by Mo Bruce

Created on: December 24, 2009

Your car’s tyre pressure is something that is too easy to overlook.   Most of the time we just take a bit of a look around the car, and if the tyres are vaguely circular with no obvious flat bits, that does us.    The problem is, if you continually wait until your tyre looks soft before you check the pressure, then you’re reducing the life of your tyres.

It is recommended that you should check your tyre pressure once a week.   So off you set to the petrol station with the thought of checking your tyres.   Unfortunately, especially in winter, the thought of mucking about with a dirty compressed air machine in the forecourt can put you off.

Well if you want to save a bit of money by reducing the wear on your tyres, and be safer on the road, get those tyres checked.   The gauges on the petrol station air machines are notoriously inaccurate.   You should really buy yourself a little hand held tyre pressure gauge.   They are cheap to buy, accurate, and will help you get into the habit of paying attention to your car’s tyres condition.

Another reason for purchasing your own gauge is that you should check the tyre pressure with the tyre cold.   The air in your tyre heats up as you drive, and as we all know, hot air expands.   So taking a reading of the tyre pressure after you’ve driven for a while will give you a false reading.  

Every car nowadays has the tyre pressures listed on a little label, usually on the inside edge of the driver’s doorpost.   These labels list the pressure settings for a loaded and unloaded car.   If you are going to be carrying more people or stuff than usual, then you should adjust the tyre pressure to cope with the load.  The handling of a car changes with different loads on board and various tyre pressures, so you want to match them together.   You will feel the difference if you drive with the wrong pressure in your tyres.  

Check your tyres once a week before you set off to fill your car’s fuel tank, and remember to do it while the tyres are cold.   That way you know how much air you need to pop into each tyre.   Once you get to the petrol station and have inflated your tyres, just check the pressure again using your own gauge.

If you don’t trust your local petrol station’s tyre inflating machine, then think about purchasing your own little air compressor.   They don’t cost much money these days, and are pretty powerful for their size.   It’s also a lot more comfortable on a winter’s morning to check the pressure in the comfort of your own garage, than on a cold, miserable service station forecourt.

All of this may seem to be a bit fussy, but as stated, the accuracy of the garage machines can be poor.   It is also not unknown for the gauges to fail completely, leaving you in the dark as to how much air is actually going into your tyre.

Don’t forget to check the air in your spare tyre at the same time.   Most spare tyres don’t see the light of day from one year to another.   The last thing you want to happen is that you get a flat tyre, and find the spare in a similar condition.

So check your tyres while they are cold, and use your own gauge both before and after inflating them.   Do this once a week whether the tyre looks as if it needs it or not.   Don’t forget to check the air pressure in the spare, and use the pressure that suits the load you are carrying.

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