Tires other than OE tires that came with car

Waterbuff
Wed, 08 Jul 2015 07:58:33 +0000
Maintenance/Repairs

I’ve always stuck by the recommended tire pressure (on the sticker from the car maker) on my cars over the years and stayed with the same size. My thinking has been that the same size tire in the same or very similar type and performance categories would use the same recommended pressure.

Today I heard that it is possible for new tires to require pressures higher than those on the sticker simply because they are not the same as the OE tires. Thinking about it, this seems to make sense because different tire brands and models may not have exactly the same characteristics even though they are the same size and type. So for the same weight load, maybe one tire is best at 33 psi while another is best at 38. Does this seem reasonable?

And if this is real, then anything but the original tires might be better at a pressure different from the sticker. And if true, I wouldn’t mind sorting this out for a car where the original tires are no longer available or a better tire has come along. And I’ve seen things like the chalk test to help test tire and car combinations.

But this makes me wonder how many aftermarket tires are in use with non-optimal pressures because the general rule is to go with the sticker, which may or may not have been optimal for the car in the first place!

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