How often do you check your tyre pressures? Unfortunately the answer to this is often never! This is a real shame as if we carried out this check on a monthly basis then road safety would be improved and motorists would save money. Yes that’s right checking your tyre pressures will save you money, hopefully now I have your attention – I’ll continue.
Reasons to check your pressures
Tyres really are a safety critical item and they deserve some basic attention to ensure they perform the way they are designed to. If tyres are at the incorrect pressures then the vehicle can suffer from unpredictable handling characteristics, reduced handling performance and grip and an increased chance of blow out when driven at high speeds.
Under inflated tyres require a larger force to make them turn, this equates to more fuel and higher running costs. Therefore by ensuring that your tyres are at the correct pressures you will ensure that your fuel bills are kept to a minimum. Running at the wrong pressure will also cost you money in that tyres are likely to wear unevenly and wear out quicker, need replacing sooner, this also is an unnecessary cost.
Where to get your pressures checked
The obvious one is at the petrol station which is fine, however why not go to your local tyre shop when you are passing? Assuming they are friendly folk (most of us are) then they will do this free of charge for you. Also tyre shops should calibrate their gauges regularly so you will get more accurate readings than the petrol station gauges that are given a pretty hard time being thrown about.
What pressures do I need?
The pressures for your car should be printed somewhere, this may be on the inside of the door panel or the back of the petrol cap. If you can’t find it then there are some good online tools that will help. Tyresafe are an organisation that promotes tyre safety and their website allows you to enter your vehicle registration and the site will return the correct pressures:
http://www.tyresafe.org/tyre-safety/tyre-pressure-check
In fact they even designed an i-phone/pad app to use which can be downloaded:
http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/tyresafe/id394894885?mt=8
What else?
Whilst you are checking your pressures why not make sure that your tyres appear to be in good condition? If you’re not sure what to look for get the tyre guys to offer a free tyre safety check. Again there are some great online tools, I just found a great little informative site that provides tyre safety info and even offers free stuff – happy days!
In the words of tyresafe, safe tyres, save lives!
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