Check your Tire Pressures!

[KSNeptune]

I know this has been mentioned before, but thought it would be a great reminder for new owners.I've had my Vibe since Nov 12th, and although the car bounced pretty good over road cracks and such, I attributed it to tight suspention and low profile tires. But today I bough a digital tire guage at WalGreens, and thought I'd try it out on my Vibe's tires.Every tire had at least 40lbs in them.I understand this is done at the factory so the cars will attach more securely to the carrier during transport to the dealers. When the car is prepared for you before you drive off with it, it is one of the things the service dept or the salesman should check. Mine didn't. They're gonna get scored down a bit for that mistake.Check your tire pressure. My car says mine should be at 32lbs. My tires say they should be at 32lbs. My tires are now at 32lbs. PS.. Smoothed the ride out nicely! KSNeptune.[Modified by KSNeptune, 6:08 PM 12/7/2002][Modified by KSNeptune, 6:09 PM 12/7/2002]
[Modified by KSNeptune, 6:10 PM 12/7/2002]

[Vibe]

Exact same thing happened to me.......................

[m4VibeGT]

Same thing here. I took it for granted that dealer prep would have checked the tire pressures. A month after taking delivery, I checked the tire pressures and they were at 38 psi.

[Flip-Side]

All very true. I too drove off with my tires like this, but I had the fronts at 42 psi and the rears at 39. Way too high. When I brought them down they rode much nicer and even quieted the road noise a bit. Sorry to see this is such a common occurance. Dealers today suck! Haven't had super good service since my Saturn at their dealership.
[Modified by Flip-Side, 12:45 AM 12/8/2002]

[camthecanuck]

Thanks for a good tip. Will check it out.

[slbpsi63]

I've been having trouble with my tires in the Rain, maybe thats what is wrong. I will check it out. Thanks for the hint.

[vibegirl]

About the rain...same here. I feel like I am going to slide all over the place and it sucks! I'll check the tire pressure ASAP.

[Triton]

I will definately be checking my tire pressure this afternoon. Thanks for the tip!

[Fast Eddie]

Mine were at 38 psi, and I had the car for about a month before I checked it thanks to this post. Now their at a smoooooth 32psi. Thanks again for the tip.

[PBFlash]

How about this:I have Nitto 225/40 ZR18 s on my car. They all looked fine. Since Pontiac doesn't show what the psi should be on these tires I went to Nitto's website. They said the tires should be at 50 psi. I got a digital pressure gauge for Christmas. I checked my tires. All of them were approximately 25 psi. Even though they all looked OK, they were only at half the pressure they should be. I filled them all to exactly 50 psi and the difference is incredible.

[MadBill]

Are you sure Nitto did'nt say the MAXIMUM was 50 psi? The load capacity of a 225 is more than that of the stock 205 or 215 tire (see the excellent tech info on The Tire Rack's site), and so could likely operate safely at no more than the standard 32 psi (which is not to say this would be the perfect pressure for best handling and/or ride) Apart from handling, with 50 psi doesn't it ride like it was wearing concrete boots?

[NovaResource]

I agree. 50psi seems way too high.

[PBFlash]

50 is the maximum pressure. I have not been able to find any info on what they should be at on the Vibe. I'll check out tirerack and see what I can find there. I'll try to contact Nitto and see what they recommend as well.

[Sub-Vibe-R]

quote:they will tell you to follow what the owner manual says but not exceed the max PSI written on the tire!Wow, I like to get an answer like that ( sic) It is like the answer, put them just enough but not too much. What is "just enough"?? For me a clear answer is 32 PSI. Clear, isn't it?

[PBFlash]

I am going to lower it down to 32 and see how it goes. I thought that it should be higher for the 18's. I figured that 50 was too high.

[dennisdrive]

Hi there ;I got a new vibe just 1 month back and i read your tips ; thanks and i immediately bought a tire pressure guage and checked the pressure ;it was 32psi on 3 tires and left rear had 20 so i inflated it to 32 . I wanted to clarify something , on the tire it says 44 psi max cold load ,so should i inflate all the tires to 44 .Pls advice .Thank you .William

[ragingfish]

No! That's a common misconception. While the tire is designed to handle a max load of 44 psi, you should ALWAYS inflate your tires to the manufacturer's recommended tire pressure. This pressure is found on a label both on the driver's door jamb as well as in the glove box. For the 03 and 04 models it was 32 psi...I'm assuming it's the same for 05 as well...More info is available here: http://www.tiresafety.com/service/serv_nav1b.htm

[JohnC]

It is too bad the dealers do not take care of this before we drive off with our new cars. I wonder what "dealer prep" really is.

[dennisdrive]

dennisdrive (7:57 PM 1/29/2005): Thanks for the advice and the clarification; i will look up the recommended pressure on the label on the driver's door jamb .But i think it will be 32psi since mine is a 2004 vibe ,and you also say so .Thanks again

[scott_h]

Whad'ya know - just went out to check after reading this thread, and 37 all around. We just got it yesterday, so only two days of driving on them though...Thanks for the tip!

[wolfsburg_de]

I just ran out to the garage and checked the pressure in our 2-day-old Vibe and it looks like our dealer was more conscientious than most. The fronts are 32.5 lb and the rears are 32.0 lb.

[Mase]

Don't forget to check the SPARE TIRE as well. It's supposed to be inflated to 60psi.I've only had my car for a year and I got a flat a coule weeks ago. I put the spare on and the car slouched way down when I took it off the jack. The spare only had 36psi in it. Luckily I only had to drive a mile before filling it up.

[kcinmi]

Ive had my 2004 for almost a year now. Just something I always do when I buy a car, when I get it home I check everything myself, oil, coolant, tires, etc. Mine were at 44 all the way around. The dealer got a call on that one.

[Zig in East Orleans]

Good point about the spare!Also, all these posts are occuring in the winter months, remember to check them as the temperature rises cuz sure enuf, simple physics will demonstrate that the pressure will go up a fair bit as the temp rises.I have the habit of checking mine every few weeks (as we all should) and they were all hovering around 38!btw, remember that the correct pressure will save your tire, give you better handling and increase fuel efficiency. I remember seeing a great US ad showing oil spew out of an underinflated tire, they should make this a regular ad and Canada should have it too. I'm convinced if we all checked and maintained our tire pressure, we'd help reduce our fuel consumption considerably.ps. thank you America for your SUVs, Alaska will never be the same.

[remusrm]

well, i notice my car leaned more and drove slower and my milage slipped. well my car had all around about 29psi, and my right front tire was 31. well. i pumped them to 33 psi. huge difference and the car rides smother and more secure and rolls better...

[Zig in East Orleans]

Absolutely,it's amazing how much just a couple of psi off will make a difference. I recall how my father would change his psi in his tires of his FF1600 race car by just a lb or 2 and wondered if it really made the difference. It did!

[SilverExpress]

I just picked up these neat valve caps that have a built in pressure indicator. Let's you know whether your 10 psi below the recommended tire pressure.http://www.victorautomotive.net/pdfs/vic/vth3.pdfBy the way, running your tires at the maximum rated pressure will only accelerate the wear of the tread going down the middle. Think about it, at maximum air pressure the tire will balloon out. It may not look it, but the highest pressure will be directly down the middle of the tire. It'll be the pressure pushing right down against the road. The recommended setting will allow the tire to spread that pressure over a greater contact patch. Thus the tire will experience more even wear. Running at the maximum pressure will gain you one thing....higher mpg, but again this is at the risk of uneven and accelerated tread wear down the middle.

[utahindie]

This is a highly violate topic for alot of people, but dont be too harsh on the mechanics doing the pre-delivery inspections. If the tire pressure were to be around 55 - 60psi that means the tech didnt change the pressure. They ship at around that psi. Most tech's i know leave them a little bit higher (40 - 44) so the customer can set the pressure they want without having to ADD psi. I personally run my 17's at 40psi because they were wearing too fast on the outer edge. My personal recommendation is to run your PSI at about 3psi higher then what the door sticker says, especially after they are warm! (2-3miles of driving) So if it says 32 then run them at about 35, if it says 29 run them at 32, so on so forth. They will wear the MOST even at that PSI and ive been working on tires for a solid 7 years now.(Not like that is alot to some people) I definatly recommend checking the tire pressure yourself though. Even after an oil change from the dealer! And while you get services done try to hang out and talk with the tech. If at all possible be as friendly as you can - If it is a decent dealer they should bend over backwards to help you if you are!! And look at the car yourself. Look for nails. Uneven tirewear. Ask questions! Somebody will answer them even if the tech cannot!Checking your spare is sometime quite a number of people do not do. It is quite time consuming most of the time. Unless specifically asked, it is not a common practice at ANY shop. Even i rarely check my own spare tire even though i know better.

[remusrm]

Quote, originally posted by Zig in East Orleans »Good point about the spare!Also, all these posts are occuring in the winter months, remember to check them as the temperature rises cuz sure enuf, simple physics will demonstrate that the pressure will go up a fair bit as the temp rises.I have the habit of checking mine every few weeks (as we all should) and they were all hovering around 38!btw, remember that the correct pressure will save your tire, give you better handling and increase fuel efficiency. I remember seeing a great US ad showing oil spew out of an underinflated tire, they should make this a regular ad and Canada should have it too. I'm convinced if we all checked and maintained our tire pressure, we'd help reduce our fuel consumption considerably.ps. thank you America for your SUVs, Alaska will never be the same.i agree with this one. i am from EU and almost everyone there hates the americans for their SUV and wastefull spending...

[DaddyVibeMI]

Thank very much to bring this up. I will try remember to check tires before driveoff dealer driveway in few days or week. This is very helpful tips.

[gregoire]

yes, this is an old thread, but it still holds true. my '05 vibe had tire pressure around 40 PSI all around

[binary]

Quote, originally posted by gregoire »yes, this is an old thread, but it still holds true. my '05 vibe had tire pressure around 40 PSI all aroundHa, you're lucky - Starting at the left front going clockwise from the dealer - 50, 48, 32, 30I was mad as hell - but only drove about 30 miles before I could tell something was eff'ed up on it. Brought them all to 32 the next morning and it drove like a dream.Checked the wife's tires and they were all 45. Damn dealers...

[mcgusto82]

funny thing. my tires on the left side are at 36psi. my tires on the right side are at 32 psi. i've noticed a little pulling on the steering. i have to go ahead inflate the right side.

[zionzr2]

Quote, originally posted by mcgusto82 »funny thing. my tires on the left side are at 36psi. my tires on the right side are at 32 psi. i've noticed a little pulling on the steering. i have to go ahead inflate the right side. actually you should deflate the leftside to 32!!you will get uneaven wear on your tires!!

[mcgusto82]

i get better mileage with 36psi. since i've had the car, i've kept the press at 36. no uneven wear. either way i'm getting a new set of rims and tires.

[djpositivek]

Mine were set to 38psiJust got the car on Friday. Lowered to 32 and we'll see how that works out.Thanks for the tip.

[mkviber]

Mine were set to 40.5, thanks for the reminder. Alot smoother now at 34.

[Zorren]

Thanks for the reminder. I went out checked the tires right after i read this and mine were at 41psi. Lowered them down to 32. I also ran out and got a digital tire pressure gage.

[joatmon]

While this thread is primarly about checking your tire pressure when you take delivery of the new car, it had such an apporpriate title that I had to bump it to post a reminder that tire pressure also changes with the ambient weather, so now is a good time to check them.With colder weather here where I live, my tires were all down to about 25 PSI, so I brought them up to standard 32 PSI.

[MadBill]

With temperatures dropping, it's usually good to go a couple of pounds high, in anticipation...

[ragingfish]

I checked the tire pressures on my mom's grand prix today...all were low - one tire was almost 7 pounds too low!Definitely make sure you check them once a month, if not once a week!

[thegr8bass]

I thought I was the only one. My tires, however, just 4 days after picking her up at the stealership were at 24 up front and 26 in the back. I though they were slow leaks.... by they are still at 32 (5000 kms later - and in storage for a month still on rims because I installed my new winter tires). That lovely little dealer satifaction survey came in mail the other day... time to fill it out. I just hope this is not a forecast of future service from this dealer. If they forget important stuff like tire pressure, imagine what they'll do if they change the oil... forget the filter? I am doing everything myself, unless I don't have the appropriate tools of expertise.

[Whelan]

For my AWD Trix it is 35 front and 32.5 rear. So when I rotate I have to adjust them or the TPMS light goes off.

[Sublimewind]

I use tire pressure to "adjust" the handling of my car often times... Higher pressure in the rear of a FWD car will help reduce understeer in many cases, allowing the back tires to slide (due to crowning of the tread, less grip, more "slide")Alternately, on a RWD car, you can lower the tire pressure in the rear to allow for more grip in the rean and reducing oversteer... I often keep my tires at more like 36psi because I like a "tight" ride, which would be easier to do if I had more rim and less tire.. I don't so I make up for it with a little (not a lot) more pressure.... ALSO don't forget, that your 32psi COLD pressure is going to be more like 36-38psi WARM....!!!