General Tire Pressures

[ahmett]

Hey what tyre pressures are people running? I am on 36 front 34 rear and the people at the fuel station always tell me thats way too much but I ignore them. I put a bit more than what the figures say because i generally check the tires after a drive so the tires are warm and i prefer more pressure than less pressure. Anyone (racing people) not follow the book and go their own way with pressures? Funnily when I bought the car the pressures were at 43 psi (thats how the car came) and I changed them after a few hundred km when i checked them the first time. I have no idea what Fiat/my dealer in Greece was thinking.
The car was definately bouncy!!!

I have the 1.4 so its heavier than the 1.2 and twinair so i guess a bit more pressure.

 

[306maxi]

What the manufacturer specifies is what I run.

 

[loveshandbags]

Hey what tyre pressures are people running? I am on 36 front 34 rear and the people at the fuel station always tell me thats way too much but I ignore them. I put a bit more than what the figures say because i generally check the tires after a drive so the tires are warm and i prefer more pressure than less pressure. Anyone (racing people) not follow the book and go their own way with pressures? Funnily when I bought the car the pressures were at 43 psi (thats how the car came) and I changed them after a few hundred km when i checked them the first time. I have no idea what Fiat/my dealer in Greece was thinking.
The car was definately bouncy!!!

I have the 1.4 so its heavier than the 1.2 and twinair so i guess a bit more pressure.

I did raise this before on an earlier thread and on the links that I posted...
http://www.e90post.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289349
(note post 15)
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=72

increasing the pressures beyond the handbook recommendations is for speeds that a 500 (even the 1.4) is not capable of exceeding where in reality you would need to be on autobann doing 130mph+

On the 16 inch in 'bar' to 'lbs' format
MEDIUM LOAD
Front 2.2 32
Rear 2.0 29

FULL LOAD
Front 2.4 35
Rear 2.3 33.36

A key point to remember is that if there's an accident it is not uncommon for an assessor to test the pressure that's in your tyres.

 

[frupi]

Just been out and checked our own on 14 inch steelies. Looked in the handbook and it states 2.0 bar (29 psi) all round. I put the gauge on and my cold tyres are spot on 2.0 bar all round. This is absolutely fine for our car as it generally is only the wife that gets in it anyway, so no need for less or more.

It's been said before, stick to what your hand book says for your particular model. If you are unlucky enough to have an accident, fault or not, and your tyre pressures are checked and found significantly over or under what they should be, you will have to do the explaining.

 

[ahmett]

yes but i check them when they are warm at the petrol stationso +3 bar = 2.5 and 2.3 so around 36 and 34 psi. something else i noticed, my tires are much more worn on the sidewall then in the middle. it is the same on all the tires so i assume this is normal due to cornering force?

 

[frupi]

With respect, check your tyres when they've been sat at least for a couple of hours. Mid morning is usually a good time - goodness, how boring am I! Never check them warm. Unfortunately there are many people out there who just somehow never find the time to check their tyres regularly. Bit strange that people can somehow forget when they're trundling down the M1 at 80 mph that the only thing between them and the tarmac are the floor pan and 4 bits of rubber! If you haven't got a decent tyre pump with an equally decent gauge, get one and use it - it's only advice, you don't have to take it......

 

[306maxi]

Yes and no. The handbook actually gives advice for setting the pressures when the car is warm. Ideally you want to do it when the tyres are cold, but it's not 100% necessary.

 

[jnoiles]

Using my own gauge that I trust more than the petrol station one and checking/filling them in the cold with air only I prefer 32 front and 34 rear. I find she's a just slidey enough with these pressures.

On a track day with sticky rubber, R888's or the like, I run 24 which bumps out naturally to about 32 when warm after a few laps. I get much the same progressive breakaway on this compound at this pressure as I do for the above on the T1R's on the road.

 

[ahmett]

Thats an interesting choice jnoiles! Must make the front a bit more unstable. I think I will just stick with what I do.

 

[306maxi]

Mine's slidey enough having more air in the front than the rear

This thread reminded me to redo my pressures after rotating my tyres today. I use a midpoint between the medium load and full load pressures that the manual gives. For 195/45 R16's I use 2.3 bar for the fronts and 2.2 bar of the rears. In the winter I run 2.2 bar all round on the winter tyres as specced by Vredestein.

 

[ahmett]

How often do you rotate your tires maxi?
I did 12,000 miles this time before rotating them but I realised that this is far too much.
When I get a new set of tires I will probably rotate them every 3,000 miles.

 

[306maxi]

How often do you rotate your tires maxi?
I did 12,000 miles this time before rotating them but I realised that this is far too much.
When I get a new set of tires I will probably rotate them every 3,000 miles.

Not something I've really documented tbh. For the first two years I simply rotated them when I put them back on after the winter. I've done a bit of mileage this year so thought I'd rotate them now as there's probably still a good 6-8 weeks of winter tyre weather.

Whether you should rotate or not also depends on the difference between your best and worst tyres. For me I think the biggest difference is perhaps 1mm at the very most so hardly massive. So at the moment the best tyres are on the front which is what i generally advise against, but because the difference is so small, it's not really a problem. But if for instance you had tyres on the rear which were at 2mm and fronts at 6mm for instance then you're asking for trouble in the wet.

I also try to keep the best tyre on the front left corner and the worst on the rear right as the front left has the most load on it around roundabouts and so on and the right rear has the least load on it. Out of the two remaining tyres I'll put the best one on the front right.

Obviously if you drive on the right hand side of the road you'd do the opposite in terms of left to right

 

[jrkitching]

In days gone by I used to rotate tyres religiously but have now decided to go along with modern thinking, which generally advises against tyre rotation. As Maxi says, you want your best tyres on the rear; also for those of you who have directional tyres, you can't swap them across the car unless you remove & refit them from the wheel. So, given that the fronts will likely wear significantly faster than the rears, I plan on keeping them in their original positions until the fronts require replacement; then swapping rears to front & putting new rubber on the back.

If the tyres aren't directional & are wearing unevenly, it could be worth swapping them across the car at half life to get the longest mileage before replacement - I'm not really a fan of having significantly different tyres & tread depths on the same 'axle'.

 

[frupi]

My previous two cars both used directional tyres. I always just let the front ones run down to the legal limit, shifted the rears to the front and stuck the new ones on the back. Personally for me, the idea of swapping back to front (same sides) to ensure even wear all round didn't make financial sense - (i.e not replacing all four corners at the same time). In fact, when my Cadillac goes in for a service, I have to remind them not to rotate the wheels for that very reason. I check my tyres religiously, weekly as it is and I never have problems with uneven wear.

 

[306maxi]

In days gone by I used to rotate tyres religiously but have now decided to go along with modern thinking, which generally advises against tyre rotation. As Maxi says, you want your best tyres on the rear; also for those of you who have directional tyres, you can't swap them across the car unless you remove & refit them from the wheel. So, given that the fronts will likely wear significantly faster than the rears, I plan on keeping them in their original positions until the fronts require replacement; then swapping rears to front & putting new rubber on the back.

If the tyres aren't directional & are wearing unevenly, it could be worth swapping them across the car at half life to get the longest mileage before replacement - I'm not really a fan of having significantly different tyres & tread depths on the same 'axle'.

I agree. Though of course I'm a hypocrite for rotating my tyres.

I just quite fancied replacing all 4 tyres at the same time on my car. Inevitably if you drive in a spirited manner as I sometimes do you won't wear tyres evenly and if you replace the tyres on an axle because one is worn then you're going to be throwing away a tyre which still has a bit of life left. As I never let the tyres get too far from each other it's never really that much of a safety issue. But I certainly wouldn't encourage people to rotate their tyres if there's a significant difference in tread depth as

Bearing in mind this video below shows new tyres on the front and tyres which are only just legal on the rear.

 

[306maxi]

My previous two cars both used directional tyres. I always just let the front ones run down to the legal limit, shifted the rears to the front and stuck the new ones on the back. Personally for me, the idea of swapping back to front (same sides) to ensure even wear all round didn't make financial sense - (i.e not replacing all four corners at the same time). In fact, when my Cadillac goes in for a service, I have to remind them not to rotate the wheels for that very reason. I check my tyres religiously, weekly as it is and I never have problems with uneven wear.

At the end of the day whether you replace two tyres at a time or 4 at a time it costs the same. Replacing 4 tyres at the same time will give the car more balanced handling.

As I've never done a huge amount of mileage in the winter, my directional tyres are never all that far different from each other so I just rotate the tyres front to rear so that the wear is evened out as much as possible.

 

[frupi]

Yes, I'm sure any vehicle with similar tread depth all round will give much better handling, but seeing as up until the end of last year where I was doing 25k a year on our superbly cared for roads for almost 22 years, I never really noticed a huge difference personally. Certainly can't argue the fact that whether you replace just two at a time or all four together will ultimately cost the same, but my wallet don't like doin four at the same time......

 

[306maxi]

I suspect you'll find that your 500 is a little different to your Cadillac. Whilst I wouldn't say 500's are harsh on their front tyres by any means, they're certainly harder on them than the rear tyres.

Of course putting the two new tyres on the rear is definitely the right way to go if you choose to only replace two tyres. Nothing wrong as such with just replacing two, I was just saying it costs the same and of course you have to make two trips rather than just the one

 

[frupi]

Of course, 'tis a learning curve concerning the 500, however, my wife is the main driver and she is oh so very sensible! It fuddles my head when I've driven the 500 and then drive my Caddy afterward, after all, the Cadillac is twice the length and probably weighs twice as much and is almost twice as fast lol! I will however keep a good eye on the tyres on the 500 as my wife probably won't!

 

[306maxi]

Of course, 'tis a learning curve concerning the 500, however, my wife is the main driver and she is oh so very sensible! It fuddles my head when I've driven the 500 and then drive my Caddy afterward, after all, the Cadillac is twice the length and probably weighs twice as much and is almost twice as fast lol! I will however keep a good eye on the tyres on the 500 as my wife probably won't!

It is very hard when you've got two very different cars. We've got the 500 and a Subaru Legacy Turbo. 500 is a shopping trolley and the Subaru goes like **** off a shovel.