CHECK YOUR TIRE PRESSURE!

Thanks Critic for validating something I've been doing for years but never actually asked anyone to see if they agreed.

Didn't want to sound dumb I guess. :)
 
I have to admit I have gotten lazy checking my tire pressures lately as they were never changing. Recently my car has been shifting a lot (not pulling through the steering wheel - felt like the whole car was moving left and right) on a certain stretch of road that had a lot of tar lines. It is very similar to this, but a little heavier on the tar:
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I just figured it was a combination of wide-ish summer low profile tires and alignment being out of spec (even though nothing else about the way it drives leaves me to believe alignment would be out). I checked my pressures and all of the tires were consistently 3 psi below the door card. I upped them back to proper spec and the shifting has diminished greatly. It used to annoy me to the point where I would avoid the road and it felt somewhat dangerous. At its worst the upper half of my body would sway a little. I was surprised that changing the pressure made such a big difference! I felt this story was worthy of this thread....check your pressures! An annoying issue might be something simple.
 
I run 40 psi nitrogen in mine. On my 04 Taurus SES, went to. 225/60/16 also. With all of the sharp high speed turns I have to do around here, Anything less than 40psi makes the tires roll on their sidewalls excessively and screams like a angy hawk.
 
Originally Posted By: KimikoYuuki
I run 40 psi nitrogen in mine. On my 04 Taurus SES, went to. 225/60/16 also. With all of the sharp high speed turns I have to do around here, Anything less than 40psi makes the tires roll on their sidewalls excessively and screams like a angy hawk.


Takenokozoku?

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Way home today I said to myself, haven't check the tires in a year. Lo and behold, one was a 12, others were all low. Wondering why gas milage was a bit low.
 
I find it amazing how may people that I know, don't check their tire pressure regularly, including motorcycles. I guess that's how we end up with TPMS. What floors me is that my Son is one of them, and he certainly was NOT taught that way.
BTW I noticed the tires on my Tacoma are wearing a bit in the center when I rotated them this weekend, factory Dunlops with 30 PSI on the placard and 30K on the tires. I think I'll drop the pressure a bit.
 
Ever since I got a plug-in tire pump as a gift, I make sure to check my tires every month or so, and before a trip. On the Park Avenue, which called for 32 all around, I usually aimed for a compromise between ride quality and better economy, and ran 33-34 most of the time, 35 if I knew I'd be on a sustained highway run. The '11 Regal calls for 33 all around. One menu has an LCD display of the pressure at each tire. So far they've been reading 37-38 -- but that's after a half-hour drive or more.

I'll check it this afternoon before I leave work, when the tires have been sitting, and then compare that to what I actually read with the pencil gauge on Saturday morning.
 
Since getting 17" rims and performance tires, Hankook Ventus V4 ES, I've been running 40psi and a bit more as I figure out the best settings for the Camry, a jump from 35 I had been running in 15 inch "OEM" type tires...this vs. 29 on the doorjamb...

As high as this is, it seems to be the right settings for greater traction/wear/and mpg. With cold temps this month in Florida following last month, Dec., the hottest on record here, I've had to keep an eye on them...
 
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For those of you who even have a compact spare:

Check the pressure in it. The Buick dealer's pre-printed 172-point checklist sheet mentions the other tires, but not the spare. Just now I unpacked the trunk, levered up the floor panel, and gauge-checked my spare. It was 18.5 psi, and it's supposed to be 60! My Sears inflator was getting a little hot by the time I finished pumping 48 pounds into the tire.

'Twould be embarrassing, to say the least, if I got a flat on the road somewhere, unshipped the spare, and found it dead flabby, no? (Yes, I have a can of the Fix-a-Flat stuff . . . but I've never used it. Ounce, prevention, cure, you know the drill.)

I will give Buick/Opel full credit: The spare is stowed with the valve uppermost, so you don't have to take the tire out and flip it over to check the pressure. I had to do that every year on the Park Avenue; annoying, to say the least. . . .
 
My 64 Bonneville likes 39.. The tires are West Lake SU307 235/70r15... I removed all rubber bushings from the control arms, spherical in the back, Delrin/Nylon in the front...

The roads in Western Pennsylvania are like a demanding road course..
 
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Originally Posted By: Prelude
I find it excessive to check the pressure once a month unless there is a problem. The pressure in my tires doesn't change much even after 3 month...


How do you know there is in fact a problem if you never check....!?!?

I check pressure once a week, every weekend. I also check oil, coolant, ps levels, and top up washer fluid.

My tire pressure checks have a number of times gone like this...

35 35 35 35 21.... what the ...!

Picked up a screw... leaking a couple psi per day, no big deal... and no flat on the side of the freeway...or worse!

It takes all of about 2 MINUTES to check four tires ... excessive, umm, no...

Good preventative maintenance is how I prefer to look at it.
 
Originally Posted By: pitts64
My 64 Bonneville likes 39.. The tires are West Lake SU307 235/70r15... I removed all rubber bushings from the control arms, spherical in the back, Delrin/Nylon in the front...

The roads in Western Pennsylvania are like a demanding road course..


NICE! I had a gorgeous 63, one of my best memories....
 
This is the reason why I decided to buy a Digital Tire Gauge from Mountaincrest a month ago because of some big fluctuations in my TPMS. Just making sure everything is working out well while I'm driving off to some great distances.
 
Originally Posted By: ZachMcgowan
This is the reason why I decided to buy a Digital Tire Gauge from Mountaincrest a month ago because of some big fluctuations in my TPMS. Just making sure everything is working out well while I'm driving off to some great distances.

Wow, Zach... you sure do like your Mountaincrest Digital Tire Gauge.
 
I just wanted to add a little something to this thread... don't forget to check your spare tire pressure as well! I was changing the passenger side tail lamp last night in the Firebird and I had to remove the spare tire to get to it. It looked fine, but as I was rolling it in the garage and put some pressure on it, I noticed it was getting very soft. I checked the pressure and it wasn't even registering on my gauge. Had I not changed the tail lamp, I would probably not have noticed how low it was until disaster struck.
 
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