What's up with my tire?

[autobonrun]

Here's a first for me. Driving my car this morning the car suddenly started pulling hard to the left. I pulled over and sure enough the front left was nearly flat. I pulled out my air pump and put in about 20 lbs. It seemed to hold so I drove it home. Raised the pressure to 34 psi with my compressor. 8 hours later it was still at 34 psi. Drove it around my neighborhood (5-6 miles) at low to medium speed then parked it. Here I am 12 hours later and its still at 34 psi. I checked for nails, nothing. I checked the stem with soapy water, nothing.

What could cause a tire to suddenly go flat yet hold air when pumped back up? Tire Bead?

The only thing I noticed is that the front tires are dry rotted between the treads. I know they will need to be replaced but what's up with this sudden loss of air?

[wholberg]

If you lost the air at highway speed, perhaps the tire stem was pulled towards the outside of the tire and leaked air. If your tires are dry-rotted, your rubber tire stem is in no better shape. If you have those little glue-on supports for the tire stems, then I have no idea.

[Kevin Stewart]

it probably lost air due to the outside temeperature rasing and lowering, for every ten degress a tire can loose 1 lb up and down, i would probably bet that you have oxidation around the lip of the wheel, any tire store can clean it and put the tire back on, if you let the air out does it smell like condinsation, Kevin

[autobonrun]

The tire is still fully inflated today. No cracks in the stem either. It may very well have been something related to oxidation on the lip. I've decided to order a set of Bridgestone S02a's since the fronts are dry rotted and I hesitate to push it hard in this condition anyway.

Thanks for the info. If I get to the bottom of the problem, I'll post what I find.