Tire pressure??????

[CraigMBA]

Then can anyone explain the increase in gas mileage from upping th PSI to 44?

Easy. They have less rolling resistance, ergo, have less parasitic losses and need less horsepower to move the car at the same speed. The question should be "is it worth the trade off?"

There is no more complex device on any vehicle than the tires. It controls braking, acceleration, ride, static and transient cornering, and noise.

And everybody wants to buy the cheapest piece of $%^ they can for their family, and then ignore them. Meh.

 

[10secgoal]

I would go about 30 - 32psi, and that might by a little hi

I only run them that high at the the track when racing. Less resistance for more MPH. Air them down when I go home. But they haven't popped yet.

 

[bnickel]

i've always subscribed to this theory; about 5 psi more in the front tires that the rear tires, 32 psi is too low for anything other than ride quality and 50 psi is too high for a passenger car tire. anything in between is fair game and testing under different conditions to achieve the best attributes of the tire is best for any individual car and owner.

that said, i generally start around 35 psi in the rear and 38-40 psi in the front and go from there, checking mileage and tire wear as i go and prolonging tread life as much as possible by rotating the tires every 5k miles.

 

[BlwnGazkit]

i've always subscribed to this theory; about 5 psi more in the front tires that the rear tires, 32 psi is too low for anything other than ride quality and 50 psi is too high for a passenger car tire. anything in between is fair game and testing under different conditions to achieve the best attributes of the tire is best for any individual car and owner.

that said, i generally start around 35 psi in the rear and 38-40 psi in the front and go from there, checking mileage and tire wear as i go and prolonging tread life as much as possible by rotating the tires every 5k miles.

That's exactly the sort of answer I was looking for, not just being told to run what every other car runs...

 

[bnickel]

That's exactly the sort of answer I was looking for, not just being told to run what every other car runs...

thanks, i've always it found it worked well for me. this is the combo i used to run in my little 78 mustang, with 4 cylinder auto trans, ps and ac (read dog)
44 front and 42 rear, mileage went up more than 5mpg, acceleration was better and so was handling, i honestly couldn't tell any difference in the ride quality except when hitting potholes or really, really rough roads and even then it wasn't much worse than lower PSI. i ran 215/60-13 on 13x6 ET hurricanes.


i really loved that little car and am still bummed that it got totalled by a flatbed that ran a stop sign and T-boned me, that's also what caused my back problems but that's another story.