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Checking and filling your tire pressure may be more important than you think. Too many people don't check their tire pressure, but it's very important, especially if you're a ride share driver or you use your car for work. Here's why it's important. Whether the tires are under inflated or whether they're over inflated, it could compromise the handling of the vehicle, which could cause a safety issue. If you're driving down the road, especially at highway speeds, it could pull you off the road and could cause an accident. Low tire pressure can even affect your fuel economy. It's going to cause the engine and transmission to have to work harder and cause more of a drag on the vehicle. In the end, it's going to cost you even more money because your tires are going to wear out faster.
It's always a good idea every day, before you even drive your car, to walk around and look at the tires and see if they actually look flat. But keep in mind, if you have run flat tires, you're not going to be able to tell. And don't assume that because a tire looks inflated, it actually is. Obviously, if your tire looks like this, don't drive your vehicle.
You may see on the side of the tire where it actually says the max pressure. This one says 51 PSI. You don't want to fill the tires up to that. That's just the max pressure for the tire, not what's recommended for the vehicle. This is where you find the recommended tire pressure. Open the door. On some vehicles, it'll be right here. On some vehicles, it'll be on the actual door. For this vehicle, it is 33 PSI for the front and 33 PSI for the rear. It also gives you a spare tire pressure of 60 PSI. So that's what you want to inflate your tires to.
It's always a good idea to have a tire gauge in your glove box so that you can check your tires on a regular basis. You want to make sure that the tires have cooled down when you go to check them. You don't want to have just gotten off the highway. If the tires are heated up, that's going to cause the pressure to go up, and it's not going to be an accurate reading. So what we can do is take the cap off, find the valve stem, take the tire gauge, press it on, seal it, and then check the tire pressure itself. This tire is set to 36 PSI, which in the winter months is okay for this vehicle, about 3 PSI more than what is specified on the door. In the winter time, the tires don't get as hot. They're not going to expand as much, and they're not going to increase in pressure. In the summertime, you want it closer to 33 PSI.
If you had to lower the pressure, on the back side of the tire gauge there's a little U button. What you can do is put it right up to the valve stem and push right in the center of the valve stem. It doesn't take much to drop it. Right there, it dropped about 2 lb, and it was only 2 or 3 seconds.
To inflate the tires, it's going to be similar to checking them. You want to take the tire inflator, push it tight on the valve stem so you don't hear any leaking, and then inflate the tire. Then you can recheck it with the gauge. Just check the pressure. It's a little bit too high, so we can lower it again. And that's right where we want to be. Make sure you put your cap back on, because it's going to keep the dust and dirt out of the valve stem.
Modern vehicles have tire pressure monitors. Some of them use a sensor in the actual tire, and some of them use the ABS system to tell that the tire is going low. Certain vehicles will actually show you the tire pressure on the dash and tell you the location of each tire. More basic systems will just tell you that one of the tires is low, and you have to figure it out for yourself. So if you go around, fill all your tires, they're at the proper pressure, and the lights are still on, the system may need to be reset, or it could mean that you have bad tire pressure monitors. Most of the time, the monitors only last about 8 years. There are batteries in them, and they die.
So keep your vehicle safe, save some money, and check your tire pressures. If this video helped you out, please consider subscribing. Thanks for watching. Visit oneauto.com, your place for DIY auto repairs, for great parts, great service, and more content.