Check your air pressure!

[YarisSedan]

Originally Posted by YarisOwnersDad

You know, it should be a very simple thing for the technician who performs your oil change to check your tire pressure and inflate the tires to the proper pressure. This is supposed to be included in the service when the oil is changed.

Well, I had my oil changed this past Monday at the dealership where I bought the car, and guess what? When I checked my air pressure today, five days after the dealership's service department performed the oil change, I found that the tires were inflated to 27 psi!

I aired them up to the recommended 32 psi myself here at home. I wonder if the pressure had leaked-off to 27 psi, or if the technician thought they were supposed to be at 27 psi. If the tires had been running at 27 psi for a while, that might explain some of my lower than expected MPG on the last few tanks of gas.

That was the second oil change for my Yaris, and the first one was also done at the dealership. The first one was free. I don't remember if I checked air pressure between the first and second oil changes or not.

This just goes to show you that you should check that pressure on a regular basis and that you cannot count on the service department to inflate them to the proper pressure all the time.

Tom

Air pressure changes throughout the day. Especially after a brisk drive. It can raise the pressure by a few pounds. For example it was a warm day. You been maybe driving little agressively enough to heat up the tires a bit. Then the technician checks your tire pressure and its at about 32. On a tire check they are not really that accurate so anything between 29-32 looks almost the same.

Then you check it some time later and its a cold day maybe morning time and the car hasnt been driven yet and now the tire pressure is at its ultimate low.

Or just the mechanic is lazy and hasnt checked tire pressure. I honestly as a mechanic have been guilty of that once or twice. Especialy on a really long day when your busting out 15 oil changes nonstop. You tell yourself well its got tire pressure monitoring system. I checked one tire and its decent i guess its safe to say the rest are good. And then ship the car.

Your car could have come at the end of the day of a mechanics shift. Maybe hes working flate rate and trying to get the car out as fast as possible, new or just really lazy.

I tell you EVERY single day atleast once i get asked by a customer to check thier tire pressure. Even though it says we do on our paperwork, for every oil change we perform at my shop. And then they go to pay they quiz me on what it was and what it is now. That tells me unfortunately it seems to be a common practice to skip tire pressure checking once and awile.

I am looking into getting a cordless tire chuck. Its pretty much a small motorized tire chuck that runs off a 12v battery that has its own minature air compressor. So you can walk around the car and fill air much faster without having to drag that annoying air hose around the car.

Also good for filling air on the go at home without the use of a air compressor.

[YarisOwnersDad]

Originally Posted by YarisSedan

Air pressure changes throughout the day. Especially after a brisk drive. It can raise the pressure by a few pounds. For example it was a warm day. You been maybe driving little agressively enough to heat up the tires a bit. Then the technician checks your tire pressure and its at about 32. On a tire check they are not really that accurate so anything between 29-32 looks almost the same.

Then you check it some time later and its a cold day maybe morning time and the car hasnt been driven yet and now the tire pressure is at its ultimate low.

Or just the mechanic is lazy and hasnt checked tire pressure. I honestly as a mechanic have been guilty of that once or twice. Especialy on a really long day when your busting out 15 oil changes nonstop. You tell yourself well its got tire pressure monitoring system. I checked one tire and its decent i guess its safe to say the rest are good. And then ship the car.

Your car could have come at the end of the day of a mechanics shift. Maybe hes working flate rate and trying to get the car out as fast as possible, new or just really lazy.

I tell you EVERY single day atleast once i get asked by a customer to check thier tire pressure. Even though it says we do on our paperwork, for every oil change we perform at my shop. And then they go to pay they quiz me on what it was and what it is now. That tells me unfortunately it seems to be a common practice to skip tire pressure checking once and awile.

I am looking into getting a cordless tire chuck. Its pretty much a small motorized tire chuck that runs off a 12v battery that has its own minature air compressor. So you can walk around the car and fill air much faster without having to drag that annoying air hose around the car.

Also good for filling air on the go at home without the use of a air compressor.

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I am aware that the pressure changes with the temperature of the air in the tire. I drove 25 miles to get to the shop, so I asked them to inflate the tires to 35 psi, hoping that that would equate somewhere close to 32 psi cold pressure.

Tom

[jambo101]

Teaches you to always recheck what you can after having your car serviced,on rare occasions they will actually forget to put the new oil in the car.,27psi isnt out of the ball park for operating parameters for your car,i usually run 28psi in winter to get a bit more traction.
Then theres always the possibility that the mechanic did in fact fill your tires to the correct pressure and your tire pressure gauge is misreading the correct psi. i once had a digital pressure gauge that was 10psi off. I've since bought my tire pressure gauges at the local speed shop and try to get the ones the racers use heres my current gauge
http://stefsperformance.com/bandb/pr...ge%2040540.jpg

[YarisOwnersDad]

Originally Posted by jambo101

Teaches you to always recheck what you can after having your car serviced,on rare occasions they will actually forget to put the new oil in the car.,27psi isnt out of the ball park for operating parameters for your car,i usually run 28psi in winter to get a bit more traction.
Then theres always the possibility that the mechanic did in fact fill your tires to the correct pressure and your tire pressure gauge is misreading the correct psi. i once had a digital pressure gauge that was 10psi off. I've since bought my tire pressure gauges at the local speed shop and try to get the ones the racers use heres my current gauge
http://stefsperformance.com/bandb/pr...ge%2040540.jpg

How much "lettuce" we talkin' for one of those puppies?

[jambo101]

Originally Posted by YarisOwnersDad

How much "lettuce" we talkin' for one of those puppies?

Between $30 to $40
As for the 40psi max on that particular model they do make others

[nemelek]

Originally Posted by jambo101

Teaches you to always recheck what you can after having your car serviced,on rare occasions they will actually forget to put the new oil in the car.,27psi isnt out of the ball park for operating parameters for your car,i usually run 28psi in winter to get a bit more traction.
Then theres always the possibility that the mechanic did in fact fill your tires to the correct pressure and your tire pressure gauge is misreading the correct psi. i once had a digital pressure gauge that was 10psi off. I've since bought my tire pressure gauges at the local speed shop and try to get the ones the racers use heres my current gauge
http://stefsperformance.com/bandb/pr...ge%2040540.jpg

That won't work for the hypermilers that put 50 psi in each tire.

[YarisOwnersDad]

Originally Posted by nemelek

That won't work for the hypermilers that put 50 psi in each tire.

Ah, I had not noticed that the max pressure for that gauge is 40 psi.

Well, I only plan to run the recommended 32 psi, so that gauge would work for me.

Tom

[Yaris Hilton]

Originally Posted by jambo101

Then theres always the possibility that the mechanic did in fact fill your tires to the correct pressure and your tire pressure gauge is misreading the correct psi.

Or that the mechanic's gauge was off. Tire gauges and scales are immensely variable.