I know the placard under the armrest calls for 32 per tire. However, I have always heard that "low profile" tires should be kept closer to the number which is listed on the sidewall of the tires. which I believe is 44 psi's. I figured i come to the experts here and see what you guys keep yours at. Any input is appreciated. I had all 4 replaced under the defect, and was just told by Nissan that one of the new ones has a "shifted belt".

 

From what I understand, the manufacturers recomended number is usually a balance of what works better for the handeling of the car and what's acceptable for the tire. Staying close to the max pressure of the tire is better for tire life and sometimes MPG. As far as the max goes, I keep the RSA's at 40psi on all 4. The wheels can handle it, it is a good bit below the max pressure still, so why not.

 

This is a question with many answers. Several could be correct.

SE Plackard says 32. One of the mods (bluemaxx) has had very satisfactory performance from his SE using 30 psi all around.

On my 2000 SE, I carry 36 front and 34 rear. On my '04 SL, I carry 33 all around (per the SL plackard). I would have carried 36 in the front, but I got tired of having to add three pounds to each front tire after every trip to the dealer. Also, I don't drive the SL as aggressively as the SE (usually have my wife on board).

If I were going to be driving agressively, or turning lots of corners, I would carry 37 in front and 34 or 35 in back. When one gets much more than 37 in front, several things begin to happen: The already firm SE ride becomes very firm. This extra firmness can put greater force on the suspension and on the (already borderline) struts. The tires have a greater tendency to bounce instead of grip on rough roads at speed.

Highly inflated tires are less flexible, hence slightly more likely to be damaged by potholes, road debris, etc. Highly inflated tires also tend to bulge out slightly in the center, thus wearing out the middle of the tread before wearing out the shoulders. And these tires are not cheap.

Those have been the things I have encountered over the years when running very high tire pressure (I used to run 38 psi until I realized the problems that pressure was causing).

But each driver is different, and each driver has to make the final decision for him/herself.

 

What is a shifted belt?

 

Light has given you a very accurate and detailed answer. I decided not to repeat all of it in this post. Light's point about chuck-hole tire damage is very important.

I'll give you my own experience with my SE driving 32 K miles in two years. I routinely check my tire pressure about every two months (but also before any trip out of state). I put the tires at 32 psi every time, because they have usually dropped to about 29.5 psi (my digital tire gauge reads each half psi). I drive around a number of curves every day to and from my house, so my tire-wear experience may not be typical. Keeping these tire pressures and with my driving on curves, I find that the wear on my original RSA's show a condition known as "high pressure wear." In other words, the inside grooves in these tires are more worn (just slightly) than the outside grooves. I rotated these tires every 7.5 K miles per Nissan's recommendations.

I will be replacing my RSAs with Michelins next week (when the new tires come in). The grooves have not worn down to the wear-bars, but I want good rubber on my Max for the hot long-distance summer driving we expect to do this summer. I also expect better responses from these new tires, but probably not better mileage wear.

 

Ramberg,

Damn if I know what a shifted belt is, but this is what Nissan is telling me is making my car pull to the right.

 

If Nissan says the tire is messed up than you should go back to Goodyear and get that tire replaced. I had all tires changed in March and was told the new tires were made better. A bfew ago when I was in Maryland, the right rear tire blew while the car was not moving. I had to wait 3 hours for a new tire. Long story short. They sent me back the 298 dollars that I paid for the tire and upgraded my tires to the best F1's that they have. Just paid the difference. I was thinking about going to my lawyer to get that money back. I don't know if it would be worth the time and effort. Later Warren

 

I bought a set of Michelin Pilot Sport A/S and run them at 35. I LOVE THESE TIRES! They completely changed the car. Two thumbs and a big toe up!!

 

Warren,

How much is the diff. for the F1's? The RSA's are a fortune to begin with but I think they are just wrong for this car. I may be crazy but it seems like they lose pressure daily. I check them each morning before work and the readings are never the same. T

 

if I'm correct people have had their tires changed as a recall (RSA's). they got money for them all and had to put some more down to purchase the F1's.. so they might be slighly more expensive..

 

Great. I have a set of Pilot Sports on order -- expect to get them next week. Why did you decide to run them at 35 psi and not at 32 psi?

 

AA ZR rated 536 extra. There are different types of F1's. I took the best ones. I just didn't want to take chances with the RSA's any I have had them on for two weeks and the ride feels better than the RSA's. I will let you know how good they really on from my drive to Florida and back. Later Warren

 

When you get them, play around with the pressure and run it where you like. I am like blue, I am running Pilot Sport A/Ss at 35 and like the tighter feel. Mine feels like the rear is all over the place with any lower psi. The slightly higher psi, I think, will help protect the rims a bit too.

 

NashMax is correct that higher tire pressure helps the tire take more of the punishment when you hit a pothole, and can reduce the chances of a bent rim. And replacing the tire should cost less than replacing the wheel.

There are lots of plusses and minuses to both high and low tire pressure. Each driver has to find the compromise that best fits his driving habits, road conditions, comfort level and wallet thickness.

 

I have F1's,
The first thing I noticed is the tires were more quiet. The tires stick better due to the compound, and they make little to no noise when cornering hard, compared to the RSA's. I was able to get 4 new ones for $400 because my 30,000mi RSA's split. The F1's also seem to need time to warm up, when cold I believe they are causing some shimmy, then after some driving it smooths out, but this may just be balance and completely unrelated. They would have been $400 EACH where I got them though.

 

I have 23K and am on my 6th set of tires. Supposedly 4 bad sets of deffective RSA's and now a bad set of Mich Pilot Sport A/S's. I still think it's something in the car that continues to batter the tires, but hey as long as I'm not paying for the replacements. Hell, I always have a fresh set of tread.

I definitely agree that the Mich tires are far superior. I noticed a huge difference in handling especially when wet, plus less tire slippage during quick take offs. They also look great! Mine are Y-rated vs. the V rated RSA's and have a max PSI is 51. I run them at 32. Maybe I'll try 35 and see if the handling improves even more, but the ride is already harsh enough on Cincy streeets. The Mich's are 1 lb. lighter per tire too at 27 vs. 28.

 

I have over 38,000 miles on my ride and had to a extra 569 for the F1's. Even though I would not have to pay for the RSA tires. I did not feel safe with them. This was my second set in less than 3 months. One tire blew up while the car was standing still. Later Warren

 

I run 32. With how I drive I dont really notice a difference If I pump them up a couple PSI. I do what I believe will maximize the life of the tires, I think the F1's are holding up fairly well for the time Ive had them.

 

I checked my tire pressure for the firsttime last week after 6 months of ownership and found out that they were all over 50 psi from the factory. I brought that down to 33 psi and the car is a lot less squirmy.

 

Clipper, I feel your pain. I have had 20 tires (12 GY, 4 Avon, and 4 Mich) on my car. I now have two "bad" Pilot Sport A/S's that Nissan put on. They aren't too bad now that the Nissan DTS cleaned them up last week. He is going to come back to Nashville and put the two new ones through a battery of tests when they come in. I don't think that it is something that is tearing up the tires as much as it is the fact that Nissan made the 6th gen a big car and is still trying to compete with smaller, more fuel efficient cars for sales. To get the fuel economy where it is, they had to lighten the car up. They did this by using a ton of aluminum underneath. This lighter suspension/undercarriage means that every 6th gen has the potential to have the same issues that we have been having. I think that many people just aren't as knowledgelable or demanding as we .org people are, so not all that many are surfacing. At the dealership I have been using for service, the service manager said that they have seen a "handful" coming in with vibration issues. If you extrapolate this out to the population, I'd guess 10-20% of the 04-05 Maximas have our same issues that are being magnified by the "technology" in our suspensions. If we weren't having these issues with slightly "bad" tires ruining our rides b/c of all the aluminum in our cars, we would be complaining about getting 10 mpg with no ride quality issues.

Interesting tidbit: When the dealership mounted my Michelins, I got my car back and the tires were at 26 psi cold and the steering rack was so tight that my wheel would bind up coming out of turns. When the DTS spent 5 hours on my car last week, he used the exact same equipment as when the tires were first mounted with and there is a HUGE improvement. Looks like all the dealer techs may need some training on the use of the Hunter machines they have.

 

50??? are u sure?

 

I agree that they may need training on the Hunter machine. So do the guys at the Goodyear I visit. I get all kind of weird sterering response, too. Especially going over bumpy road surfaces. It's worse than it's ever been. The steering feels loose. I suspect it's due to the steering rack adjustment performed. Although, I have noise coming from the front strut again. I can't even recalll how many times the struts have been replaced. Front passenger side usually is the culprit. I think it's been replaced 3X.

I am talking with Nissan Consumer affairs (have a huge file). I ask them to at least give me a extended warranty (bumper to bumper) if they won't buy the car back. They seem to be very concerned and have been very apologetic (at least the lady I have been dealing with has).

 

I know how to read a tire gage.

 

Wow drove half a year and still at 50? Even no leak it still seems a bit high.

You should let your dealer know about this.

I guess I should go check mine.

 

Just got my Maxima last Saturday. On my last car I put on a set of Goodyear Assurance tires. I ran a few hundred miles and had the car in for service during which they rotated the tires. I immediatly noticed that the car was now pulling strongly to the left. I took it in to the Goodyear dealer and he said it was Radial Pull. In other words the steel belts were not running straight around the tire. They rotated the tires back to where they were and ordered a new tire. The car ran normally after that. He said this problem occurs occasionally.

 

That is an odd problem to have. I would think that Goodyear QA would catch something like this. I've never had any problems with Goodyear at all. However, I've read the horror stories people have posted here. They've been my preferred brand of tire for about ten years. I've had them on almost all of my previous cars. I am running Pirellis now but that's mainly because Goodyear doesn't make a tire in my size.

 

In all my years of driving I've never encountered it either. The tire store manager knew right away what the problem was and apparantly it is not uncommon. I don't know if the problem is unique to Goodyear or if it is just a radial tire anomoly. At any rate, if someone is experiencing an unusual pull to the right or left after tire rotation or with a new set of tires, I'd certainly ask the dealer if it is a radial pull problem.

 

I had this happen on a Pirelli radial on an '85 Maxima back in the late '80s. The dealer replaced it for only a small charge for mileage driven. That was the only problem I ever had with Pirellis.

Someday, on a non-Maxima thread, let me tell you about my Firestone 500s back in the mid-1970s. And before everyone shouts 'Firestone? No wonder!', let me say my wife has used only Firestones on her trucks for over twenty years, gets at least 50K to 60K on every set, and has never had a problem.

Today's belted radial tires are vastly superior to the bias belted tires of the 1960s. And the bias belted tires of the 1960s were vastly better than the non-belted tubeless tires of the 1950s. And the non-belted tubeless tires of the 1950s were vastly better than the tube type tires of the 1930s and 1940s. I know, because I have used them all extensively.

I've repaired many of the old type tires. But I leave repair of today's tires to today's professionals.

For the younguns here, the standard profile of tires in the 1960s was 84, and 75 profile tires were considered to be sort of a 'showoff low profile' by old geezers, and a daringly sporty thing by the young folks.


edit - In retrospect, I should have posted this elsewhere on the Maxima.org board, as it is not really 6th gen Maxima info. I really need to work at posting properly. I promise to improve.

 

Really. I need to brush up on my automotive history.

 

my RSA's came from the dealer at 36 all around. I'll mess with them later to see if there is any difference, but I dont think there will be. I'm waiting to scrape up some cash to buy the Michelins Pilot A/S, at least on tire rack they get good reviews.

 

I don't care much for the French, but they do make a good tire. I've had my Pilot A/S for a few weeks and have not put many miles on them, yet. They certainly perform better than the Original Equipment Goodyears. I ended up putting just over 32,000 miles on the years before I got the new tires. They still had reasonable tread on them, but 3 of the 4 tires had developed the inside sidewall cracks that others in the 6th Gen have complained about. I'm not certain when the cracks appeared, but I was not about to drive the distances I plan to drive this summer with these cracks in the tires.

Like others with these new tires, I'm running them at 35 psi, cold. That pressure seems to work well.

 

I just put over 4,000 miles on the F1 tires on my trip to Florida. I didn't get the road noise that I had with the RSA tires and the they handled great. I would say it was worth the difference in price. Later Warren

 

Thanks for that information. Later Warren

 

I considered the F1 tires before I opted for the Michelins. The problem I had with the F1 -- they are a summer tire and I needed a tire that will perform well in the winter as well as the summer. If you live in Florida, Texas, etc; the F1 appears to be a good choice because you will rarely if ever need to drive them in snow. For the rest of us, be certain you are ready to buy a separate set of snow tires for the period late fall through early spring -- essentially about a half a year.

light: As you recommended, I've re-torqued all of my wheels to 75 ft-lbs from the 90 ft-lbs used by Discount Tire. Thanks for the heads-up on this issue.

 

It doesn't snow that much here in Brooklyn and when it does the car stays in the garage. I than use mass transit or my wife's car. Later Warren

 

When you live in the foothills west of town, there is no mass transit. The snowiest months here in this part of Colorado are March and April. It melts fast with all of the sunshine, but you need to be able to drive in snow when it happens. Glad the F1 makes sense for you (you saved some money versus the cost of the Michelins) and your wife lets you drive her ride when it snows. For me, my ride is her ride.

When the snow is particularly heavy here, I drive the 4-wheel drive Dodge 2500. But the Max is more fun to drive, so that is the ride of choice.