Today I replaced the original tires on my 2016 RLX after 23,000 miles. Since the vehicle was brand new three years ago, I have been absolutely vigilant in maintaining tire pressure at the manufacturer’s recommended 36 psi. In addition, the tires were rotated faithfully every 5000 miles since new.

Now, after all of my anal retentiveness regarding the tires, I discovered that the tires had worn unevenly in the center treads of each tire down to 3/32. Whereas the outside tread was a still healthy 6/32. The rest of the tread was even and certainly not cupped since the tires were still riding very quietly and smoothly after 23,000 miles. Alignment always checked out to be true.

After all of this, I have decided to reduce the tire pressure on the new tires to 32 psi. My hope is that the ride will improve slightly, but, more importantly, that the tires will wear more evenly for the next 23,000 miles.

I would be interested in hearing others’ experiences or thoughts on the matter.

 

The rubber compound also plays a part.... Did you buy the same tires so you can continue on with your experiment?
if not, you'll have to play with the tire pressure..... Because each tire reacts differently with pressure

 

What kind of tires? I always ran 36-37 lbs and never had that problem.

 

There has got to be something else going on here. If the recommended pressure is 36, then nothing under 42 or so would cause overinflation to the point of wildly increased wear.

Are you running the standard size tires?

In general, underinflation of under 20% will cause increased outside wear and overinflation of at least 25% is OK before you see center wear.

My TSX calls for 33psi and I regularly run 39psi - for 88k miles with absolute perfect wear.

the manufacturer recommended setting is a compromise between gas mileage (more psi), better handling(more psi) and comfort (less psi). Most "luxury" cars have the recommended setting biased towards comfort so setting your psi to that setting makes it virtually impossible to cause center wear.

 

I believe that 36 psi recommendation applies to 70 degree F taken when the tires are cold, and a given load weight. I also believe that for every 10 degrees below 70, you reduce tire pressure 1 psi.

So if you're running 36 psi in the colder months (below 40 degrees F) and it's just you in the car most of the time, you will have significantly over inflated tires.

I also think these thin-walled, higher pressure tires are more sensitive to variations in pressure and its effects on tread footprint.

 

Actually I check my air pressure daily by looking at the MID in the screen. If I get below the optimal pressure at any temp, I top off the pressure then. Takes 5 minutes to take care of that. This way I am always within 1-2 lbs psi of optimal all year long.

 

Seems like most folks who like to tinker with tire pressure have a multitude of reasons for doing so. I'd like to think the pressures as suggested by the manufacturer are suggested for a reason. They have done the research to calculate the optimum pressure for the tires based on various factors which probably include, MPG, tire wear, handling, etc. In all of my driving years, and car ownership, I have only seen issues when I don't follow the recommendations of the manufacturer. I think someone else may have said this same thing earlier in the thread, you will get different results from different tires. The label recommendation for pressure is for the OEM tires.

I check my pressures twice a month when the tires are cold and follow the recommendations from the manufacturer. Even after I change from the OEM tires. I have yet to abnormal wear of any kind based on improperly inflated tires.

 

Say what?

Tire pressures are always checked and set when cold. Cold being defined as the car having been sitting for about 8 hours at whatever the ambient temps are. So if it is 70 degrees out, you set it to 36psi, at 80 degrees you set it to 36. At 40 degrees you set it to - you guessed it - 36psi

For every 10 degrees the temps change, the tires "lose" or "gain" one psi. Colder they lose, warmer they gain. Perhaps that is what you had read.

A normal tire will also lose one psi per month, so with time and temp changes, a tire can lose a significant amount of pressure over a few months. Here is an example:

You buy your car in July when the temps are 90 degrees. The dealer makes a mistake and actually sets the pressures correct to 36. The TREAD Act requires that the TPMS sensors alert at least at 25% below the pressures recommended by the manufacturer (in this case 36 - 9 or 27psi). However, most manufacturers set their systems to be far more conservative and most Acuras will alert between 15 and 20% (so between 29 and 30 psi). In November, the temps overnight drop into the 40's, so where will your pressures when you drive out of the garage in the morning? You have gone 4 months so you've lost 4psi by time. The temps have dropped by 50 degrees so that is another 5psi. At this point you're at the 25% where your sensors must alert, but chances are that your sensors would have gone off in October.

 

I appreciate hearing all your inputs. Responding to some questions, I replaced the tires with the identical Michelin MXM 4 Primacy tires. In addition, I also regularly monitor day to day pressure using the MID screen. Regarding seasonal ambient temperature changes, I always account for this....winter temperature pressure vs. summer temperature pressure.

So, like I said at the start of this discussion, I'll move forward with pressure set a bit lower than the recommended 36 psi and see how the tires wear. Many thanks for all your observations.

 

see, you didnt need us.
carry on with your observations and experiments with tire pressure.

 

Just keep a close eye on the tire wear. With reduced pressures you will see increased tire wear.