mblock66

I just went to the air pump and inflated up to about 36.5 PSI all around (from about 33-34) and I am in love!!! The car handles way better and once I am going it is a lot quicker. According to my ass-o-meter at least. Just 2 psi and it feels like a totally differnt car. Go figure !?!?!

And I can now chirp the tires from 1st into 2nd which I know is bad for racing but is still cool!!!

ItalianStallion

is that safe / advisable for daily driving? i really dont know anything bout tires this sucks.

mblock66

Yeah the stock tires have a MAX psi of 41 I think and with the introduction of heat/speed I would have to go approx. 160-170 to get the pressure in the tire ot reach that 41PSI.

CharlesNguyen

Higher inflation will allow U to handle corners better (better lateral grip), but decrease performance w/ acceleration & braking (hence more chirpings on acceleration). Too high of air pressure will cause ballooning & unsafe, and wearing the centers in tire only.

Lower inflation will increase performance in acceleration & braking (that's why drivers lower their rear tires at drag strips). But this decreases performance in lateral grip cause the sides walls are more squishy.

The best overall compromise inflation is about 30-35 for daily driving.

mblock66

Yeah I don't car so much b/c my stock have about 14k miles on them already. I will be replacing them soon anyway so if they wear fast I don't care much

DreamU

Your tire manufacturer web site should list the maximum pressure. On mine it was 44psi and the tire shop inflated them to 45psi - the tire installer must have had a little too much coffee. The next tire shop reduced it to 40psi so you got some headroom left.

JasonT

When I picked up my car brand new, I knew the presures weren't right, when I got it home, let it cool down a few hours, & all 4 tires were at the max of 41 PSI. The dealer did this. I adjusted them to 34 front, & 32 rear. The new bigger Toyo's I have now are set to 40 PSI all around.

mblock66

why would you ever make the rear lower pressure then the front? We have front wheel drive. Your traction would be way better if you reversed that.

mrdeeno

i think the dealer overinflates the tires expecting that they will sit for a while on the lots.

but the max 41psi on the tire is cold (higher than 41 when hot), so even if you are at 38psi cold, you are within the specs because it will still be lower than whatever the 41psi would be when its hot. and then even at the nominal max psi the tire could take, i'm sure there's a safety tolerance in there too.

i remember one time this mechanic pissed me off. i had 35psi on the tires normally, drove around a bit to do some stuff (don't remember what...i think i was shopping for a gift or something). had to get an oil change and dropped it off at the mechanic (i think it was midas). they told me my pressure was way too high and reduced it to 32. i told them that the tires are hot and if they reduce it to 32, it will be a lot less when cold...which is when you should check the pressures.

he goes on to give me, a mechanical engineer, a lecture on how temperature doesn't effect tire pressures and the max listing is the max pressure the tire can take before degrading and yada yada yada. so i said, "dude, see that gas station across the street? you can watch me drive over there and fill up my tires again as soon as i leave here."

mblock66

Haha that is pretty funny. Yeah I actaully inflated mine to 36-37 last night after being on the road for a few miles already so if I checked them this morning it would probably wind up that they are only at about 35 all around. I love how the car feels though. Yeah it is a little bumpier but a lot of the heavy boaty feeling want away. Much crisper feeling all around. And my acceleration and cruising is much better. Given my of the line acceleration probably suffers a little but our Acura will lost light to light races a lot anyway b/c of the lack of torque to get moving to 60 mph. So I will give that up for the better handling and top end acceleration

CO-CL-S

"Ideal" tire pressure would be set to how you wanted the tires to perform, and the "weight" they are caring. So, having a slightly lower pressure on the rears is correct. YMMV

mblock66

But then why when you go to the stip do you lower front air pressure and increase rear. That is the optimal setting for max tire hookup (in front wheel drives that is). I guess I can see your point as far as setting them accordint to weight ratios but I was thinking performance only.

JRock

Does everyone else with the stock rubber have that semi-flat look to their front tires because of the weight of the car? Even at 35/6 psi my front tires look like they have a lot less air than the rears. :-\