This week, glorious spring weather has been reported over large parts of the country. At least for everyone who lives in southern Norway, the time has come to get summer tires on the car. Many people do the work themselves, which both saves money and gives you the opportunity to take a closer look at the condition of the car’s brake discs and pads.
When the job of getting the summer tires on the car is done, it’s easy to pat yourself on the back and say “good job”. But there is one thing that many forget and which can be an expensive lesson. Checks carried out by the tire industry show that almost half of motorists drive with the wrong air pressure in their tyres.
Therefore, the first stop after a tire change should be the gas station to check the air pressure.
Cut the range
After half a year of storage, the air pressure in one or more of the tires may have changed. It can be expensive.
CHECK THE PRESSURE: A tire loses air when it is stored. therefore it is extra important to check the air pressure when you have got the summer tires on the car, Photo: Rune Korsvoll
sea view
The wear and tear on the tires can increase drastically and so can the consumption of the car if the pressure in the tires is too low. This results in increased wear on the outer edges of the tire track. Too much air in the tires also causes increased wear in the middle of the tire tread.
This is exactly what allows you to wear out a set of tires very quickly. A set of summer tires, which you could normally drive on for three or four seasons, will be worn out in one summer or just a couple of months.
The worst mistakes
Burns off 4000
With a price of NOK 8,000-9,000 for four new tyres, you have spent NOK 4,000-5,000 completely unnecessarily. If your tire pressure is 30 percent too low, the service life is halved, according to tests such as Continental have done.
In practice, this means: if you drive with 1.9 bar pressure in the tires instead of 2.5, which is often common, it can halve the lifespan of the tyre. A 15 percent reduction in tire pressure means that the tire wears out 20 percent more.
For you with an electric car
WEAR: The tire on the left shows wear from incorrect wheel alignment. The tire in the middle is driven with too low air pressure, while the tire on the right is driven with too high pressure. Ill: Continental
sea view
If you drive an electric car, correct tire pressure is also more important for another reason. Tire pressure that is too low can contribute to range anxiety kicking in. Here, the increased rolling resistance, and the accompanying increased consumption, can be read directly on the range meter.
An increase in consumption of 10 per cent means the same as the electric car’s range falling by 9 per cent. There is also the fact that the cold degrees steal a lot of range and that the winter tires with softer rubber have higher rolling resistance than the summer tyres.
Poor driving characteristics
Incorrect air pressure not only results in increased expenses, it also makes the car’s handling worse. Too much or too little air will make the installation surface against the asphalt smaller. This means poorer road grip, which in turn results in poorer braking and lateral grip, as well as less precise steering. In addition, the chance of aquaplaning at lower speeds increases.
The correct air pressure for your car is often stated on a small label that the manufacturer has put on the door pillar on the driver’s side. If you don’t find it there, it will always be in the beetle’s instruction book. Check the tire pressure two or three times this summer.
