Shops checking tire pressure

[mclasser]

Say you pull up to a shop for an oil change and they adjust your tire pressure as well. Your tires call for 32 PSI but are found to be low with only 28 PSI - and this is when they are warm after driving. The shop airs them up to 32 PSI and you go off on your merry way.

The 32 PSI spec is for cold tires so your pressure is still going to be low after leaving the shop. This has happened to me many times after an alignment or balancing. Though, in defense of the shops, it is difficult to account for PSI increases after tires warm up - especially when they were low on air to begin with. This is why I double check the pressure once the tires cool down at home after a repair.

 

[raytseng]

Well, if you're a person who is so keen on checking your tires, shouldn't you be admonished for driving in with 28psi to begin with (which really might be 25 cold)? hmm? tsk tsk! TPMS was made for you!


Anyway, if you really are a obsessive tire psi checker (but yet do not have your own compressor), you should ask them to put 2 to 3 over. Then when you check the next morning you can let some out pretty easily, but more of a pain to put more back in..

At least to the benefit of the shops I've been to, they won't reduce the air if you come in hot. So say the first tire they check is 35psi , they'll just leave or set the other tires to that same high mark.

 

[bdcardinal]

I do the same. I have my super MATCO digital tire gauge thingy that I will use. I will wait til the end of the day at work and drive my car the less than a 1/4 mile from where I part to a stall and check pressures then. If the tire is hot, I would bump up the pressure around 2psi from door sticker. It is amazing when I explained the pressure difference to people they acted like I was making stuff up.

 

[rslifkin]

If anyone touches my tire pressures, I'd be [censored]. They're set where they are for a reason and changing it is wrong (not running stock sizes, so door sticker is too low up front, too high in back unless there's a lot of weight back there).

 

[ARCOgraphite]

I don't let anyone change my oil or adjust my tire pressure. Monkeys cant be trusted for anything that requires something larger than a pea-sized brain or something other than a IDK attitude.
My experience has demonstrated that I don't want the full door placard cold pressure in my tires if it's -10C. Usually 3 psi less works without knocking the strut bearings to dust

YMMV.

 

[Nick1994]

Originally Posted By: rslifkin
If anyone touches my tire pressures, I'd be [censored]. They're set where they are for a reason and changing it is wrong (not running stock sizes, so door sticker is too low up front, too high in back unless there's a lot of weight back there).
Exactly. I've found that a lot of the time they can't even put air in the tires properly. Discount Tire was told to fill my dads truck tires up to 65 front, 80 rear. Upon returning home I checked and one of the front was 57, the other 65, a rear tire at 65 and the other at 80. What!?

 

[NMBurb02]

I believe it is required in Kalifornia that shops check and correct tire pressures for any vehicles they work on (to achieve optimum fuel economy and save the planet). I know that the shop I sometimes use does so and the service writer once asked a mechanic while finalizing my paperwork during pickup if he checked mine.

They go off of the door placard because that is "safe" from a liability standpoint and they do no know if you drove 1 or 100 miles to get there. That being said, the shop I referenced above likes to over-inflate my tires. They air up the GP to 40 psi when the placard calls for 30. The tires' max pressure is 51 psi, so I'm not worried.

 

[4wheeldog]

I had the Subaru dealer do the opposite. My Outback calls for 32F, 30R. I run 34/32. So, I pull in for a CEL (They replaced the fuel cap, warranty) and it feels funny when I leave.

I am going a long way, so I stop and check.....And find my warm tires at 30/28. Pumped them up to 36/34, and they were still a little low the next morning when I checked them cold.

If they are too low, by all means, fill them. But if they are a little high, leave 'em alone. Someone has a plan, already.

 

[Garak]

As a corollary to this, I prefer to check the tire pressures after a shop does anything, particularly with the tires. They always louse them up and I end up having like 50 PSI in each tire.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: NMBurb02
I believe it is required in Kalifornia that shops check and correct tire pressures for any vehicles they work on (to achieve optimum fuel economy and save the planet). I know that the shop I sometimes use does so and the service writer once asked a mechanic while finalizing my paperwork during pickup if he checked mine.

They go off of the door placard because that is "safe" from a liability standpoint and they do no know if you drove 1 or 100 miles to get there. That being said, the shop I referenced above likes to over-inflate my tires. They air up the GP to 40 psi when the placard calls for 30. The tires' max pressure is 51 psi, so I'm not worried.


Yup, BAR regs require shops to check, adjust, and document tire pressures anytime a vehicle is in the shop. We are supposed to go off the door sticker and the customer is supposed to sign off acknowledging they understand the "consequences" if they do not want door pressure.

I know people here freak out about tire pressures, but 99.5% of the driving public have no idea what do to to set pressure or how often they should be checked.

 

[440Magnum]

Time for locking valve stem caps. If I thought there were actually a market other than a dozen of us here on BITOG, I'd come up with a design.

 

[4wheeldog]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
I know people here freak out about tire pressures, but 99.5% of the driving public have no idea what do to to set pressure or how often they should be checked.


I check mine anytime someone with name on his shirt comes near my vehicle. But I have found, tires have gotten better at holding pressure. If I do not have a Costco rotate and balance, my tires hold well for 6 months or more at a time.

 

[Newreet]

These same folks that have trouble with the tire air pressure in customers' vehicles also have trouble with figuring out how tight to make the lug nuts after putting wheels back on a vehicle.

Nearly every single time they overtighten my lug nuts so much that it is a miracle they don't break any lug studs, and when I get home I have a terrible time loosening the lug nuts with a breaker bar or the like so I can retighten them correctly with my torque wrench set to the specs in the owner's manual. If I didn't do this and later had a flat tire, there would be no way I or my wife or my kids could even think about loosening them using the short tire iron in the trunk that comes with the jack.

Twice I had them cross-thread the lug nuts after touching my wheels. In those cases I either gave up trying to get a cross-threaded lug nut loose, or snapped the lug studs while trying to get the lug nuts loose. Not fun.

 

[exranger06]

A few years ago, my wife (girlfriend at the time) leased a new Nissan Rogue. The dealer threw in free oil changes. She takes it in for its first oil change. When she was driving home, the TPMS light comes on. I checked the tires, and found that one of them was low. I inspected the tire, didn't find any nails. I filled the tire back up, TPMS light turns off. The tire never leaked any air after that and the TPMS light never turned on again. Either someone was really incompetent at checking tire pressure, or I think someone intentionally let some air out so they could make some money "fixing" something.

 

[bdcardinal]

What sucks is with the regulations now, technicians or even parts people like me, can't use common sense anymore. They have regulated it out of existence.

 

[geeman789]

Always double check yourself... ALWAYS..

I once had a tire shop mount some winters, and I asked what pressure they had set them at... to which they replied... we set them to 32 psi... ok close enough, but...

When I mentioned that it was -20*c outside, and probably +15*c inside, and the pressure drops about 1 psi per 5 *c change... the guy looked at me like i was on crack or something... he had no clue what I was talking about.

Again, check them yourself...!

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

AutoMeter tire pressure gauge and an old fashion hand tire pump. A great many individuals working on automobiles shouldn't be, don't know their [censored] from their elbow, don't give a [censored] about anything and think they should be making $**.** a hour with full benefits and their birthday off. "I can't read a psig tire pressure gauge but you are fortunate to have me even if I don't show up for work everyday.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Time for locking valve stem caps.

If you Google it a bit, you'd be surprised. There is at least one design I came across before. If I recall correctly, the outer portion would just "spin" until you used the proper tool to engage, and you could then take the cap off. I don't know if the company is still around. After all, it might just be us OCD types. I don't let people change (or check) my oil, and I don't let them fuss with the pressure either, aside from mounting a tire.

 

[eljefino]

Originally Posted By: 4wheeldog


If they are too low, by all means, fill them. But if they are a little high, leave 'em alone. Someone has a plan, already.


Yup, air doesn't leak *IN*.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Originally Posted By: bdcardinal
Originally Posted By: NMBurb02
I believe it is required in Kalifornia that shops check and correct tire pressures for any vehicles they work on (to achieve optimum fuel economy and save the planet). I know that the shop I sometimes use does so and the service writer once asked a mechanic while finalizing my paperwork during pickup if he checked mine.

They go off of the door placard because that is "safe" from a liability standpoint and they do no know if you drove 1 or 100 miles to get there. That being said, the shop I referenced above likes to over-inflate my tires. They air up the GP to 40 psi when the placard calls for 30. The tires' max pressure is 51 psi, so I'm not worried.


Yup, BAR regs require shops to check, adjust, and document tire pressures anytime a vehicle is in the shop. We are supposed to go off the door sticker and the customer is supposed to sign off acknowledging they understand the "consequences" if they do not want door pressure.

I know people here freak out about tire pressures, but 99.5% of the driving public have no idea what do to to set pressure or how often they should be checked.


If I had to deal with that idiocy, I would have put a strip of tape over the tire placard on my F-350! No, I do NOT want 80psi with an empty bed.