Tire dealers over inflating tires

[Hohn]

Please don't anyone be mad when I say this: they probably don't pay enough for the person doing the work to care. I have worked with so many people who take no pride in their work and just point to a seemingly low pay for them to just do the absolute bare minimum or less to get by.

Not only this, but they aren't hiring the best of the best who are even smart enough to know the difference between the sidewall pressure and the tire placard pressure.

You rarely get what you don't pay for. And but you almost certainly never get what you do NOT pay for.

 

[John105]

I’ve worked for minimum wage before. Didn’t mean I just didn’t care about anything. In CA I assume min wage is a decent amount. And tire pressure can’t match the door label? Maybe they should give amazing and valuable prizes to the techs who can get the most correct inflations in a week

 

[bdcardinal]

Curious how tires are “shipped already inflated”?

When the new cars are delivered to dealers it is very common for the tires to be at max sidewall pressure. This prevents flatspotting when they are being shipped in a container.

 

[JohnnyJohnson]

The tire shops I have gone to have always inflated them right by the sticker on the door jam.

 

[Patman]

I have never really experienced having a tire shop way overinflating new tires for me. I will always check the pressure immediately after getting them installed and I find it’s usually somewhere around 35 PSI, plus or minus a few. On my recent purchase of back tires for my Corvette they set them at exactly 30 PSI for me, which is the recommended pressure.

 

[altaylar]

They probably have an automated inflator that was set to 50 for a previous job and they weren't attentive enough to reset it or bleed down.

I mount my own tires and send mine to 45-50 to seat beads, but bleed them down before hitting the street. I'd never do it for a customer car though.

In winter when I worked at a tire shop I put in an extra four pounds to account for the room temperature shop air "shrinking" at outside temps.

I think you are in that top 1%. I wish we all were your customers.

My OEM rec is 35 psi. I asked them to put 33 to account for change in sidewall hardness and width. Left with a cocktail of 36s and 38s