Tire air Pressure

[Bert Kemp]

I was going to bring this up in the oil check thread but decided to start a new one for what I think is far more critical then checking oil and thats checking your tires air pressure. Its more troublesome to check 4 tires for air but way more important from a safety point. I think low air pressure is a major cause of accidents. I check mine about every 3 or 4 weeks on my car and almost always need a lb or 2 of air. On my Motorcycle Every week I pull into DT and have them check my tires and air. How often do you check your air?

[Jim Koepke]

I keep an eye on the tires. If they all look same as they do when freshly filled I do not give it much thought.

jtk

[Wayne Lomman]

I check tyres at least every week. I run pressures at the top end of the recommended range since all my driving is long distances on open roads. When I was about 19 I was told to do this by a tyre fitter in the outback after my car had just blown its second tyre in the space of a day. I have never lost a tyre since. Cheers

[John K Jordan]

I was going to bring this up in the oil check thread but decided to start a new one for what I think is far more critical then checking oil and thats checking your tires air pressure. Its more troublesome to check 4 tires for air but way more important from a safety point. I think low air pressure is a major cause of accidents. I check mine about every 3 or 4 weeks on my car and almost always need a lb or 2 of air. On my Motorcycle Every week I pull into DT and have them check my tires and air. How often do you check your air?

I give up - what is a DT?

My new Jeep makes it easy to monitor - a diagram on the console shows the pressure of each tire.

I understand underinflated tires also increase rolling resistance which increases fuel use.

With 64 tires here on 19 things monitoring and keeping them aired up is a constant effort, especially as offroad tires age. I keep compressors in three buildings with hoses on retractable reels.

JKJ

[Larry Frank]

I have one car with the sensors in the tires and that is great. On my older car, I keep an eye on them and check before any longer drives. They are also checked when the tires are rotated.

I also check more often as the temperatures change in the fall. The colder conditions result in lower air pressure.

[Robert Engel]

I don't see why you need to check them that frequently.

I check when I do oil changes, which is about every 4-5 months or before a long trip.

[Bert Kemp]

Tire pressure can change dramatically with temperature changes, if its cold you can lose pressure if its hot you can get more pressure . My motorcycle is always changing Its 40 in the morning and 80 in the afternoon. The constant up and down over the course of a week really effects how the bike rides and handles. Very easy to feel when my pressure is down even a couple lbs. So its gets checked often the car not as much. I've put 28000 miles on the bike this year and 1200 on the car.

I don't see why you need to check them that frequently.

I check when I do oil changes, which is about every 4-5 months or before a long trip.

[George Bokros]

I have one car with the sensors in the tires and that is great.

The tire pressure sensors that I am familiar with on the cars today ONLY alert you to pressures that at way below the recommended pressures. They are not meant to replace checking the pressures with a tire pressure gauge.

Along with this the last time my truck was serviced the dealer noted that they had filled the tires to the manufacturer recommended pressures which were 5 lbs higher than what it said on the sticker on the vehicles door jamb. I found this interesting since the truck had the factory installed tires so it was not that the tires differed from the manufacturer installed tires. I always ran them at the higher pressure anyway.

[Adam Herman]

DT = discount tire i am guessing.

i check mine with chalk when i get them to find the best pressure. our volt gets about 40 psi and my truck 38. both higher than the pressure on the door jamb, but also different tires than the cars came with. make a nice wide line of chalk across the tire and back/pull up on a level street. see if the chalk is evenly wore or more in the center or edges. adjust to get it even. more if there is chalk left in the center, and less if there is chalk left on the outsides.

[Kev Williams]

i check mine with chalk when i get them to find the best pressure. our volt gets about 40 psi and my truck 38. both higher than the pressure on the door jamb, but also different tires than the cars came with. make a nice wide line of chalk across the tire and back/pull up on a level street. see if the chalk is evenly wore or more in the center or edges. adjust to get it even. more if there is chalk left in the center, and less if there is chalk left on the outsides.

This hits on an issue with tires that simply bugs me, which is the fact that the factory recommended 'door jamb' pressures do NOT refer to which tire types the pressure recommendations refer to. Most tires I've dealt with fall into two basic air pressure ranges, 35psi max and 44psi max. There may be others to be sure, but these 2 seem to be the most common. As an example, my '96 Lincoln MKVIII's door jamb pressure stated 30psi. The original tires that came on the car were 35psi Goodyear tires. I bought the car used, and had to soon change out the original tires. I got the exact same size tires, only they were 44psi max tires, Firestones I think (years ago). The shop put 30 pounds of air in per the door jamb, and the car felt like I was driving on marbles. Oh, what a smooth ride, but it drove horrible. So I did a little math, 30psi was 85.7% of the original tire's 35psi max, and 85.7% of 44psi is 37.7 psi, so I aired them up to 38, and voila, the car drove and handled like a dream. Pretty much exactly like 30psi in the original tires...

The chalk method Adam mentions above works. For one thing, it's 'absolute', it compensates for the actual weight on the tire, the tire itself, and for air gauges that don't work right (does yours? I have 5 that all give different readings! )

My rule of thumb is simple, 3 or 4 psi below the sidewall max, and a snick more up front because of engine weight...

[Bill Jobe]

I started running my tires on the high side after the Explorer problem identified poorly figured pressure by the manufacturers. As a result, I have a Sable with the 3.0 DOHC V6 that gets 30 mpg on the highway. I make a habit of checking milage every time I drive to my mom's. That's a 300 mile round trip and when I go back home the same day I figure that should give a pretty accurate mpg.
That ain't bad for a car its size.
I'm at a loss as to why car makers can't seem to make midsized SUVs that do that good. My Sable is now 13 years old. So much for progress.

[Brian Elfert]

For my motor home I have weighed each axle and consult a chart that says what PSI to use based on weight. The vehicle rides better with less air in the tires. I originally ran all tires at max PSI, but it didn't ride all that well. I used to get better MPG back when I ran higher pressure, but I think the new diesel fuel introduced in 2007 has more to do with MPG loss than lower tire pressures.

[roger wiegand]

If you are losing that much pressure in a car tire you have a leak that needs to be fixed.

I check pressure every few months and it almost never varies in the cars. The TPMS system lights a light at about 3 lb under the recommended pressure in my Mini. I check the truck and trailer whenever I leave for a long trip. They are set to 80 lbs and 4 of 10 tires drop 4-5 lb over the course of a month, the rest hold much better. Thats about 25 lb over what the door jamb says, but I run at close to the maximum allowed weight, so pump the tires up to their max capacity.

[George Bokros]

Static tire pressure varies by the season. Usually in the fall the pressure is lower than it would be static in July at least in the northern climates - northeast Ohio. This being said you should check the pressure as the seasons change.

[Kurt Kintner]

Don't forget to check the spare..... We ran over a nail in New Mexico, and the spare was flat.... My bad...
But, we carry a 12 volt inflater, and were able to keep enough air in it to get to a tire store ....