A guide to checking your tire pressure without a tire pressure gauge.
Correct tire pressure is essential to the proper and efficient operation of your vehicle, just like wheel alignment and other routine maintenance. Not only does this optimize fuel economy, but it ensures you are kept safe.
There are a variety of ways to check tire pressure, and using a tire pressure gauge is probably the easiest. Most modern cars also come with a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) as standard that measures pressure in real-time as you drive. Since it effectively works as an automatic tire pressure gauge, it's easy to be lazy, but you should know how to check pressure yourself, because you never know when a sensor might stop working if it stops getting power from the battery due to an electrical problem.
Of course, before you start fussing with gauges and other tools, you'll need to know the correct PSI value for your specific setup. PSI is the measurement for tire pressure, denoting pounds per square inch. The correct figure for your vehicle can be found in the owner's manual, but if you know how to find the PSI on a tire on the sidewall or on the label in the door jamb, you can check to see whether your tires are correctly inflated.
There are a variety of ways to check PSI, and not all of them require you to go out and buy specialized equipment. If you have a TPMS, the information will show up on the digital display on the dashboard. If not, you can try a more analog approach, and this should form part of your daily car care routine:
These may not seem like accurate methods, but practice makes perfect. If you're not quite confident enough in your expertise, then you may be wondering if you need a tire pressure gauge. It certainly makes things easier. Be sure to check tire pressure in an unladen car - if your tires are bulging, but you're certain the pressure is correct, check the cargo isn't weighing your car down unnecessarily. Read up on how often to check your tire pressure here.
There are a few different types of tire pressure checkers out there with varying levels of complexity. If you want to know how to fix high or low tire pressure, some of these tools will allow you to do so. There are three main types of air pressure gauges:
It's easy to fix low tire pressure once you've checked it, so there is really no reason to suffer poor gas mileage or any of the more serious troubles that result from over- or under-inflated tires.
Different cars and different tire sizes and types all have varying ideal tire pressures - and the load you are intending to carry will also affect the pressure which you should be running. Always check the guidelines in the owner's manual, and try not to deviate too far from the recommended figure. You can often find this info inside the driver-side door jam, or on the wheels themselves. You'll have to get up close and personal for the latter, as it isn't printed very big and may get lost among the other figures and letters.
The risk of this happening in regular driving conditions is rather low since most tires can handle up to 200 PSI before they burst. However, when driving, especially on a hot day, the tires heat up as they repeatedly make contact with the road. This friction causes the standard pressure to get a lot higher as hot air expands. Every type of car and tire has its own PSI range, and you can normally find instructions for this in the user's manual, on the inside of the driver's door, or on the tires themselves. For example, your average SUV, like a Toyota RAV4, will be between 32 and 35 PSI
Morgan has always had a love for the written word, which is why he obtained an Honours Degree in English Language Studies. Having spent several years as an editor for a variety of trade magazines, he decided he wanted to try something a bit more exciting and hands-on. This led him to CarBuzz, where he has been writing and editing reviews and blog posts since 2018. A level-headed academic, Morgan enjoys reading about the latest tech in the automotive industry, even though he drives an economical hatchback.