Low Carbon Diet - Is Your Car Physically Fit?

Here are tips on checking your tire pressure

How do you determine the correct tire pressure for your car’s tires?
A lot of people check the pressure listed on the tires themselves, but that’s actually the wrong place to look. The number on the tire is the maximum allowable air pressure — not the recommended pressure for that tire when used on your vehicle.

The recommended tire pressure is almost always lower than the maximum tire pressure. Check your owner’s manual to find out where to look on your vehicle to find the recommended measurement. This number usually is indicated either on the driver’s door pillar, the glove compartment door or sometimes on the gas filler door.

Once you know the manufacturer’s recommended tire pressure, then you need an accurate tire gauge to check the tire pressure. Some tire gauges, such as the popular pencil-style gauge, are notoriously inaccurate. Analog, dial-type gauges or digital gauges tend to be fairly accurate.

And when should you check the tire pressure? You should check it when the tire is “cold.” That doesn’t mean you need to move to International Falls, Minn., to check your tire pressure. “Cold,” in this sense, simply means that your tires are at air temperature. You can check tire pressure any time of the day, as long as the tires have been sitting for a few hours or haven’t been driven for more than a few miles. In other words, you can drive to the gas station a few blocks away and ask them to check the pressure, but don’t expect to pull off the highway after driving for an hour and expect to get an accurate reading.

Car Talk Tip: Check your tire pressure even if your tires “look fine.” Radial tires can be deceiving (they’re sneaky little guys). They may look fine even when they’re down 10 pounds of air — or overinflated by 10 pounds. So don’t trust your eyes — use your gauge.