What tyre pressure?

neilmcl

MinuteNoodles said:

fred246 said:

The garages just guess. If I have a tyre fitted I always check the pressures when I get home. They are always nowhere near what they should be. Always well underinflated.

No they don't. There's the plate on the vehicle driver's door pillars that say what it is, they usually also have a large chart on the wall.

More nonsense from our resident clueless.

If they're always well underinflated you might want to double check that mickey mouse pound shop tyre pressure gauge you're using you bought back in 1970.

Just because they have the information to hand doesn't mean they use it. I've sat and watched tyres being fitted in some of these bigger places and never once saw the fitter check what the pressures should be, they simply made a guess based on what they've done previously, and guess what they were wrong. They seem to assume that most tyres are around 32psi and tend to set it at that, no matter what car you have. As I said earlier, it's extremely rare in my own experience that tyre pressure have been set correctly which is why I always double check when I get the car back home.

I'm sad to say but I'm with Fred on this one.

Laurence_Harvey

neilmcl said:

MinuteNoodles said:

fred246 said:

The garages just guess. If I have a tyre fitted I always check the pressures when I get home. They are always nowhere near what they should be. Always well underinflated.

No they don't. There's the plate on the vehicle driver's door pillars that say what it is, they usually also have a large chart on the wall.

More nonsense from our resident clueless.

If they're always well underinflated you might want to double check that mickey mouse pound shop tyre pressure gauge you're using you bought back in 1970.

Just because they have the information to hand doesn't mean they use it. I've sat and watched tyres being fitted in some of these bigger places and never once saw the fitter check what the pressures should be, they simply made a guess based on what they've done previously, and guess what they were wrong. They seem to assume that most tyres are around 32psi and tend to set it at that, no matter what car you have. As I said earlier, it's extremely rare in my own experience that tyre pressure have been set correctly which is why I always double check when I get the car back home.

I'm sad to say but I'm with Fred on this one.

Notwithstanding accurate charts/tables it’s only possible for a tyre fitter to inflate the new tyre to the ‘correct’ pressure if they know the ‘load’ profile of your car,...and they can only glean that information from the customer.

The recommended tyre pressures for my car vary from 35psi  to 48psi. i.e. Normal light load: Front & Rear both 35psi...Heavy load: Front 43psi & Rear 48psi.

I always proactively tell the fitters exactly what pressure I’d like in  replacement tyres,...I’ve no idea whether they would normally take the initiative  and ask me what pressure I’d like because I always get in there first, so to speak.

If a fitter (using accurate charts/tables) guessed at ‘38psi’ as the correct pressure for my tyres I could, depending on ‘load’, end up with an overinflated front tyre or a seriously underinflated rear tyre.