Tire Gauges
Your car’s performance can vary a lot depending on the pressure in your car’s tires. Not only does low, or excessive pressure in the tires make the car consume more gas, it also increases drag, while reducing comfort as a tire without adequate air in it is much more likely to bump and bounce off the road.
Maintaining proper tire pressure, therefore, becomes very important if you want to extract the best performance from your car. Don’t worry; doing so is very straightforward and something anybody without any experience in dealing with cars can do easily.
First, get a tire pressure gauge. Also called tire gauges, these are devices that measure the air pressure inside your car tires. These can be either analog or digital in nature. Ideally, you should invest in a digital tire gauge as these tend to be much more accurate than their analog counterparts.
Next, connect your tire gauge to your car tire’s air valve. You should hear a hissing sound and the LCD screen (or needle, if you’re using an analog gauge) will display the air pressure in the tire.
Consult your car’s manual to find out the recommended air pressure for your car’s tires. Compare this with the reading you just took. In most cases, the air pressure is lower than the recommended setting. However, sometimes, the tires might even be over inflated and the reading will be higher than the recommended setting. In case of the former, attach a air pump to the air valve of the tire to get the pressure to the recommended value. In case of the latter, pull the air valve until you hear a hissing sound of air coming out of the tire and the air pressure reducing to the ideal level.
Measure the air pressure in the tires once again using your tire gauge. If it matches the settings recommended by your car manufacturer, then congrats, you’ve successfully set the correct tire pressure in your car tires! If not, increase or decrease air pressure accordingly.
A couple of tips when setting the air pressure:
1. Air pressure is measured in PSI – Pounds per Square Inch. The standard air pressure for most car tires is 32 PSI. It may, of course, differ based on your car’s make or model.
2. If you are using one of those electric air pumps commonly found at gas stations, you should know that they pump out air at the rate of 1 PSI/second. This means that if you want to increase your tire’s pressure by 5 PSI, you’ll need to keep the pump attached to the tire for a total of 5 seconds.