Tire Pressure
03-24-2017, 01:07 AM
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 22
Tire Pressure
What tire pressure do you guys feel gives the best gas milage? I've been running cold at 31-32 and I feel my gas milage has dropped quite a bit compared to when it was at 35-36 at startup.
Last edited by ayee007; 03-24-2017 at 01:50 AM.
03-24-2017, 09:12 PM
#4
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Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: San Antonio, TX
Posts: 42
03-25-2017, 08:07 PM
#5
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: a meadow south of Atlanta
Posts: 8,143
The higher the tire pressure, the better the fuel efficiency. But excessively high psi has many drawbacks:
1 - Highly inflated tires wear out faster in the middle of the tread, requiring replacement while there is still lots of tread depth left near the edges.
2 - Excessively high pressure reduces the total area of the tire in contact with the road, slightly reducing stopping efficiency, as well as hindering certain other maneuvers.
3 - Excessively high pressure results in a less comfortable ride.
4 - Excessively high pressure can reduce the tire's ability to protect itself from some types of potholes by not allowing the tire to flex as much as it needs to.
5 - Excessively high psi can sometimes cause a car to bounce over road rills or humps instead of absorbing them. This can even cause loss of control at higher speeds.
There are other problems with excessively high tire pressure, but the ones I listed here are the ones that quickly came to mind.
There are also problems with using tire pressures below the recommended ones. Those are rather obvious.
I always choose a pressure no lower than the manufacturer recommends, but no higher than four pounds above that recommended pressure. Nissan recommends 33 psi on the 8th gen Maxima, and I carry 36 or 37 in the front tires and 35 in the rear tires. This means I adjust the psi every time I rotate the tires. I use those pressures because, owning only Maximas the last 33 years, I have found that those pressures give me the best control and best tire mileage.
But I only rotate the tires every 15, 000 miles, as I have found in almost 70 years of driving (yes, I am an old fart) that this results in even wear through the life of my tires, and greatly reduces frequency of problems that careless tire rotators cause. I could list those many problems, but it makes me ill just thinking back on how stupid and careless tire rotating folks can be.
But each person has to do what works best for them. I use psi to control the wear on my tires, but to do this optimally, I need to measure tread depth in each groove of each tire every three to six months or so to assure even wear. Many folks have no interest in such things. For those folks, I would suggest picking a psi between 33 and 36 and keeping all tires at that pressure. Having the psi displayed on the dash helps tremendously in maintaining correct pressure and detecting slow leaks very quickly.
1 - Highly inflated tires wear out faster in the middle of the tread, requiring replacement while there is still lots of tread depth left near the edges.
2 - Excessively high pressure reduces the total area of the tire in contact with the road, slightly reducing stopping efficiency, as well as hindering certain other maneuvers.
3 - Excessively high pressure results in a less comfortable ride.
4 - Excessively high pressure can reduce the tire's ability to protect itself from some types of potholes by not allowing the tire to flex as much as it needs to.
5 - Excessively high psi can sometimes cause a car to bounce over road rills or humps instead of absorbing them. This can even cause loss of control at higher speeds.
There are other problems with excessively high tire pressure, but the ones I listed here are the ones that quickly came to mind.
There are also problems with using tire pressures below the recommended ones. Those are rather obvious.
I always choose a pressure no lower than the manufacturer recommends, but no higher than four pounds above that recommended pressure. Nissan recommends 33 psi on the 8th gen Maxima, and I carry 36 or 37 in the front tires and 35 in the rear tires. This means I adjust the psi every time I rotate the tires. I use those pressures because, owning only Maximas the last 33 years, I have found that those pressures give me the best control and best tire mileage.
But I only rotate the tires every 15, 000 miles, as I have found in almost 70 years of driving (yes, I am an old fart) that this results in even wear through the life of my tires, and greatly reduces frequency of problems that careless tire rotators cause. I could list those many problems, but it makes me ill just thinking back on how stupid and careless tire rotating folks can be.
But each person has to do what works best for them. I use psi to control the wear on my tires, but to do this optimally, I need to measure tread depth in each groove of each tire every three to six months or so to assure even wear. Many folks have no interest in such things. For those folks, I would suggest picking a psi between 33 and 36 and keeping all tires at that pressure. Having the psi displayed on the dash helps tremendously in maintaining correct pressure and detecting slow leaks very quickly.
Last edited by lightonthehill; 03-25-2017 at 08:13 PM.
03-25-2017, 10:04 PM
#6
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2016
Posts: 22
The higher the tire pressure, the better the fuel efficiency. But excessively high psi has many drawbacks:
1 - Highly inflated tires wear out faster in the middle of the tread, requiring replacement while there is still lots of tread depth left near the edges.
2 - Excessively high pressure reduces the total area of the tire in contact with the road, slightly reducing stopping efficiency, as well as hindering certain other maneuvers.
3 - Excessively high pressure results in a less comfortable ride.
4 - Excessively high pressure can reduce the tire's ability to protect itself from some types of potholes by not allowing the tire to flex as much as it needs to.
5 - Excessively high psi can sometimes cause a car to bounce over road rills or humps instead of absorbing them. This can even cause loss of control at higher speeds.
There are other problems with excessively high tire pressure, but the ones I listed here are the ones that quickly came to mind.
There are also problems with using tire pressures below the recommended ones. Those are rather obvious.
I always choose a pressure no lower than the manufacturer recommends, but no higher than four pounds above that recommended pressure. Nissan recommends 33 psi on the 8th gen Maxima, and I carry 36 or 37 in the front tires and 35 in the rear tires. This means I adjust the psi every time I rotate the tires. I use those pressures because, owning only Maximas the last 33 years, I have found that those pressures give me the best control and best tire mileage.
But I only rotate the tires every 15, 000 miles, as I have found in almost 70 years of driving (yes, I am an old fart) that this results in even wear through the life of my tires, and greatly reduces frequency of problems that careless tire rotators cause. I could list those many problems, but it makes me ill just thinking back on how stupid and careless tire rotating folks can be.
But each person has to do what works best for them. I use psi to control the wear on my tires, but to do this optimally, I need to measure tread depth in each groove of each tire every three to six months or so to assure even wear. Many folks have no interest in such things. For those folks, I would suggest picking a psi between 33 and 36 and keeping all tires at that pressure. Having the psi displayed on the dash helps tremendously in maintaining correct pressure and detecting slow leaks very quickly.
1 - Highly inflated tires wear out faster in the middle of the tread, requiring replacement while there is still lots of tread depth left near the edges.
2 - Excessively high pressure reduces the total area of the tire in contact with the road, slightly reducing stopping efficiency, as well as hindering certain other maneuvers.
3 - Excessively high pressure results in a less comfortable ride.
4 - Excessively high pressure can reduce the tire's ability to protect itself from some types of potholes by not allowing the tire to flex as much as it needs to.
5 - Excessively high psi can sometimes cause a car to bounce over road rills or humps instead of absorbing them. This can even cause loss of control at higher speeds.
There are other problems with excessively high tire pressure, but the ones I listed here are the ones that quickly came to mind.
There are also problems with using tire pressures below the recommended ones. Those are rather obvious.
I always choose a pressure no lower than the manufacturer recommends, but no higher than four pounds above that recommended pressure. Nissan recommends 33 psi on the 8th gen Maxima, and I carry 36 or 37 in the front tires and 35 in the rear tires. This means I adjust the psi every time I rotate the tires. I use those pressures because, owning only Maximas the last 33 years, I have found that those pressures give me the best control and best tire mileage.
But I only rotate the tires every 15, 000 miles, as I have found in almost 70 years of driving (yes, I am an old fart) that this results in even wear through the life of my tires, and greatly reduces frequency of problems that careless tire rotators cause. I could list those many problems, but it makes me ill just thinking back on how stupid and careless tire rotating folks can be.
But each person has to do what works best for them. I use psi to control the wear on my tires, but to do this optimally, I need to measure tread depth in each groove of each tire every three to six months or so to assure even wear. Many folks have no interest in such things. For those folks, I would suggest picking a psi between 33 and 36 and keeping all tires at that pressure. Having the psi displayed on the dash helps tremendously in maintaining correct pressure and detecting slow leaks very quickly.
03-26-2017, 01:57 AM
#8
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: a meadow south of Atlanta
Posts: 8,143
dochidalgo and ayee007 - Thanks for the kind words. I sort of expected to see black helicopters over my home shortly after I posted that diatribe. Some folks here are quite sensitive as to exactly how things should be done. It is 'their way or the highway.' I know better than to tell someone they are doing things wrong.
I should have also mentioned that manufacturers give the recommended tire pressure for COLD tires. So This can be tricky. If we have to drive more than a half mile or so (even less distance in hot weather with hot pavement), we no longer have the same low pressure we measured in our garage.
When checking the pressure when the tires are cold, if they are low, I note by how many pounds each is low, then drive several miles to my nearest free air station, then check the tires again, and add exactly the number of pounds to each tire that matches how low the tire was when sitting cold in my garage. For example, if the tire was 30 lbs while cold in my garage, that is three pounds low. If that tire measures 34 pounds after I drive to the air-up station, I add three pounds to correspond to the amount it was low when cold. That now gives a reading of 37 pounds, BUT, the next morning, when I measure the cold tire in my garage, it should now read 33 pounds.
Another way - I check the tires when cold, and, if low, I go to the station and intentionally add clearly more air than is needed. Next morning, while the tires are cold in my garage, I carefully let air out until each tire is exactly the psi I want.
Those carrying nitrogen in their tires have a little more work to do when checking/adjusting tire pressure.
Just as info, I need a little higher psi in my front tires (36 lbs) than the recommended 33 because I do a lot of driving in subdivisions, looking at homes, and making many turns. Lots of turning tends to put more wear on the outside edges of the front tires, but having a little higher psi offsets this by making the sidewalls a tad stiffer, which moves a tad more weight to the center of the tread. If I was leaving for two weeks out west, I would drop the psi of the front tires to match the rear tires (35 for me), as constant driving on open roads with little turning tends to wear the center of the tread more than the outside portion, and reduced psi puts less wear on the center of the tread.
Today's tires are vastly superior to the bias ply tires I drove on in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Those tires required inner tubes until tubeless tires came out around 1960. Radials also came out in the 1960s, but I couldn't afford them at that time. The standard profile of tires in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s was 84. The first 'low profile' tires dropped the 84 profile to 75. That is a lot taller and narrower than the 45 and 40 profiles that we see on our Maximas.
I could tell some harrowing stories of blowouts at high speed, but I ramble. Blowouts are not very common these days anyway.
I should have also mentioned that manufacturers give the recommended tire pressure for COLD tires. So This can be tricky. If we have to drive more than a half mile or so (even less distance in hot weather with hot pavement), we no longer have the same low pressure we measured in our garage.
When checking the pressure when the tires are cold, if they are low, I note by how many pounds each is low, then drive several miles to my nearest free air station, then check the tires again, and add exactly the number of pounds to each tire that matches how low the tire was when sitting cold in my garage. For example, if the tire was 30 lbs while cold in my garage, that is three pounds low. If that tire measures 34 pounds after I drive to the air-up station, I add three pounds to correspond to the amount it was low when cold. That now gives a reading of 37 pounds, BUT, the next morning, when I measure the cold tire in my garage, it should now read 33 pounds.
Another way - I check the tires when cold, and, if low, I go to the station and intentionally add clearly more air than is needed. Next morning, while the tires are cold in my garage, I carefully let air out until each tire is exactly the psi I want.
Those carrying nitrogen in their tires have a little more work to do when checking/adjusting tire pressure.
Just as info, I need a little higher psi in my front tires (36 lbs) than the recommended 33 because I do a lot of driving in subdivisions, looking at homes, and making many turns. Lots of turning tends to put more wear on the outside edges of the front tires, but having a little higher psi offsets this by making the sidewalls a tad stiffer, which moves a tad more weight to the center of the tread. If I was leaving for two weeks out west, I would drop the psi of the front tires to match the rear tires (35 for me), as constant driving on open roads with little turning tends to wear the center of the tread more than the outside portion, and reduced psi puts less wear on the center of the tread.
Today's tires are vastly superior to the bias ply tires I drove on in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s. Those tires required inner tubes until tubeless tires came out around 1960. Radials also came out in the 1960s, but I couldn't afford them at that time. The standard profile of tires in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s was 84. The first 'low profile' tires dropped the 84 profile to 75. That is a lot taller and narrower than the 45 and 40 profiles that we see on our Maximas.
I could tell some harrowing stories of blowouts at high speed, but I ramble. Blowouts are not very common these days anyway.
Last edited by lightonthehill; 03-26-2017 at 02:01 AM.
03-26-2017, 10:11 AM
#9
Thanks a lot to you. Again, I appreciate your time, your kindly way to share the smart and practical procedure to measure the right tire pressure....I wonder what other points of view you have in other subjects, it will be comforting and intelligent to hear from you.
Have a nice weekend.
Have a nice weekend.
03-26-2017, 01:03 PM
#11
Lightonthehill is one of, if not the wisest person on this forum. I always read his posts. It comes with wisdom.
I bought my 2008 Maxima on July 4th, 2008. Brand new with 15 miles on it. And ever since I stumbled across his posts, I have always been reading his posts on the forum all the time. And I have used some of his advice.
All the knowledge I gained from this website has helped me in maintaining my Maxima which as of today has 211,600 miles and drives as good as a 2016 Platinum I test drove last year.
I was tempted about upgrading, but choosed against it because my 2008 Maxima handles like a champ. I will just drive it to the ground. So, instead of upgrading, I have a second vehicle; 2012 QX56.
Lightonthehill provides great insight. Learn from him..
Thanks again for all your great advice and knowledge on the forum..., @lightonthehill.
I bought my 2008 Maxima on July 4th, 2008. Brand new with 15 miles on it. And ever since I stumbled across his posts, I have always been reading his posts on the forum all the time. And I have used some of his advice.
All the knowledge I gained from this website has helped me in maintaining my Maxima which as of today has 211,600 miles and drives as good as a 2016 Platinum I test drove last year.
I was tempted about upgrading, but choosed against it because my 2008 Maxima handles like a champ. I will just drive it to the ground. So, instead of upgrading, I have a second vehicle; 2012 QX56.
Lightonthehill provides great insight. Learn from him..
Thanks again for all your great advice and knowledge on the forum..., @lightonthehill.
Last edited by PetitFrereMaxima; 03-27-2017 at 08:25 AM.
03-26-2017, 01:17 PM
#12
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Hilton Head Island, SC
Posts: 453
Discovered a feature the other day that I was unaware of. Came out to the car and the low pressure indicator was on for one of the tires. Took it to get air , set the pump at 33psi and proceeded to inflate. When the pressure reached 33 (the recommended level), the car horn beeped. I was a bit taken back, so I tried another tire and the same thing happened. And the hazards flashed. So of course, I checked the manual and sure enough, it is a feature on the car. I was definitely impressed. Still learning about the many features on this, my tenth Maxima over the past 28 years.
03-26-2017, 04:10 PM
#13
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: a meadow south of Atlanta
Posts: 8,143
Thanks for all the kind words. But do not assume I am up-to-date on all things Maxima. I am not. Even worse, I still have lots of junk clogging my head from Studebakers and Hudson Hornets and Cords and Auburns and the hand-crank start system of my Dad's old black late 1920s Ford and my Grandad's horse-drawn wagon. That wagon ran on hay, which the service stations did not carry. But that wagon had the first 'voice starter'. Grandpaw yelled his magic words and the wagon began to roll. With a 'gee' here and a 'haw' there, he always made it to town just fine. He said he was getting 20 miles per haybale.
If I sometimes slip back in time and begin explaining how to start a balky car by opening up the carb and pouring a splash of gas directly in, please immediately tell me that practice ended around fifty to sixty years ago.
One major difference in working on today's engines is that, when I dropped a wrench while working on a car from the forties or fifties, it always fell directly to the pavement with a clatter. With today's cars, a dropped wrench may be lost forever in the maze of stuff under the hood.
As jc53 said in his post just above this one, there are quite a few features on this 8th gen Maxima with which many posters are not yet aware. The Driver's Manual is chock full of them, but is just too lengthy to read all the way through. One by one, these features gradually get posted here, and they are always interesting. For instance, there may be some here who are not aware that this Maxima can be locked by the FOB from much farther then the manual states. I have, in a few situations, been able to lock my Maxima from almost 400 feet away. But I ramble as usual. The moderators may have to take a hand and take my keys away.
If I sometimes slip back in time and begin explaining how to start a balky car by opening up the carb and pouring a splash of gas directly in, please immediately tell me that practice ended around fifty to sixty years ago.
One major difference in working on today's engines is that, when I dropped a wrench while working on a car from the forties or fifties, it always fell directly to the pavement with a clatter. With today's cars, a dropped wrench may be lost forever in the maze of stuff under the hood.
As jc53 said in his post just above this one, there are quite a few features on this 8th gen Maxima with which many posters are not yet aware. The Driver's Manual is chock full of them, but is just too lengthy to read all the way through. One by one, these features gradually get posted here, and they are always interesting. For instance, there may be some here who are not aware that this Maxima can be locked by the FOB from much farther then the manual states. I have, in a few situations, been able to lock my Maxima from almost 400 feet away. But I ramble as usual. The moderators may have to take a hand and take my keys away.
03-27-2017, 04:27 AM
#14
I drank what?
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: EHT N.J.
Posts: 43
03-27-2017, 06:55 PM
#15
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: a meadow south of Atlanta
Posts: 8,143
I now remind my dealer every time I go there that I do not want the psi lowered from 36 to to 33 lbs, which, otherwise, they always do. I also have to remind them that I prefer washing my own car, otherwise, they invariably run it through their car wash. They always run the car through an alignment checker before they even take it to the service area. They mean well, but their eagerness to please means I have to keep an eye on them.