Suddenly one tire flat (Opel Corsa 2004)

Question

A friend of mine has a car (Opel Corsa 2004). In morning he woke up and only one (right wheel) of his tires were flat. The day before he drove on the highway for a couple of hours and after that he had to go through the woods on a forest road for 1 mile, because a street was closed. In the evening all tires were ok. But in the morning the right one was comletly flat. What could be the reason?

Answer 1

Recently had to deal with flat tire myself. Here is what I would recommend you to do:

1. If the car is already at home, then partially reinflate the tire and spray some soap water to locate the leak. You actually don't have to take off wheels to do this. Also, it is very hard to locate slow leaks without using soap water.
2. Don't drive the car if the tire is leaking air. If you will drive your car with low tire pressure , then in the best case this may wear out the sides of the punctured tire (i.e. what would have been $20 repair to simply put a patch and plug in the tire now could be $200 repair because you will have to replace at least one tire. Or maybe even 4 tires in AWD case because all wheels for most of the AWD cars should be of equal diameter taking into account tread wear). In the worst case you may loose control of vehicle and get into crash.
3. Find out someone qualified to see if the tire is repairable. While some shops simply put a plug in tire and call it a fix, ideally a patch from the inside of the tire would also have to be applied to avoid tire belt corrosion due to air and moisture getting in contact with the steel tire belt. If this inner patch is not applied then there is way higher risk of tire blowout in a year or so when tire belt has corroded. Such unfortunate event due to tire structural damage will most likely come without any warning signs.

Answer 2

Flat tires happen. Inspect the tire carefully. This probably more easily done by jacking the car up and removing the entire wheel. Look carefully and slowly at the entire tread, especially in the grooves. Odds are you will find a nail or a screw.

The first car I bought, the left-rear would loose 2 PSI of pressure every 2 weeks. I kept pumping it up and pumping it up and driving it daily, even went on a 3,000 km roadtrip in the mountains outside of cell phone range. After 4 months of this, one of my tires delaminated, so I bought a new set of 4 tires (the ones that came with the car were mismatched and very poor quality). Once I took my old tires home (I was intending to keep them to use the rims for winter tires), I found a huge nail (about 4 inches) long in that left-rear. It was only partially through the tire and bent over deep into a groove. Now I know why it's been leaking 2 PSI.

Answer 3

Often, when you drive a vehicle on a bad or forest road, some sharp object on the forest road can damage the tires of your vehicle. Even if you have driven the vehicle for 1 mile. Because there may be a sharp piece of glass or a nail in the bad road of the forest, which can cause the tire of your vehicle to be flat.

That's why check the flat tire thoroughly, you will definitely find some sharp object stuck in the tyre. By the way, there can be many other reasons for the tire being flat overnight.