38PSI (cold) → 41PSI
But most owners of this car put 44PSI according Chevy forum.
The people who made the vehicle are the ones to go by . Your manual should say 36 or 38 - don’t put any more than that.
@CapriRacer Barry , a little hepe here please.
You are an ad infinitum of car talk minutia. Do you keep a spreadsheet? what is hepe? 
Like I told tester let thee who is perfect cast the first stone, no stones yet! Ex wife had a bike to peddle, or pedal or petal (as she worked for a bakery) her buns around town. Give me break, or brake, whatever
Sure.
Since about 1973, on every vehicle sold in the US, there is vehicle tire placard that lists the original tire size and the specified (by the vehicle manufacturer) pressure for that size. Since 2008, the placard is on the driver’s door or doorframe.
According to Tire Guides - a publication which summarizes what is on the placard (among other things) - Chevy Volts came with 215/55R17 94V’s (which makes them SL) from 2012 to 2015 - inflated to 38 (35 psi for MY2012).
38 psi is an unusual inflation pressure for an SL tire, and I suspect GM specified that to make up for some shortcoming they found in the vehicle, They’ve done this many times before (so have others!) and usually it’s because of a handling issue.
Given that the Volt is supposed to be a fuel efficient vehicle, it’s not a surprise that Volt owners might want to use a higher inflation pressure (better rolling resistance!)
What is interesting here is that the Sentry branded tires was quoted in this post as having a max pressure of 44 psi. It is my understanding V rated tires are tested at 51 psi, so it must not be a V rated tire - so I looked it up!
Nope, it’s V rated at 44 psi max. Weird!! On the other hand, it’s made in China, and those folks have strange ways!
But the max pressure on a passenger car tire is NOT some indication of anything of value - other than the tire manufacturer’s inclinations on things. Many tire manufacturers will put 51 psi max pressure just because they can - even S rated tires which are tested at 35 psi!
Just an FYI: The burst pressure of tires is many times the max pressure. Even passenger car tires listed as 35 psi max don’t burst due to pressure until over 100 psi. HOWEVER, a road hazard can cause a tire to burst at even 10 psi!
I suspect Volvo-V70 wanted me to agree that over inflating a tire 6 psi was dangerous - and I am only sort of going to agree. The danger here is that overinflating tires can cause traction and/or handling issues and unless one actually does some severe handling maneuvers (and those will destroy a tire), one won’t know. All vehicle manufacturers thoroughly test their vehicles at the pressure listed on the placard, so deviating from that carries a risk.
OK , maybe over inflating is not as bad of an idea as I thought. I still maintain that the average person should not do that. If tire pressure is supposed to be at 38 and the Maximum is 44 what if the tire pessure gauge is reading 44 when the tire is actually at 46 or higher . Then driving for a while in hot weather then the tire pressure will be past the maximim rating. That just does not sound like a good thing to do.
Why go against what the vehicle manufacture reccomends just to save a couple of gallons of fuel a year.
A laziness as one of other answers? 
I over-inflate by around 2 psi as I know it will get down to “normal” in 2-3 months, over which I will only spot-check the pressure once a month or so.
There are many valid points here:
- Spec PSI is at cold - warmed up tires will cause it to increase it by 3PSI So by the time you are at the tire shop they would normally add 3PSI more. They taught me!
- I try not to buy the chepo tires - Sentury for eg despite it was on CR! I am sure it would have worked fine on a regular gas engine and @CapriRacer confirms that the burst pressure is much more than max PSI. Yes if it were gas engine, I would have bought it. GT Radial is just $1 more but there is supply chain issue lately - GT Radial has Buy Tire Again rating of 100% by users. But GT Raidal is 3lb heavier than that of Falken!
- Chevy Volt tires wear out on the edges according to the forum - so I also thought that if I put more PSI, it helps
- Despite assumed burst pressure of Sentury tires, I did not want to be operating outside the MAX PSI on a regular basis as @VOLVO-V70 mentions - so Falken gave me a hand. Besides, it reached the “Better” grade whereas Sentury was just “Good” grade.
Laziness as @thegreendrag0n stated: If you put +6PSI, then you can wait for it to reach 37PSI in cold and then head to inflate it again!!! But I will not do +6PSI on a gas car unless I see some …
Something to lighten up: I had to use a bike pump to inflate my spare tire after it was mounted in a shopping complex parking lot:)
Perhaps then when going on long distance drive, reduce the PSI to spec, which could +3psi (and not 6psi) if the car is warmed up.
Vredesteins on TireRack are about $132/tire. Very good and made in Holland.
Shows $147 for 215/55/17 and are Winter/Snow tires - no good for Calif.
Did you know Road Side assistance won’t bring air to you (eg a compressor) but tow your car to a shop due to liability?
I can see that.
There are lots of decent name brand tires that won’t cost an arm and a leg like the Kumho and Hankook. I usually buy tires from 4wheelonline because they ship fast.
Shipping is free to California?
And no sales Tax?
I added tires and it didn’t charge for those two! What is happening?
4 OHTSU FP7000 tires for $340 out the door!
And where do u have it installed?
Tire pressure increases 5 PSI during normal operation, if you need to drive to a place to inflate the tires, 6 PSI over placard pressure is in the recommended range. There are others here that operate above the placard tire pressure rating but they won’t admit this on your thread.
The place where a tire’s rolling resistance is most effective is long distance drives. The place where traction and handling issues are least likely to occur is on a long distance drive. So reducing the inflation pressure for a long distance drive is counter productive.
3 Likes
Just put the silly tires at what the door plaque says plus maybe a couple of pounds to give margin just in case the tires do lose a little air over time.
Why make things complicated ?
1 Like