I'm having trouble with my 2005 element's tires. I have only 21,186 miles on the vehicle and every other week I'm putting in about 4 pounds of air. I have had the vehicle serviced and no one can find the leaks. I'm debating whether to get new tires or trade the vehicle in.

Find a better shop to check for the leaks. It isnt that difficult. Also you might want to replace the valve stems and reseat all the tires. Check the wheels for cracks?

If you want to sell your car I give you $5k in cash right now.

Fred

I'm having trouble with my 2005 element's tires. I have only 21,186 miles on the vehicle and every other week I'm putting in about 4 pounds of air. I have had the vehicle serviced and no one can find the leaks. I'm debating whether to get new tires or trade the vehicle in.

Wow !

Trade it in do to a tire loosing air. What will do if whatever you trade it for needs an oil change?? :D

Drastic, I think. There was a good tip for you the post above. I have had a bad valve stem, in fact, I had 2 go bad on the same car. ( A Ford 500 )
It has nothing to do with the car itself. It may have been do to the maker of the valve stem, or the shop that installed them. See that the insert in the stem, ( the valve body itself ) is in all the way. It may be as simple as the person that installed it did not screw it in all the way. Or there may be some dirt on the seat. Do the easy cheep things first.

Dom

Troll alert!

Those Wranglers just keep getting better and better don't they? *rolls eyes* I would change the tires. You can get some info from this section or www.tirerack.com which has customer ratings on various aspects so you can get a better idea which is the right one for you.

You don't have a leak per se. All tires lose air through the rubber itself, through the seals or through the valves. This is normal.

There are also environmental aspects to losing air as well. Since you don't say where you live I'll go with generalities. When it gets colder outside you lose more air pressure then when it's warm outside. The reason for this is as it gets colder the air molecules begin to slow down and lose their ability to maintain pressure. The inverse is when it gets warmer out the pressure inside the tires will increase. This is why the best time to check pressures in your tires is when the tires are as close to cold as possible.

Ever take a long drive and feel the tires? They get warm. Next time check your tires before and after a 100+ mile highway drive and you will see a pressure difference.

The proper care of tires is to check the pressure each time you fill up, which for most people is at least once/week. So you having to add air every week is fairly normal, especially in the winter.

Troll alert!

I'm with you on this one!

Hey guys. My element keeps getting dirty. I wash it and then it just gets dirty again. Do you think I should just sell it?

Yeah;
Sell it. I buy a new car every time mine needs vacuumed.
I would NEVER wash a car, let alone put on new tires after 21,000 miles.

Jeeze-the crap that hits these boards:shock:

I'm having trouble with my 2005 element's tires. I have only 21,186 miles on the vehicle and every other week I'm putting in about 4 pounds of air. I have had the vehicle serviced and no one can find the leaks. I'm debating whether to get new tires or trade the vehicle in.

Thank you for the responses. I know about cold air and know when to check tires. I'm going to replace the tires even though I knowI have a lot of tread on them. I really don't appreciate your comments on replacing the car. I'm thinking of trading in the car because at high winds the element does not hold the road and is not aerodynamic. I'm also not going to replace the tires every 21,000 miles.

Thank you for the responses. I know about cold air and know when to check tires. I'm going to replace the tires even though I knowI have a lot of tread on them. I really don't appreciate your comments on replacing the car. I'm thinking of trading in the car because at high winds the element does not hold the road and is not aerodynamic. I'm also not going to replace the tires every 21,000 miles.

Replacing the tires every 21,000 miles has nothing to do with the vehicle. The stock tires on the element are crappy. There are many reasons why you could be losing air like others said. Replacing them if the tread is fine is not the brightest thing. Maybe you should have a tire place look at it first to see if they can solve the issue.

Also, you made a stupid comment on your first post. You should expect to get some lip back. You made it seem you were trading it in because the tires were losing air.

Now, now... let's have a bit of patience for the new member!

Nobody made fun of you when you were new did they, Kaikara? Even though you are from Ontario?

:razz:

I would first find a reputable shop. If all 4 are losing air at a constant rate that seems more than a bit odd. I would make sure that the valves in the valve stems are snugly. Are these the factory tires, or have they been replaced already.

The OEM tires are not the best for this vehicle. I replaced the Wrangler HP's with Michelin LTX's in the oem size at 5K miles. What a difference in ride, crosswind stability, and interior noise level. I now have ~20K on the LTX's and they are still performing like new.

Perhaps you might choose the one tire that seems to leak the most and use some kid's bubble stuff all over it to see if you can find where the leak is. When you find it, go to the other leaker tires and try the same test. Bubble stuff is a cheap way to isolate the problem.

Maybe they're fixable so you can get the remainder of the life out of the HP's, and then start looking for new ones. You'll be glad you did!

stock tires hmmmmmmmmmm