Ever since I had my 05 MCS, 1 tire would leak down.
I got so fed up with it, I went to a local shop and replaced all four tires to make sure to fix the problem.

No dice.

I filled the tire up, (42 psi) in north Atlanta on Thursday morning.
Saturday morning, it was flat.

I took it back to the place that sold me tires, (been there 6 times so far) and they took the wheel off, filled the tire to 75 psi and dunked it in water for an hour, (while I waited). Nothing. The shop unmounted the tire and we did an inspection on the rim.
Lo and behold, there are 2 gouges on the INSIDE of the rim near the bead.

The shop replaced the tire, (with a new on-no charge) and said the rim was problably bad.

Will Mini take care of the bad wheel or will I be forced to buy one, (without the tire)?

 

Are the gouges painted over or through the paint?
If painted over, maybe warranty.
If through the paint, externally caused and no warranty.

 

Through the paint.
I spoke with my MA some months back about this. His responce was, "We guarantee the the wheels are round and theat the tire have air in them when it leaves the showroom".

Sounds like I need to find 1 S-Lite without the tire.

 

You can get S-lites for cheap on Ebay. I doubt the dealer would give you a new one because they were probably damaged from a pothole or something. You perhaps could get your insurance to cover it, but of course it depends on your deductible...

I've gone over some pretty nasty potholes in mine and I've been cringing after the hit, but I haven't had any problems yet.

 

True, try ebay, craigslist, or your local Mini club. Many people hate them because they are so heavy and you can often find them cheap.

 

If Mini is not going to warrant the rim, why don't you just lightly blend out the gouge to smooth the contour so the bead will mold in. If the rim is not bent you should have no problems.

 

He said the gouge is inside the rim, I doubt it can be bent out.

 

The gouge sounds like it is where the tire BEAD would be, he didn't say the rim was bent

 

I had a car that did this once. I went through all the stuff you mentioned--replacing tires, valve stems, etc. etc. It turned out the rim had a dent on the inside (as opposed to the outside which is the part you see when it is mounted on the car). These were expensive alloy rims (the Volvo dealer at the time wanted $450 to replace one). I found a rim shop in Maryland where they fix rims. Since this is relatively close for me, I made an appointment and drove up there. The guy removed the tire, and put the rim into a forge. After heating it up he proceeded to bang on it with a series of mallets. He eyeballed it and got it dead on. After letting the rim cool appropriately, he spun it to show me it was right on, remounted the tire, and sent me on my way. It cost me a whopping $60. He had piles of Corvette and Jaguar rims in there and laughed that he could easily retire on them and that there was a bright future in straightening bent rims because so many manufacturers were offering low profile tires.

 

I went by Global Imports today.
My SA remembered that I had mentioned the problem. He checked down stairs and lo and behold, he had a couple of take offs.
New wheel: 75.00
Satisified customer: Priceless.

The rim is gouged on the inside of the wheel. Yo can see the damage only if the tire is removed. The gouge is about as wide as your little finger and maybe 1/64 inch deep. It runs from about 3 inches from the lip of the rimm all the way to just were the rim and tire meet.

The tire didn't loose air until the car weight was on it. Then, it would take about 48 hours to be completely flat

If yo need tires in LaGrange, GA, go to Westbrook Tire. Those guys were great to work with on this problem.

 

Glad to hear all worked out!