Puncture repair still leaking slowly

Had a puncture in my car tire. Got it plugged but it's still slowly leaking approx 2psi per day. 

Are fix-a-flat repairs reliable and permanent? Any particular brand?

WWGRMD?

I would probably pull it down and patch it from the inside. 

Fix-a-flat will only piss off your tire guy the next time you need a repair. 

Any chance of trying the plug method again to see if results improve?  Plug kits are cheaper than fix-a-flat and usually come with multiple ropes

There's a few possibilities. 

Hole too big for the plug used is one. 

Installer of said plug didn't follow the hole through the carcass correctly. 

Tire was run low long enough to damage the carcass, and air is traveling through the carcass. 

There is a second nail in the tire, or the bead is leaking, or the valve stem is leaking. 

Have you soaped it up and confirmed where?  

I wouldn't use fix-a-flat on my own car unless it was an emergency. 

If a shop did it, I'd take it back to them and have them look at it. When I've had flats before, and the tire still has plenty of life I've always had them pull it and do an interior patch vs a plug. 

If you paid someone else to fix the leak, bring it back to them and tell them it didn't work.

z31maniac said:

I wouldn't use fix-a-flat on my own car unless it was an emergency. 

If a shop did it, I'd take it back to them and have them look at it. When I've had flats before, and the tire still has plenty of life I've always had them pull it and do an interior patch vs a plug. 

A shop did the first repair so I will just take it back and have them try again. 

In Vermont only legal way a shop can do it is from inside with a patch plug. If it's leaking bring it back for sure. But keep an eye on it.

It was plugged from outside the first time. I park around construction sites frequently so it's possible that there was more than one nail. This time I will ask them to take it off and dunk it in the tank. 

Toyman! said:

I would probably pull it down and patch it from the inside. 

Fix-a-flat will only piss off your tire guy the next time you need a repair.

Fix-a-flat may do more bad things than just that.  Pix below are a 97 Subaru Outback wheel, it is the only one (of out 8, huge sample size) which had tire sealant residue and it is also the only one with internal corrosion pitting.  Anecdotal, and sure maybe the pitting was there before the sealant.  The wheel is not at a level of "oh hell no" scary-bad, but I also don't plan on using it.

Took it back in and found a second nail at the edge of the sidewall/tread which was leaking only about 1psi per day. Unfixable.. so it's been replaced. 

Glad it's fixed, but in the future you can jamb another plug in the original hole if it was reamed out too big.

Sticky brown string from NAPA.  Their kit is pretty good too, heavier than most.  I've lost count of how many plugs I've stuck in tires over the years.  At least two of the tires on the CX-9 are running plugged, and the last one I did I pulled TWO nails out of.  Small holes are the worst because it's all I can do to jam that pokey file thingie in to ream out the hole to the correct size.  If you don't ream it out, you'll never get the string in there.  I used to pay people to do it, but it's easy enough, and happens frequently enough, that I keep the stuff on hand just for the convenience.  Never had one leak, but there's always a first time.

I have Slime in all of my truck's tires to attempt to not get a flat. Prevents and seals supposedly. So far so good.