The best tyre guage I've ever had (and still use) is a push-on type with a large readout dial given to me many years ago by a Michelin tyre rep.
But it will be reassuring to owners that the digital readout type I also own (it has a long life lithium battery) gives the same readings as the Michelin offering.
Very few garage airlines give a truly accurate reading, so I use the guage to ensure a spot on reading by increasing/decreasing the airline input as required.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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But it will be reassuring to owners that the digital readout type I also own (it has a long life lithium battery) gives the same readings as the Michelin offering. Very few garage airlines give a truly accurate reading, so I use the guage to ensure a spot on reading by increasing/decreasing the airline input as required.
My digital gauge is the cheaper of the two Halfords own brand, and in which you can't change the battery, but the claimed accuracy is the same, namely +/-1 psi.
I inflate my tyres the hard way, using a footpump, and I always check/adjust the pressures when the tyres are cold (after being in my garage overnight) to ensure consistency. (It's so long since I've used a garage forecourt airline that I'm sure I'd have to read the instructions to use the more complicated type in which you have to preset the pressure that you require!)
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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Ask your local trading standards office. They usually have the kit to check garages ones.
When I had a query about which was right, my local one checked three seperate gauges for me, at no charge. They would have charged if I wanted a certificate, but all I wanted, was to know.
Ask nicely, nothing to lose!
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Surely the main issue is that the tyres are all in the correct proportion in terms of pressure, so a few psi out, is less relevant is they are all by the same amount.
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Espada III - well if you have a family and need a Lamborghini, what else do you drive?
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We've got 3 gauges around the house, 2 of the type where the indicator pops out of the end and another with a dial on it. All are cheapo Taiwan or PRC made, all give exactly the same readings. Good enough for me.
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I'm now confused on this matter. I have always owned stick or pencil type gauges and had always assumed that they were reasonably accurate. However, about 6 years ago I went into Halfords and bought a digital read-out one made by 'Accutire', but it suffered from having a very hard sealing rubber compound that made it difficult to read tyres pressure without getting a loss of valuable air. I also found, that the readings from this digital gauge were about 2psi lower than the reading from two pencil gauges that I had to hand.
Not being at work any more (and having access to various Silicone and other Synthetic rubbers etc), I found that I could not improve on this seal and gave up using it. Recently however, I got all fired up again, having just taken delivery of a new MKV Golf and therefore decided to try and modify the Accutire gauge, using the rubber from an old mouse mat, whose resilience seemed to be just about right for the job.
A digital gauge does not have to be right just because the reading is 'digital' but I thought that I'd treat myself to another more fancy one again sold in Halfords and which, although branded by them, was clearly an Accutire-sourced one. This new one has a built in back light and gives pressures in both psi and bar but it still possesses a rather hard rubber seal although it does give exactly the same readings as the old Accutire digital gauge. I'll now assume that I have always been over inflating my tyres using the pencil gauge and that the digital gauges must be giving the more accurate readings?
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I inflate my tyres the hard way, using a footpump
Think of all that extra effort you have expended over the years to overinflate your tyres by 4psi each. Still good exercise.
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tyres the hard or easy(i use a footpump as well)way should always be checked every week with a digital (easier to use!)
or decent gauge.
Cant believe the amount of people that run around in their cars then go to a filling station for some fuel and check their tyres?
dont know if its just me but i dont really know how to ajust psi for hot tyres.Its so easy when their cold and only takes 10 minutes and thats if they need pumping up.Tyres are the only part (hopefully)that are touching the road.
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Using absolute temperature, you can work out how much extra pressure is required for a hot tyre. I wouldn't imagine it to be much more than 10%; assuming a cold tyre is 30psi at ambient temperature of 20C (=> 293K); at 40C (=> 313K) the hot tyre would need 32psi.
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I inflate my tyres the hard way, using a footpump Think of all that extra effort you have expended over the years to overinflate your tyres by 4psi each. Still good exercise.
No, no, no!
My LATEST gauge reads 4 psi LOWER than my PREVIOUS gauge, so if I were to pump the tyres up to 32 psi on my previous gauge I would then have to add 4 psi's worth of air to the tyres to get a reading of 32 psi on my new gauge. In other words, during the years that I was using my old gauge, I was UNDER-inflating the tyres by 4 psi ~ always assuming that my new gauge is accurate and that the old one isn't!
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L\'escargot by name, but not by nature.
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My digital gauge is the cheaper of the two Halfords own brand, and in which you can't change the battery, but the claimed accuracy is the same, namely +/-1 psi.
Same here. Did you also think it somehow very wrong to sell an electronic item for which the battery can't be changed? What a waste of resources when the thing runs out! And why did the packet not make clear that I was not buying it, merely paying for a time-limited right to use it?
(It's so long since I've used a garage forecourt airline that I'm sure I'd have to read the instructions ...)
Easy:
1. Press big "ON" button.
2. Walk to tyre.
3. Press hose end connector onto tyre valve.
4. Listen to air escaping.
5. Return to big "ON" button and press again. Notice that it is heavily damped so it didn't register last time.
6. Walk back to tyre.
7. Press hose end connector onto tyre valve.
8. Listen to tyre inflate, thereby replacing the air that just escaped.
9. Please Note: for our [sic] convenience, at this stage the pathetically short time-out will trigger and air pressure will be lost.
10. Listen to air escaping.
11. Repeat steps 5 to 10 until driving home with one flat tyre becomes an appealing prospect.
:o)
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Or go to one garage, think hmmm while here I will pump up the boots. Find to your shock that front l/h is 10psi down, so pump it up. Go to front r/h and find that too is 10psi down.
Bing
Light goes on
Drive home with one front tyre 10psi over vowing never to drive onto that forecourt again!
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