Thread: Slimed

Today I learned a lot about slime (tyre goo), LR 18" alloy wheels and changing tyres myself (a bit); It's a long post but it's probably for cathartic purposes more than anything else but other's may benefit...

No photos cause I was too slimey &/or foul tempered to be bothered.

A few weeks ago before a trip I noticed a very slow leak on one of my front tyres. Not having time to get it fully fixed and not ever having used my tyre repair kit I bought some tyre slime and installed it. Was all good for the trip but I did note some tyre imbalance at times, usually smoothing out after a little while at a particular speed.

On return home I'd had enough of the wobbles and swapped the spare with the slimed tyre. I called one of my local tyre places and told them the story. 'Our policy is to throw out slimed tyres, won't touch them'. My tyres are only about 15k old so I wasn't too keen on that idea. When I asked them what the problem was they just said it wasn't worth their time and was company policy.

After thinking the worst of them: lazy, unhelpful, etc, etc I did a bit of research on the web and turned up some info about delaminating tyres and all manner of evils - most of which I assume to be heresay and consipracy theories.

So I was apparently reduced to removing the tyre myself, cleaning it out and remounting it. I borrowed a set of tyre pliers from a friend.

I had a closer look at the tyre and removed the screw causing the leak (! - missed that before) and rotated the hole to the bottom of the wheel, hoping the slime would jet out - no such luck. I figured that if it wasn't running out, it's solidified and perhaps if I used my tyre repair kit to stop the leak, I could get it balanced and be done.

After using the tyre repair kit for the first time (pretty straight forward - trick is to lube the end of the licorice piece with the supplied lube to get it started into the awl) I tried another tyre place; getting them to balance a few of the other wheels too.

They were unable to balance the slimed tyre and asked if it had any (I'd not mentioned it previously) in it - 'yes' I replied and they took it off the machine and said it would be impossible. 'Can you unmount the tyre and clean it out?' I asked - 'no'. However they were far more informative - they said that slime was highly toxic and the smell would knock you out or make you feel sick at the least; no word on delamination though. Their advice was to just keep that as a spare wheel and ensure it always goes on the back - or - if I could get the tyre off myself and clean it out, they'd be happy to remount and balance it for me.

I went home and thought it over (could also be called 'sulking') - I'm about to go on a trip and didn't like the prospect of an unbalanced wheel slowing me down should I get a flat.

I decided to have a crack at dismounting the tyre - done plenty of light truck split rims, motorbike and pushbike tyres but never a car/4wd tyre. And I'd read about LR alloys having 'special'' beads that are painful to dismount and mount, so not really sure of myself.

I tried the tyre pliers but no luck - even if they had an 18" adjustment, I doubt they'd have successfully unseated the bead - keen to hear if others have had success on 18" LR Hurricane alloys. I tried driving over the tyre but the 18" 55 series tyres just got pushed sideways and screwed around rather than pushed off the bead. I then tried my hi-lift jack, with the foot on the sidewall and the lifting tongue in the receiver hitch on the back of my D2.

My first attempt had the foot too close to the rim and it seemed to catch on the bead itself as that was pressed down along the wheel. I then moved the foot out from the wheel about 3/4" and tried again... The trucks back wheels were *just* off the ground but the bead still held - ()*^&)^)^!?? I let it sit a few moments while I marveled at the sheer stubbornness of the bead to move and, 'pop!' it came off!!!! Hallelujah!

I was able to stand on the rest of the sidewall and with that it was done.

Flipped the rim over (onto a pair of 2x4 planks to stop the rim getting scratched on the concrete) and did the same on the other side - it took four different goes on different spots to get it to pop this time.

I then tried using the tyre levers to get the inside of the tyre off the rim - no luck as there is no real valley/groove for the bead to sit into, allowing the opposite side of the bead to go over and off the rim. Turning it over revealed a large valley on the outside of the rim - success! I then removed the other side of the tyre by effectively sliding it to the outside of the rim, taking advantage of the same groove/valley.

With the tyre off the rim I smelled the slime - nothing. I checked the container and it said 'non-toxic' - maybe those tyre place folks *were* just being lazy!

Cleaning it out of the tyre was straightforward with the application of some CT 14, a scrubbing brush and a blast of water - but it did tend to stick to everything. It was sitting around the tyre in lumps - I don't know how it was supposed to seal anything! I called the tyre place and they were more than happy to remount the tyre.

When I talked with them I empathised with them about what a mess slime is - I no longer blamed them for not wanting to touch tyres with it installed, regardless of how toxic it was or wasn't. But then a few of the tyre guys said that it gave them an allergic reaction on skin contact and would often spray out of tyres and into their face - yuk!

I also learned that the Slime brand slime was the least stinky of them but it stayed as clumps as produced the worst balance problems whereas one with a consistency of Baileys stayed very liquid (few balance problems) but was highly toxic and stinky.

In the end it's all sorted and I have all five wheels fully operational.

Lessons:

Walking in another's shoes generates real understanding: Tyre guys have had some pretty unpleasant experiences with slime over the years resulting in a 'no touch' policy; and that's fair enough.

LR 18" Hurricane wheels aren't much fun to remove a tyre from - I've not tried remounting but don't imagine it's much easier.

I won't be buying a set of Tyre pliers but might keep some of their levers handy.

I'll never use slime again!

Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

sorry,, I'm just saying I've read both posts,,

Ditto😊