It’s normal practice among many motorists to regularly maintain their cars in a fresh and roadworthy condition. They are the type of people who consult the owner’s handbook to determine when a service is due and make sure it’s booked into the workshop at the right time. You will find others who are so focused on their cars that their goal is to keep them in showroom condition even down to the upholstery and carpets. Even so, amongst individuals who take car ownership responsibly, how easy it can be to forget to check those tire pressures! Accurate tire pressure is an important part of car maintenance and this article will discuss it in further detail.
Tire pressure issues arise from two main causes: too much pressure in the tire or too little pressure in your tire. The good news is, car makers have made it effortless to determine what the correct pressure is. Either examine the handbook or find a sticker on the door pillar that shows the pressure in bars or psi. Please note that the pressure you will see stamped on the inner rim of the tire only is the maximum inflation pressure and will be considerably higher than the correct driving tire pressures. The suggested tire pressures can be found in the owners manual which sometimes give two different figures for front and rear tire pressures.
Putting too much pressure in the tires decreases the amount of tire tread that is touching the road surface. As your car has less contact and traction with the road surface, it could be less responsive to steering wheel inputs. This will become most noticeable in wet situations or on snow and ice when the chances of an accident are greatly increased. You will then endanger life and limb of yourself and any other car occupants. In case you are lucky and escape injury, you will likely end up with a hefty bill to repair the damages to your car.
Tires which are under inflated can provide abnormal wear on the outer side of the tread because the sidewall is running on the road surface. Not surprisingly, your tires are not created to run in this condition and the flexing of the soft tire as the wheel revolves generates heat which will greatly shorten tire life if not create a sudden blow out. This could cause you to lose control of your car and you’ll be looking at recovery costs if you don’t carry a spare tire when you do come to a stop.
You will even receive better fuel consumption by simply keeping your tires inflated properly. Whenever a tire is not equal to the correct air pressure there is more rolling resistance thanks to the larger tire surface in touch with the highway. This results in a mechanical drag for the engine which has to be taken care of by using more gas per mile. Be preserving your tires inflated properly you can turn out saving up to 10% off your gas costs.
When checking your tires air pressure you should make sure that the tire pressure is checked once the car has been sitting a number of hours. You must never read the air pressure after a long trip since the tire will be warm and you will not be able to get an accurate pressure reading. Your tire pressures should be checked once a week. Do this and adhere to the tips given above and you will get far better mpg, reduce costs and stay safe on the roads.