Getting the right air pressure in your vehicle’s tires is crucial to ensuring a safe, efficient, and comfortable drive. It will also maximize the life of your tires, saving you money by stretching the time between expensive tire replacements. Fortunately, keeping your tires properly inflated is easy.
So, how do you know what the best air pressure is for your vehicle’s tires? U.S. News Best Cars suggests following the manufacturer’s recommendations unless you have specific guidance from a professional indicating that alternative air pressures are appropriate.
Read on to learn more about determining the proper tire inflation for your car.
Every new vehicle will have a placard located on the driver-side door jamb behind the seat. It lists the proper inflation pressure for each tire, including the spare tire if your car has one. The numbers on the doorpost are the recommendations from the vehicle’s manufacturer.
If your car does not have a placard, the correct tire pressure information may be found in your owner’s manual or from a dealer’s service department.
The numbers shown represent the correct tire pressure when measured first thing in the morning, when the tires are cold. As you drive, the tires warm up, and pressure will naturally rise a few psi (pounds per square inch).
Safety is the most important reason to keep your tire pressures at their recommended level. Driving on severely underinflated tires, or those overinflated well past their maximum inflation pressure, can cause a blowout while you are driving, resulting in loss of vehicle control.
Many advanced safety and driver assistance functions will not operate at their optimal capability if your tires are not properly inflated.
Keeping your tires at their recommended pressure will also give you the best balance of ride quality, handling prowess, tire life, and fuel economy. Driving on underinflated tires costs about 0.2 percent in efficiency for each one pound of pressure they are under the recommendation, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). If you’re 10 pounds low, you’re giving up 2 percent of your fuel economy. Tire underinflation will also lead to significantly accelerated tire wear and damaging heat buildup.
A vehicle’s recommended tire pressure is often confused with the maximum tire pressure shown on the tire sidewall. That number indicates the maximum pressure your tires can tolerate while carrying their maximum allowable load. Filling your vehicle tires to their maximum pressure for everyday driving is a bad idea.
Driving on tires that are over-inflated will increase wear on the center of the tire, affect your vehicle’s handling, create a harsher ride, and potentially reduce your braking efficiency. Some people recommend driving on overinflated tires to increase your gas mileage. However, the money you save with fewer trips to the gas station will likely be offset by more frequent trips to the shop for new tires, as overinflated tires will wear unevenly.
Some vehicle manufacturers recommend higher tire pressures than you might typically run when a vehicle is loaded or towing, especially for truck tires. Once again, you should follow the manufacturer’s recommendation. Note that some vehicles will have different recommended air pressures for the front tires and rear tires.
For every rule there are exceptions. While you don't want to drive down the road with underinflated tires, taking air pressure out can help you get out of deep snow or sand by increasing the size of each tire's contact patch. Some places that allow beach driving mandate aired-down tires.
The problem with this is that you will eventually return to the highway, where you definitely don’t want to drive on underinflated tires. You only want to reduce the pressure in your tires if you have a way – such as a portable air compressor – to reinflate them when you come back onto paved roads.
Some vehicle manufacturers recommend slightly higher pressures be used in winter tires (sometimes called snow tires). There are a couple of reasons for this, but the result is that the higher pressure will make the tires more responsive, according to online tire retailer Tire Rack.
As tires won’t typically heat up as much in winter temperatures as they do in the summer, the increase of 3 to 5 psi of recommended tire pressure will keep winter tires at about the same pressure as regular tires run at during most of the year.
Each time you switch from winter to all-season tires and vice-versa, be sure to check the pressures of the tires going back on your car.
Many consumers replace their tires and wheels with different sizes than initially came on their vehicle. While there are a lot of things to think about – tire size, speed rating, load rating, and tire type – you should still follow the recommended tire pressure you find on the door placard in most cases.
“Assuming a proper plus-size fitment, the general rule is to retain the same inflation pressure as the original equipment package,” says Woody Rogers, director of tire information for online tire retailer Tire Rack. “For sure, in some cases you will need to increase cold inflation pressure with a plus-size package, but not most of the time."
If you are unsure about the air pressure that you should be running, check with your tire manufacturer or shop to find out before you ruin an expensive set of tires by inflating them to the wrong pressure.
You should check your tire pressures at least once a month to ensure that they are where they should be. It’s easy to do it yourself at a gas station, though you’ll want to invest in an easy-to-read tire pressure gauge to back up the built-in tire gauge on the station’s air compressor.
While you are checking your tire pressure, it is also a great time to inspect your tires for wear and damage. Take a good look at the tread, valve stem, and sidewall to see if there is any damage. Discovering problems during an inspection can save you from being stranded on the side of the road later.
Most new cars are fitted with tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS). Some will show the specific tire pressure at each wheel, while others will just give you a warning that one of your tires is low. Whatever you do, don’t ignore a TPMS warning, as it could mean that you have a tire going flat.
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Finding the Right Tire Pressure for Your Car
Getting the right air pressure in your vehicle’s tires is crucial to ensuring a safe, efficient, and comfortable drive. It will also maximize the life of your tires, saving you money by stretching the time between expensive tire replacements. Fortunately, keeping your tires properly inflated is easy.
So, how do you know what the best air pressure is for your vehicle’s tires? U.S. News Best Cars suggests following the manufacturer’s recommendations unless you have specific guidance from a professional indicating that alternative air pressures are appropriate.
Read on to learn more about determining the proper tire inflation for your car.