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Tire inflation
GurtPerk
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Hey, everyone. In light of so many car troubled questions, I'd like to ask a couple of my own. I'm not very knowledgable with cars so when I borrowed one to commute to school that's far away, there were lots of questions at first since I was barely used to it at the time; many of these questions I've had resolved or understand them enough to get by.
The car I'm borrowing now is a '98 or '99 white VW Jetta. I go through a lot of back routes and bumps to get to where I need to go so the roads are not so leanent to my tires. Anyways, the front left tire looked low one day so I began to fill it up with air at the local gas station. Thing is, there is a metal gauge that sticks out with numbers and markings on how inflated the tires are. I have no idea what these numbers mean or what the average number I'm supposed to have on all four tires.
I guess my question would be just that. How much air is enough to put into a tire? If it looks like only one needs it, do you just put air in that one or distribute the air evenly to all four tires?
Also, as one more serious question but may be too serious to fix myself, is with the brakes. The brakes on one end of the car, the front left, seem to make this new noise when stopping on inclines or on level ground. I play music over the sound usually, but I was wondering if anyone had an idea what may causing it. The brakes work fine, stop on a dime still, but it's just the sound I'm concerned about.
Thanks.
The car I'm borrowing now is a '98 or '99 white VW Jetta. I go through a lot of back routes and bumps to get to where I need to go so the roads are not so leanent to my tires. Anyways, the front left tire looked low one day so I began to fill it up with air at the local gas station. Thing is, there is a metal gauge that sticks out with numbers and markings on how inflated the tires are. I have no idea what these numbers mean or what the average number I'm supposed to have on all four tires.
I guess my question would be just that. How much air is enough to put into a tire? If it looks like only one needs it, do you just put air in that one or distribute the air evenly to all four tires?
Also, as one more serious question but may be too serious to fix myself, is with the brakes. The brakes on one end of the car, the front left, seem to make this new noise when stopping on inclines or on level ground. I play music over the sound usually, but I was wondering if anyone had an idea what may causing it. The brakes work fine, stop on a dime still, but it's just the sound I'm concerned about.
Thanks.
GurtPerk on
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Is the break noise just squeaking?
As for the brakes, if they're making a noise (like squeaking), it means the pads are worn and should be flipped or replaced. Again, not your problem (but tell the owner they need their brakes done if it is indeed squeaking).
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Erm, no.
The tire sidewall lists the maximum safe pressure and driving at or above this number for extended periods of time can cause tire damage. You should always use the manufacturer reccomended pressure listed on the door jamb since that's calculated to give you the best fuel mileage, comfort and tire wear. This applies even to replacement tires, unless you've installed some rubber bands on some chrome dubz rather than the stock size on stock wheels. Finally, many cars have different psi
Requirements for front and back tires due to the same reasons! So don't just inflate to 34 and call it a day. Spend the extra 30 seconds to read the door jamb.
If you drive with underinflated tires, you will get increased tire wear and lower mpg. Overinflated tires will give you a harsher ride.
Yes, there are some exceptions like autocrossing where some people put 50 psi per tire, or drag racing where you purposely underinflate, but for someone just commuting in a jetta, they don't apply!
Wtf, don't tell me you don't use nitrogen in your tires?!? But the molecules! THE MOLECULES!
Seriously tho. It takes the exact same amount of time to fill up to some made up psi, as it does to fill it up to the proper pressure.
My previous car required 24 psi front and 18 psi back. Another one wanted 26 front, 22 back. I really thing that It's worth the 30 seconds of your time to read the door jamb, just to have better mpg and a more comfortable ride.
But no, most people just stick the air hose on and overfill. And then people like my parents bitch that their brand new tires howl at highway speeds, or wear down the sides and have to be replaced every 20K miles.
Anyway, sorry for the rant. It's your car and you should do what you want with it.
Overfilling would wear the middle of the tread faster, not the outside. Hard cornering will round off the outside corners of the front tires, but no as quickly if you run the front tires a couple pounds harder than recommended. Underinflation is a safety-concern, underinflation is what causes tread-seperations (Ford Explorers do not cause tread-seperations, idiots who drive their tires half-filled on the interstate cause tread-seperations). My Camaro had three sets of tires and each set asked for a different tire-pressure. The car came with Eagle GTIIs that wanted something like 34 psi, those were almost bald when I got it though so I switched them for Potenza RE910s which wanted something like 28 but I ran them at 32 as the car was more stable in corners that way. The Cooper Cobras I bought because one of the Potenzas suffered sidewall damage only wanted like 24 pounds and couldn't grip for shit no matter how much or how little air I put in them. None of these tires were low profile, the closest were the Eagle GT-IIs which were 245/50/16.