Fuel Economy Tip - Proper Tire Pressure
Make sure that your vehicle's tires are inflated properly.
According to AAA, driving with under inflated tires can reduce your vehicle's gas mileage and fuel efficiency by up to 2% which, for a $3.00 gallon of gas, causes you to lose $.06 per gallon.
The reason under inflated tires reduce gas mileage is because they are less "round" than properly inflated tires. Due to being less round, under inflated tires require more energy to begin moving and to maintain speed.
I like to check my vehicle's tire pressure at least once a month, usually when I'm already at a gas station, so that if I have to add any air, I can go ahead and use the gas station's air pump.
You should be able to find the proper tire pressure in your vehicle's owner's manual. If you can't find it there, check on the driver's side door.
posted by Brian Carr at 6:16 PM
7 Comments:
Great tips!!! As always, your dedication to every venture you pursue shows in this site!!!
Tricia
Are you going to add a link so that I can subscribe to this site???
This is wrong. You need to check your tire pressure when it's cold. As you run the car, the tires get hot and the pressure inside your tires increase. So, if you check your pressure at the pump (I'm assuming at this time your tire is already increases by about 1 or 2 psi), then when you fill/deflate to the recommended tire pressure (which you look at the driver side inside wall) it's actually less than the recommended.
This is important because if you don't check the pressure at cold tire, you're most likely underinflating your tire; therefore, loosing mpg.
I haven't seen anything regarding the PSI increase, but assuming that's true, most people don't have an air compressor at home, and it's probably best to check the tire pressure just before you add air.
I don't know how long it takes a tire to warm up enough to increase the PSI by 1 or 2 pounds, but if you go straight from home, work, etc. to the station to add air, I would assume the pressure wouldn't have increased enough to cause a misread.
Here is an excerpt from my car's manual:
Caution: Always observe the following:
Check pressures when the tires are cold. That is, after the car has been parked for at least three hours and hasn't been driven more than one mile or 1.6km since starting up.
Checking the pressure when the tire is cold is also recommended by cars.com (http://www.cars.com/carsapp/national/?szc=60657&srv=parser&act=display&tf=/advice/caradviser/tire_pressure.tmpl)
Hope this helps people since "lower-than-recommended tire pressures cause uneven tread wear and poor handling." (2004 Elantra Owner's Manual)
Thanks for the update regarding when to check your tire pressure. Hopefully people will see this and remember to check their tire pressure BEFORE heading to the air pump.
While it is true that the correct air pressure for the stock tires of your vehicle can be found either in the owners manual or inside the door, replacement tires may call for different pressure. I recently replaced my tires, and the new ones call for 12 PSI more than the old ones. Check the sidewall of your new tires or with your dealer.
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