Aotte1

New 2012, 12" wide cup wheels and Michelin Pilot Super Sport ZP tires, 335/25/20
Having problem getting them to air up. Can get the bead all sealed, except for about last 4 to 6 inches. Tire shop has several hours in first tire.

Any suggestions on process to get them to air-up, side wall is so stiff, along with large lip inside Cup wheel, 2 to 3 inches wide. Both make it hard for tire to seal.

Plan is for tire shop to get back on them Monday. Have tried several processes, including strap around center of tire. Monday plan to try heating the tires some. These guys are experienced, believe it is the really stiff and short side wall that makes then really difficult.

Tried searching for existing thread on this, could not find one ( just a comment, not having good luck with searches, returning pertinent information)

Thanks,
Les

Todds427

You need to use a large burst of air all at once. My tire store has a 5 gallon tank they fill and it has a dump valve to let all teh air out at once, it worked for mine. It was the only way they could get it sealed.

User Omega

It sounds like I would be taking them somewhere else personally. Do they even have the valve cores out?

Don-Vette

If your "tire guy" can't mount your tires, he doesn't know what he's doing or doesn't have the proper machine, before they scratch your wheels, take them to a shop who knows how to mount them.

User Omega

I would be afraid of what kind of heating they are considering.

Aotte1

Thanks for the replys above.
Yes the valve stem is out. Believe the person doing the install is good. Senior person, who cares about the wheels. They installed the tires on the wheels very easily, it is getting the last 4 to 6" of tire bead to seal up over the wheel inside lip. This lip on the " Cup" wheels in extra wide.

Todd on yours, the large burst of air was into the valve stem? I was thinking along the same line, considering use of an industrial cylinder of compressed air, to get the large burst.

Do you have any knowledge of how/what the 5 gallon dump set-up was constructed of? Especially the air outlet design, e.g. did it use large size hose, or straight pipe. The dump valve, a 90 degree lever, gate valve, again big in size?

Thanks for the help,
Les

User Omega

The air is blasted between the bead and the wheel. You remove the valve core and hook up shop air with it constantly flowing while doing this. We don't work in tire stores. That is why its concerning. You can also damage the hell out of wheel with one if you arent careful.

https://www.amazon.com/TSI-Cheetah-B.../dp/B000VNHWUM


Works like this.
Turn your speakers off. Video is loud.

Aotte1

Omega,

Thanks for the blast tank source, along with the video of install.
Went by this morning and talked to person installing. Learned more what they tried yesterday. They did use two of the blast tanks, along with air connected to the stem, as you suggested. Got it close but not quite all. The temp was cool yesterday about 40 degrees. They are warming up the tires more, and going two use the two blisters, later today or Monday. Their research with GM and Michelin suggests having tires warm is needed. Both GM and Michelin admit their is an issue........

Thanks,
Les

jft69z

Les, those that are saying things like get a new tire guy, or they don't have proper equipment haven't had the pleasure of working with these tires yet. I just went thru this trying to get a set of PSS tires on my ZR1. I did the research here & google and it's a problem all around the country. I found a few links here that suggested a couple of different tire lubes, neither of which worked. We tried all the tricks...bead blaster, bicycle inner tube, ratchet strap around tread, etc. A $28K Hunter Revolution tire machine was used, along with my buddy who is the shop foreman/GM master tech at a GM dealer. After a few days and lots of frustration, I took one of them to a local tire shop that are 'experts', they tried for about 10 minutes and then said they send them to a place in Florida......

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...ort-tires.html

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...-mounting.html


The tire just keeps rolling around the rim and won't seat no matter how hard (or how long) you try. Too much lube just seems to make the matter worse. After about a week, the Hunter tire rep came, confident he'd get them mounted in a couple of minutes.....He was there for hours. He disappeared for a bit & we figured he basically chewed his arm off to get away. Turns out he went and got a tub of Hunter Tire lube and that actually worked to get it mounted, but still required a bit of effort. But, too much lube is a bad thing as you'll see in a minute.


I let mine sit for almost a week for the lube to dry, went for a spin, got home and one tire rotated on the rim about 8 inches & the other tire about 3 inches.

That sucked....because it meant we had to pop them off & do it again. GM has a bulletin that mentions this to some degree about using too much lube will cause tire slip in the wheel. They want you to just lube up the edge of the tire that is parallel to the tread, NOT the side bead surface that mates with the rim lip.

We ended up doing that, plus went further and used the black bead sealant painted on the side lip of the wheel itself. Figured that once that sets, it will also help stop the tire slip issue (it does). This will also help stop the tire from rolling around the rim like a greased pig when you're mounting it. A little heat from sitting in the sun may not hurt either, but didn't matter in my case a few weeks ago.

You'll still need to help the tire along with a smooth tire iron right in the center of the bead part that's sunk low (sort of like the little ***** is smiling at you ), but helping that along will get it to start filling up and then seat. We spent hours initially, but found that using less lube plus the bead sealant took us about 10 minutes. Don't go crazy with air pressures either (you mentioned air cylinder), no need to go more than 40 psi once it starts to set otherwise you'll exceed the safe pressure listed on the sidewall and risk damage to either the tire, or yourself. Make sure you put a mark on the tire at the valve stem to see if it moves, a black magic marker dot on the tire worked for me.

Oh, the front sized tires mounted a little bit easier than rears. The rears were the ones that really put up a fight.

Good Luck!

jaki30

I went to have new PSS mounted and got outrageous cost estimates ($500 from the chevy dealer).
Went to a Ford shop and they said they could do it. Showed up with the tires and new wheels. After 15 mins. they said they were afraid of damaging the new wheels. They said they would send them to the local European motors shop. They claimed this shop handled everything including straightening wheels. Cost me $135 to mount the 4 tires and balance. Great deal, handled with care.
BTW, I also spoke with Zip in Mechanicsville. They claim the new tires are a pain to mount. Sometimes they go right on, other times they spend hours. Even mentioned that Hunter and Michelin showed up with a new, really expensive tire machine and gave up after several hours of trying to mount a set of runflats! Good luck.

Turbo6TA

I am thinking that the OP is not in the US ... Any quality US tire store could mount those tires without a problem.

OP ... What country are you from?

Turbo6TA

Disregard ... Looking at the OPs profile, it states that he is in the US.

Find a tire shop that knows what they are doing ... there are lots of them

Aotte1

Just updated profile, FYI, a few miles from factory. Get the pleasure of seeing new ones transported on I65.

Lonestar13

carsangelop

Is this just a issue with the Michelin tires? What about other tire brands

User Omega

I'm sure its an issue with any run run flat tire. The sidewalls are unbelievably stiff.

Aotte1

A little more information, no expert on this, however, specific information researched on this exact tire, along with limited experience with this tires. The Michelin Pilot Super Sport 335x25x20 ZA are especially tough to get aired up, issues that make them more difficult are being 20"s and lower profile 25s, along with the GM "Cup" wheels design. Also, it seems the michelin tire bead is especially strong, first time installing. A reinstall once initially installed is much easier. Installing them on wheel is easy, it getting them to air-up.

By comparison my Good Year original tires on a reinstall almost jumped onto the wheel.

Does anybody know who installs the Michelin tires on the Cup wheels for the Bowling Green factory? Did see a post from a few years ago, that Firestone did this for GM. Any more information on who does this and are they located BG KY.

Thanks,

User Omega

Your Chevrolet dealership can get you fixed up. I would call to see if they are also charging $500 or if that was uncommon.

Zip Corvettes

not the case with the new tires

Zip Corvettes

The problem with the new tires is not because of the runflat and stiff sidewalls. It adds to the problem, but its not the problem. On the new Michelin there is a lip saver on the tires. As you are airing the tire up to bead it, this section will seal on the OEM wheel. You can't over inflate it to stretch it over the bead because it still leaks air. You can't use the Cheetah air blaster because the lip is sealed and it just blasts the air back at you. We had Hunter come down with their brand new machine and they gave up after 3 hours on the first wheel. As far as the dealership, good luck, they call us to do it. There is no trick for it, you have to message the tire lip to get it up on the bead. Sometimes it goes quick and sometimes it does not. I have had a ZO6 in here where 3 of the tires I had done in 10 minutes ea and the forth one took 4 hours.