelock 03/10/2019 at 22:46

0

She’s less excited about design elements as she is about things like heated  leather seats and steering wheel, keyless entry, remote start, massive touch screen HVAC controls...