what should be the pressure for the tires?

[lok]

hi... i lost my owner's manual.. so i wanto ask what the tire pressure should be..?.. how many pounds?.. thx//

[perhapsadingo8yerbaby]

Depends on the specific tire. Some tires are rated as low as 32 psi and and others as high as 44 psi. Look at the sidewalls of your tires and you will see a maximum pressure rating. I generally keep mine (when checked warm) at 1-2 pounds below whatever the maximum rating is.

[mitmaks]

i generally keep tires at 3 bars

[lok]

3 bars is how many pounds?..

[lok]

and also how many pounds is 32 psi?

[perhapsadingo8yerbaby]

psi = pounds per square inch = pounds

[IanL]

Originally posted by lok:
3 bars is how many pounds?..

43.5 psi. Use http://www.onlineconversion.com/pressure.htm

In fact, use http://www.onlineconversion.com/ for all that sort of thing.

43.5 sounds very high, even allowing for differences with another type of tyre - my Owners Manual says 28 psi front 33 psi rear for maximum load. With a lower profile than the recommended type, you could need a 3 or 4 psi more.

You should not be guided by the maximum pressure marked on the sidewall, except not to exceed it. That is what the tyre can take, not what the particular car does best with. My tyres are the manufacturers recommended type, and are marked 44 psi. If I ran them at 42, I would expect to get uneven wear (the center would wear more than the sides), a very hard ride and poor roadholding (not enough tyre surface in contact with the road). On a fast tight bend on a wet road, I'd probably lose rear end grip.

<small>[ July 17, 2004, 02:59 AM: Message edited by: IanL ]</small>

[Tempus]

Last I recall, there was a label on either the door-post, or the edge of the drivers side door, that had recommended tire pressues on it..

Slightly higher pressure usually gets you a little better milage, and slightly cooler tires, for a tradeoff in traction.. so where you run them depends a lot on what you are doing... for long highway driving, running a few PSI higher than the rating might be a good idea. If you've got a lot of twisty curvey roads, and it's wet a lot (e.g if you live in the great northwet part of the the americas) then you want to run at the rating or maybe slightly below..

[lok]

so how about 35?...i hv them at 35 now.. sounds ok?.

[Tempus]

Assuming you are using 'stock' tires, or at least tires with the same profile and characteristics as called for by Mazda..

Then yeah 35 is probably fine for the backs, especially if you do a lot of freeway driving.. I'd run the fonts a little lower than that based on the 'from the manual' numbers quoted above which have the fonts at lower pressure than the backs.

[lakersfan1]

My door reads 28 F/R. I generally run just a tad more for fuel eficiency, so 30 PSI cold, and 32 PSI if I'm doing the reading after driving more than a couple miles to the gas station. Remember that the readings will be off a couple PSI when the car has been driven enough to warm up the tires.

Definitely don't put the PSI too high, though. When I first bought my car, the lady only had the local lube place do her tire pressure. Apparently, the last idiot though he should use the pressure on the side of the tire and put 40 PSI in. I thought on the ride home that I needed to get new shocks as soon as I got home. It wasn't until I was going through her service receipts that I figured out that the last lube the guy did that. All the other receipts said 30 PSI, and the last said 40 PSI.

[JasonH]

Originally posted by lakersfan1:
My door reads 28 F/R. I generally run just a tad more for fuel eficiency, so 30 PSI cold, and 32 PSI if I'm doing the reading after driving more than a couple miles to the gas station. Remember that the readings will be off a couple PSI when the car has been driven enough to warm up the tires.

Correct. 28 front and rear for a GS with stock size (205/55 15) tires, 32 front and rear if you're using mud and snow tires of the same size and 32 front and rear for an RS with stock size (185/65 14) tires. Those are all in the shop manual.

That's for normal use. Your pressures can vary greatly if you're drag racing or driving on a racetrack, or if you have different size tires. I think when I took my car to Watkins Glen I was running 40 psi in some of my tires. This was after trial and error and taking tire temps across the tires.

[Gro Harlem]

if you are using performance tires, you should always use higher pressures, closer to what is stated on the side of the tire.

I'm using kumho 712's 15" tires on my car. 37 front 35 rear.

[lok]

hmm... damn.. i still dunt know... it really varies alot.. i dunt know the characteristics of the tires.. i m putting 35 front and rear.. hope that its ok...haha,..