Tire Rack Dudes!
 

Hello TR representative.

I've been trying to email customer service about a problem I'm having on a wheel/tire I bought from you in October. No one is replying. Yes, I agree I should call, but I find it easier to explain myself through email, plus the fact that whenever I call the rep just blows me off. Anyhow, before I get off topic..

I have the 18" SSR GT7 rims with the RE040 tires. In total I have bought 7 wheel/tire combos from you because every other one came to me in a condition in which they were leaking from the valve where local Goodyear shops found was because of the poor TPMS installation. Well anyway, just when I finally thought I had 4 leak free wheels (after ordering and returning a bunch), one has just started exhibiting the same problem as the others I returned months ago. This wheel is leaking from the valve area and every morning before I drive out, I have to fill the tire. I fill it to the OEM spec 32 psi and by the next day it's down to 26-27psi. This is not good! I've only had this wheel from October as it was the last wheel I ordered from TR and its now giving me problems.

I apologize for putting this out in the air like this. But I am sick of worrying about these wheels. Tire Rack was gracious enough to refund me for all the defective wheels I received and returned previously, but now, months into owning this one, I'm not sure what you or I can do. I just want other RX-8 owners to see what happened with these SSR wheels, our confounded TPMS system, and Tire Rack's service.

Can any representative from TR help?

Thank you for your time.

I suggest you PM "connor@tirerack" - our rx8club Tire Rack rep if he has not seen your post and contacted you yet.

Yep.. that's the plan. Thanks!

Well.. no response from emails or Connor. so much for customer service.

Guess I'm stuck with a shoddy tire that I refill every friggin morning.

All I can say is beware of wheels with TPMS installed by Tire Rack. Good luck.

I realize it's an extra expense, but can't you just take the wheel to a dealer and have them reinstall the tire/tpms for you?

I've tried.. the Goodyears I been to dont wanna touch it. For some reason, the TPMS is like a plague to them (I've been to two different shops)..

I dont understand why they wont touch it. That and they say they dont have the "right" parts.

thanks for the warning

Hey, I had a similar problem with my new wheels that might be of value to you...

I recently got a set of TSV Volcano wheels, and was told they were TPMS compatible by the manufacturer. And they were, except that the holes for the valve stems on the TSWs were just slightly larger than the ones on the OEM wheels. End result of all this was that no matter how carefully the TPMS sensors (which include the valve stems) were mounted, after just a few miles of driving the sensors would shift just a little bit and a slow leak would develop around the valve stem.


I suspect the same thing is going on here for you. If there is some way to make the hole slightly smaller or the valve stem of the TPMS sensor slightly bigger you'll be good to go. In the mean time you might consider doing what I ultimately did, and just go to standard valve stems and lose the TPMS monitoring. Not the ideal, but better than a continuous slow leak in your wheels.

Hope this helps!