Tire Pressure Gauges

I use a lowly $10 Asian import digital gauge, which turned out to be very accurate according to a friend equipped to check calibrations. Sold in blister packs at your favorite variety/auto store.

Whatever you choose, use it often and remember tire #5.

 

I used an Accutire gauge once. It wasn't the 4000, but I'll never buy that brand again -- I got *one* use out of it before it stopped working. Piece o' trash.

 

I would like something to keep the pressures at 42/40 at a glance, if I can trust it. As it is I check the tire pressure on Sunday AM.

 

I checked my tyres for the first time after getting the car about 3 weeks ago. I too have a cheepo digital gauge. Seems OK but don't have a way to verify it yet. Still, I noticed that my tyres were set to strange levels.

LSF = 38.5 psi
RSF = 37.5 psi
LSR = 37.5 psi
RSR = 38.5 psi

First, I have the distinct feeling that my gauge rounds to the nearest 1/2 lb which annoying. I assume that something with more precision is desirable? Second, this seems like a really odd way to set the tyres, no?

Took a trip up to the gas station and adjusted the tyres to 40/38. Should I check them weekly? I've never paid this much attention to a car before so I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to these smaller details.

 

Many consumer digital gauges round to the nearest 0.5 PSI, so they have an accuracy of +/- 0.5 PSI. With that knowledge, your readings indicate all 4 tires are "about 38 psi" though it would be just as easy for two to be closer to 39 and the other two to be near 37 -- a 2 PSI difference.

This isn't rocket science; if you get your tires to read the same pressure using the same gauge, +/- 0.5 PSI accuracy isn't going to kill your mileage. The important thing is to keep your front tires 2 PSI above the rears.

 

Why? is it just because there is more weight in the front. Or is there some other reason. I have tried with the 2 lb difference and tried it with all 4 the same pressure and I can't tell the difference.

I did ask this same question in another post today and was hoping to get some different points of view.

 

That's the one I use. I bought it from Amazon when it was on sale for about $17. I am very satisfied with it.

 

I recently bought 2 digital tire gauges. One from a bin at a parts store. It didn't last 5 minutes before I tossed it, it couldn't repeat a reading to within 10 psi.

I got another one that was ordered from a speed shop. It's better and repeats the readings, but rounds off to the nearest 1/2#. It's OK. I do believe it's an Accutire. I wouldn't buy it again. It's difficult to use.

My favorite is the Drager pressure guage I got 35 years ago. Pretty sure I bought it in Germany. It's got an analog dial and is extremely accurate, very easy to use too. It'll hold the last reading (and the internal pressure) for months, until you press the button to take the next reading. I don't know if they're still made, but if I ever saw another I'd buy it in a heartbeat. It allows one to zero it for the current Barometric pressure to get a true reading. It's a real nice piece of equipment.

 

helps control understeer

 

I have a talking gauge that reads out the pressure using a digital female voice. The tire pressure is accurate to 0.5 lb. The gauge also has an LED screen that shows the pressure.

 

http://www.doranmfg.com/

 

Brookstone has several models you might want to consider. I just purchased one for $35 that displays the target and actual pressure and uses colors for over/under/on-target pressure.

 

I've seen Prii with Valve Stem Pressure Gauges. I wonder how accurate they are. Of course, even if they did work you'd still need a tire pressure gauge for inflation.

Thanks for the suggestions! I need a new gauge.

 

My understanding is that this is basically what the 2006 models are coming with, built in -- a continous tire pressure monitoring system.

However, a friend of mine mentioned you can get one for less than the ~$400 that the model mentioned above costs. I'll ask him for a reference and post it here.

 

the tire pressure sensors that are on the 2006 only warn if the pressures are low i believe. not sure if it will let you set your pressure limits. the Lexus had something like this and it only let you know if there was a problem if something like 25% below the recommended.

that means if recommended is 35/33 and you are running 44/42 you will not receive a warning until a tire is at about 27/25? that would be worthless to me.

the one shown and lets face it, its aimed at professional drivers, taxi's, truckers, etc it allows you to monitor all the tires and has user settable alarms. so you could set the alarm for say 38.

i only mentioned it because my ex-father in law says that they are the best. he is a IT transit bus driver. i personally have a cheap ($8) digital gauge that is accurate to ½ psi. it reproduces the same reading over and over and i am perfectly satisfied with it. it does require much more work on my part and last summer i aquired a nail and my tire was done to about 15 psi by the time i caught it. i originally posted it because i felt it a bit ridiculous that people were complaining about only having ½ psi accuracy.

if you want better, you will have to pay for it. period. another reason i mentioned it is because if every PriusChatter knew about the product, i can garantee you some will buy it. probably not a lot, but someone will buy it.

my next door neighbor bought wheels with those spinner things that light up. after what she paid for those, $400 is nothing.

 

Yes, thank you Dave. I have been thinking the same thing, any car with a 60/40 front/rear weight distribution is going to understeer quite a bit. What I have been unsure of is the effect of less pressure in the rear, it seems that lowering the pressure might actually cause the rear to stick even better thus increasing understeer. However with VSC it may not matter because VSC kicks in and seems to keep the handling pretty neutral anyway. Of course it is also true that with the weight distribution such as it is you wouldn't need as much pressure in the back to carry the weight, even with a full load of luggage.

This may be a subject for a different topic anyway. Now if I could just find my tire pressure gage, could be time for a new one.