Quick Question

Iconic was used by one of our members to describe the Gen II Prius, since it became what most people think of as a "standard" Prius. It is the icon, or symbol of hybrid cars.

I don't really care for the expression, but it seems to have stuck.

Tom

 

Never exceed the maximum tire pressure printed on the tire itself. Always measure when the tire has not been driven far. (cold)

The vendor will publish the tire pressure that makes the best compromise between safety, economy, tire life, and ride comfort. A high number of drivers value economy over ride comfort, so raise the air pressure. By keeping the ratio of front to back pressures, they hope to maintain the safety of the car.

From a tire life situation, it appears Toyota's recommendation is too low, the edges wear before the center, over inflation would wear the center before the edges.
FTLS - Tire Inflation

 

Higher pressures make it easier to get better fuel economy. It does make the ride harder and does change the handling, but these are matters of personal preference. They're not dangerous.

The front pressures are higher because they must carry more than 50% of the car's weight.

In no case should the cold pressure exceed the maximum shown on the sidewall of every tire. When a tire is hot (that is, been driven on for more than a mile in the past hour) the pressure may very well exceed that *cold* maximum. This is normal; this also means that pressures should not be measured when tires are hot.

 

At this link, the center bulge illustrated with Over Inflation, is disputed.

While it certainly happened on past bias ply tires, the steel belted radials used on modern passenger cars should display very little bulging of the center of the tread. Those steel belts have very little stretch.