It's a leaking bead and I know why. It is a very old rim and it is rusted some where the bead is. There's several ways to go but want you guy's opinion. Slime?, sand and clean the rim?, or tube?

 

I would lightly sand and clean the rim for sure, then remount the tire and put Fix-a-Flat in it. My personal experience with Slime is that it just dries out and leaves a nastry crust inside your tire. Fix-a-Flat at least acts like a glue, and I have used it to seal beads before myself.

 

Some types of fix-a-flat are very corrosive to rims. Watch what you buy.

My suggestion is to pop the tire off the bead and get some bead sealer avalible at most auto stores. Usually is a black sticky substance that you smear around the bead of the tire and re-air up the tire. Depending on how much you apply.....it will even seal places in the rim that are bent.

As Recon said....sand down the area that is leaking......most leaks are caused by either a bent rim or rust that has grown between the rim and tire.

 

My personal opinion on fix a flat is NEVER to use it. It hardens inside the rim/tire and makes changing it in the future a real pain in the you know what! I would do exactly as tramp suggested just after removing the tire and sanding the rust off the bead to smooth it out. You might even want to put a little rust killing primer on it after sanding to keep the rust from building again.
Once sanded and primed, use the bead seal on it and reseat the tire on the bead. You should be good to go after that.

 

Just watched a segment on Speed about the myths of FixaFlat. It is safe and wipes clean with a rag. They acted like it is the stuff to use.

 

Years ago the fix-a-flat stuff was bad. I ruined a set of wheels on an old 4 wheeler once from using so much of it. It also used to have propane in it and the guys at the tire shop always asked if I had used any it so they could be careful. The newer fix a flat is better and does not corrode wheels like it used too.

I would suggest just buying another wheel. You can find steel wheels real cheap especially if you can find some take offs used from someone. I bought new ones for under 50 bucks.

 

bead seal is the way to go, i work in a auto shop and thats what we use to seal car rims.its black kinda like silicone but much thinner.just clean the rim the best you can.

 

If you have the time and want to reuse your stock rim, have the tire removed, sandblast the inside spotless, paint with a rust resistant paint like Rustoleum, and remount the tire, I had an old Blaster with a leaky rim, took the tire off, it was full of Slime, and still leaked. after the sandblasting and painting, it was still holding air when I sold it almost a year later.

 

Last year at the APEX show in Las Vegas the folks from Slime told me that in the early days there were some issues with aluminum weels due to corrosion problems but that issue has since been resolved.

I Slimed my rear tires and will soon I will find out what they look like inside. I'll post pictures when I do.

It stopped the slow leak in my tire.

 

I had the same problem in the last year of using my old tires. I lay the rim flat on the ground, cleaned the bead, and applied transmission fluid (sparingly) to the tire where it meets the rim, let it sit overnight and then aired it up.

Tranny fluid swells rubber slightly (to keep seals sealing inside a transmission). It swelled the rubber tire enough to seal it perfectly until I got new tires a couple years later.