Author Topic: Tire manufacturer recomendations vs. Car manufacturers recommendations  (Read 7025 times)

02Jetta

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I've been confused as to what tire pressure I should use in my 02 volkswagen jetta tdi. I don't run performance tires on it, I run all seasons. The problem I have is the placard on the car says to run 26psi at regular weight loads but the guy at goodyear tells me to run 32-35 psi. In my opinion 26psi seems very low. Any suggestions out there??? I have been running about 32 psi at regular weight load. ???

Offline beagle

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Re: Tire manufacturer recomendations vs. Car manufacturers recommendations
« Reply #1 on: December 11, 2005, 02:34:51 am »
Mine is 29psi front and 28psi rear.  At 26psi I find the handling too mushy. But anything above 29psi the rear end felt very twitchy during cornering.  Go to some vw mb and ask. Everyone has their own preferences.

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Re: Tire manufacturer recomendations vs. Car manufacturers recommendations
« Reply #2 on: December 11, 2005, 05:56:31 am »
2 thoughts:

Some car makers (mostly German) seem to supply more information than we Americans can handle.  Most car makers put one pressure on the placard.

Goodyear has franchise operations, so you really weren't talking to the tire manufacturer.  It was either a sales guy or one of the techs.  I'd be cautious relying on info from either of those sources.
« Last Edit: December 11, 2005, 06:01:16 am by capriracer »
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Offline Trainman

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Re: Tire manufacturer recomendations vs. Car manufacturers recommendations
« Reply #3 on: December 11, 2005, 11:45:59 am »
My understanding is that unless you replace the tire with the one that came with the car (the one the placard is for), tire pressures may change as the design of the tire may be different and require different pressure.

My Pathy now has LT rated 10 ply tires, running at 45 psi (max is 80 psi).  The placard says to run them at 30 psi.  I would be more inclined to trust the place that sold you the tires.  Just keep an eye on wear.
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morty

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Re: Tire manufacturer recomendations vs. Car manufacturers recommendations
« Reply #4 on: December 13, 2005, 11:36:49 pm »
The pressure on the placard is the minimum required to carry the load of the vehicle. You may increase this to firm up the ride to personal preference. However, you want to make sure you dont put too much air as it can upset the handling of the car. Going to high will also cause crowning of the tire and premature wear in the centre of the tread.

scarberian

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Re: Tire manufacturer recomendations vs. Car manufacturers recommendations
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2006, 12:31:15 pm »
The car placard is the pressure to use. The numbers on the tires are MAXIMUMS . A heavier car than yours that uses the same type of tire would be closer to the maximums allowed by that tire.

Don't be dumb....put in the 26 pound volkswagen recommends. Anything else and you are ignoring the engineers who designed the car, and hoardes of corporate lawyers who want to avoid lawsuits.

Also, check your pressures regularly with a quality pressure gauge. Keep it in the car .

barrie1

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Re: Tire manufacturer recomendations vs. Car manufacturers recommendations
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2006, 11:49:05 pm »
Yes but this was the exact reason why Ford and Firestone had a problem a few years ago. They had the smaller Ranger type of vehicles rolling over and too many folks were killed or hurt quite bad. Ford had around 26lbs written on the sticker and Firestone said 35lbs is needed. All of these accidents were in the Southern States where the road surfaces are much hotter the majority of the time. With only 26lbs in them they soon overheated and blew out usually on the drivers rear wheel. Ford has been paying for this problem ever since and will for many years to come as well.  :)

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Re: Tire manufacturer recomendations vs. Car manufacturers recommendations
« Reply #7 on: January 27, 2006, 07:15:45 am »
Yes but this was the exact reason why Ford and Firestone had a problem a few years ago. They had the smaller Ranger type of vehicles rolling over and too many folks were killed or hurt quite bad. Ford had around 26lbs written on the sticker and Firestone said 35lbs is needed. All of these accidents were in the Southern States where the road surfaces are much hotter the majority of the time. With only 26lbs in them they soon overheated and blew out usually on the drivers rear wheel. Ford has been paying for this problem ever since and will for many years to come as well.  :)

Where to start?

First, it wasn't Rangers (pickup), it was Explorers (SUV).  Interestingly, the same Firestone tire was on the Ranger, and they didn't show the same level of failure, and in particular, the rollover rate was extremely different.

Second, Firestone was the primary source of the problem.  Their own data showed a dramatic difference to other designs and a dramatic difference to other factories.  The true reason for the elevated rate of failure was more in the design of the tire, but clearly the factory processes were contributing.

But the issue you bring up is about reserve capacity - the amount of extra load capacity that a bit more inflation pressure provides.  Ford said you didn't need any, Firestone disagreed.  It could be argued that the vehicle operators were partially to blame because they didn't maintain the pressure.

Just to be clear, not ALL of the tires came from hot states, but the return pattern was mostly from hot states.  It's the same pattern experienced by every tire manufacturer, it's just that the rates were different.

But the lessons learned from this situation were:

1)  Reserve capacity.  Notice that newer vehicle models are using larger tires than their predecessors.

2)  Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems .  They will become standard equipment.  I'm thinking the original compliance date was the 2006MY, but that is obviously wrong (or more likely has been changed).  Maybe its 2008MY?

3)  Government regulations needed to be updated.

4)  Tire manufacturers needed to improve tire performance in hot weather.

Which brings us back to the original question.  Tire manufacturer recommendation or vehicle manufacturer recommendation?

Clearly what is on the sidewall of the tire is a maximum.  Clearly what is on the placard has enough load capacity (Otherwise there would be a recall, and there have been some for this!). 

So how is an uninformed person supposed to know what to use?

Every answer ought to reference the placard as it's the only thing that considers the vehicle's weight and potential loading. 

However, a few extra psi wouldn't hurt!  That has been my recommendation for any years, but I am currently changing that to say that some of the newer vehicles have this extra psi factored in.

Hope this helps.