Are they accurate ? - I mean reasonably so, rather than absolutely spot on. And can the be incosnistent ?
I\'ve got a very slow puncture in one tyre. However, since that really means changing all four tyres (4x4) I\'ve been living with it to get a bit more wear out of all the tyres.
I\'ve been using the Shell garage near me and been putting about 5lbs in every two or three weeks as welll as occasionally checking the others - so I\'d expect them to be reasonably accurate.
By chance I went into a different garage yesterday and checked the tyre pressures and they were all over the place. Two lower than they should be and two very very much higher.
The car is in for new tyres this week anyway, but its a bit concerning - especially since I don\'t know which garage is wrong.
I know I could buy a tyre pressure gauge - but lets assume that I\'m not likely to do so, since I\'d only lose it anyway and I am unlikely to have the patience to use it before I did.
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Mark, why would you lose it? I have kept a pen-type gauge in the glovebox for years, and have never needed to buy another. It may not be spot-on (I've no reason to suspect it isn't) but the important thing is that you have a reliable reference point, so you can detect the onset of slow punctures.
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Garage airlines are ok in an emergency, but having been dropped and thrown on the floor for x years they are unlikely to be accurate. A small pressure gauge can live in the glovebox to avoid loss, and ensures that even if it is not 100% accurate then at least all four tyres have equal pressures, much more important than getting the actual figure right.
BTW, why don't you just have the tyre repaired? FoC at Kwik-Fit.
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Haven?t used one for months since the last garage one I used overinflated my tyres by about 10 lb psi. Instead, I have bought a digital, plug into cigar lighter inflator from Halfords, checked it against my local mechanics airline which he said was accurate and against a cheap digital gauge I have. All agreed. So now I can check all the family?s tyres (nobody but me seems capable of checking tyres!)in about five minutes on a weekly basis, not get grubby from the line etc which seems to be left lying across the forecourt and can also take it with me on holidays, check trailer and caravan pressures easily etc. Might be worth investing £20 (?) in one for convenience, peace of mind and it might even save you the cost of a new tyre.
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Halfords do a digital air pressure gauge correct to 1psi for £5.99.
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Get one of those Halfords cheapie digital ones. They'll fit on a keyring or hang inside a garage door. You're supposed to check tyres cold anyway.
I can't see why one garage would show your tyres at different pressures unless they really were - just go round again - if there's a random error it would show up.
Or, for a man of your standing - get a set of those valve covers that warn of low pressure. www.dexdirect.co.uk/acatalog/Shop_Entrance_Tyre_va...l
(ignore the tyreflies please!
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Given that some garages charge 10p or so for use of their apparatus are they not bound to check accuracy under some trading standard regulation? Or is there some obscure disclaimer notice displayed on the premises.
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Our local Esso filling station has a digital air line which is free to use.
It's the type of machine that requires you to dial in the required pressure and then just put the nozzle on the tyre valve and it pumps air in up to the required pressure or even lets air out if the tyre is overinflated to begin with.
Unfortunately I have found that when it stops pumping and the tyre is supposedly at the correct pressure, I can put the nozzle back onto the valve and the machine will continue to pump air in again, then it will stop and I can repeat the procedure, each time it's stopped because the pressure is supposedly right, but it will pump more air in each time I refit the nozzle onto the valve, seemingly infinitely.
I've reported it to the cashiers but they're not interested.
I now begun to use the Asda filling station air line with the traditional type of gauge attached to the line, which is also free. I have a lot more faith in the readings being consistent even if they may not be entirely accurate.
PP
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Unfortunately I have found that when it stops pumping and the tyre is supposedly at the correct pressure, I can put the nozzle back onto the valve and the machine will continue to pump air in again, then it will stop and I can repeat the procedure, each time it's stopped because the pressure is supposedly right, but it will pump more air in each time I refit the nozzle onto the valve, seemingly infinitely.
PP,
I think this is due to the way these pumps work - say you dial in 30psi, the pump will initially over-inflate your tyre, to say 32psi and then deflate it to 30psi. Therefore if your tyres are already at 30psi it will still go through the inflate-deflate procedure.
Personally I have found these air lines to be the most accurate. In any case I've had a cheap digital guage (Drapers?) which I've had for years in the door-cubby and a 12V mini-compressor in the boot for emergencies (also very useful for inflating footballs/beachballs/airbeds etc).
Chad.
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"Unfortunately I have found that when it stops pumping and the tyre is supposedly at the correct pressure, I can put the nozzle back onto the valve and the machine will continue to pump air in again, then it will stop and I can repeat the procedure, each time it's stopped because the pressure is supposedly right, but it will pump more air in each time I refit the nozzle onto the valve, seemingly infinitely."
Why would you keep putting the nozzle back on again? The machine has already told you it has reacehd the correct pressure, so why try to inflate further?
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cardew, I believe that the reason most garages don't charge is that providing a free service leaves them free from liability.
A facility that is charging can't disclaim its way out of its basic legal responsibilities.
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I have a decent dial guage, and always check them and have never known them to be bad enough to need adjustment, ie within 1psi.
The older ones with a large metal nozzle with built in parallax guage seem to be on the way out in favour of ones where you dial in a pressure and it stops and beeps at that pressure, I have found these accurate too.
I think the company that continually remanufactured the old nozzles went bust though or no longer does them, as there seems to be a lot of garages with these that have been out of order for ages, as if they can't be bothered to buy a new air system.
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I agree with Sooty T, follow the same discipline. I am especially particular given we have 2 motorcycles where accuracy of tyre pressure is possibly (I personally believe) more important than a small variation in car tyres.
But we are spolit where I live. They have those things that look like LPG containers on a set of wheels at the gasoline stations and some cute little thing called Belinda or Sophie or Gloria or something in a uniform and shorts wearing a baseball cap who says good morning sir welcome to Shell may I check your tyres for you while your tank is filling.
When that happens your blood pressure may be a bigger issue than your tyre pressure.........
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"ignore the tyreflies please!"
But a combination might be good - i.e. ones that light up when the pressure is down!
I'm sure I once saw a universal version of the pressure caps advertised - you could set the pressure yourself and an indicator would go up or down according to the condition of the tyre. I think my only reservation would be that the cap must be holding the internal valve open to register the pressure, so it could add to a leak.
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PhilW made laugh. Get your tyres checked. Well they look OK to me they've all got air in them. No I mean the pressures.
Well I thought they did that when they serviced it.
That was back in February.
Well I don't have time I'm meeting Marianne (or someone) for lunch at Piccolo Mondo.
The Goodyear Tyre Service Centre is right next to that place. Leave the car with them while you have lunch.
Oh all right then.
And tell me when you've done it.
Oh all right then.
.........ever get that feeling you're always pulling the wagon?
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I know I could buy a tyre pressure gauge - but lets assume that I\'m not likely to do so, since I\'d only lose it anyway .....
Give up smoking and you can then use the ashtray to keep it in ;o)
ps, garage air lines are *supposed* to be accurate, but rarely are. I've just had 2 new tyres fitted on the front of the Vectra a couple of weeks ago, checked pressures yesterday and one was over-inflated by 3 psi, the other under-inflated by 5 psi. Both tyres were fitted by one bloke using the same airline!! Could have understood it if each tyre was fitted by separate people.
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garage air lines are *supposed* to be accurate, but rarely are. I've just had 2 new tyres fitted on the front of the Vectra a couple of weeks ago, checked pressures yesterday and one was over-inflated by 3 psi, the other under-inflated by 5 psi. Both tyres were fitted by one bloke using the same airline!! Could have understood it if each tyre was fitted by separate people.
DD, unless you specifically state the pressure that you want them to put in, tyre fitters usually put extra pressure in a newly fitted tyre to allow for leakage as the tyre beds in. The over inflated one has probably not leaked and the other has.
I don't see how anyone can get an accurate tyre pressure reading from a garage airline, unless they live next door to the garage. The tyres begin to warm up as soon as you drive on them. Once you've acellerated, braked and gone round a few corners the pressures will have risen by a few psi anyhow(especially the fronts). I always check mine (once a week) on the driveway, first thing in the morning before driving off, with a digital gauge.
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Kith wrote-
Tyre fitters usually put extra pressure in newly fitted tyre to allow for leakage as the tyre beds in
Im a mechanic and quallified tyre fitter and ive never heard of putting in extra pressure to allow for leakage!!
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i remember a Which report a few years back saying that analog air lines where extremley inacurate compared to the new digital air lines. i find the digital ones good. they have them in asda and some shell garages
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Mark, you could have put a new tyre on with no problems. You've got open diffs, so it doesn't matter a jot if the tyres are different sizes, that's what diffs are for. After all, unless you are going in an absolutely straight line, and with front and rears at exactly the same state of wear, then all wheels and front and rear prop shafts will be travelling at different speeds anyway. Don't get confused with Freelanders where it is recommended all tyres get changed as it has a funny centre diff that doesn't like to do any work. Come to think of it, there isn't anything much on a Freelander that does like to do any work, least not for long anyway.
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LMAO at Dave N ^^^^^^^^^^^
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So the solution is to buy a gauge from Halfords is it? How do you know that is any more accurate than one from the garage?
I checked my pressures 3 weeks ago at Tescos round the corner from home. When I checked again on Sunday, they were all 5psi too high.
Who knows!
Checked 2 brand new Michelin footpumps with gauges against each other at Christmas. 3psi difference.
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mapmaker,
surely the solution would be to purchase a gauge independently recommended by an automotive authrority such as:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/faq.htm?id=27
Anyway surely Mark (RLBS) would get a modertors discount?? Especially for repeat orders
Regards
Vercin
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Have to say I don't use garage air lines these days, since purchase of Halfords dial pressure gauge and plug-in-the-cigarette-lighter compressor. True, you need the engine running to use it, but I reckon it's less hassle overall.
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"So the solution is to buy a gauge from Halfords is it? How do you know that is any more accurate than one from the garage?"
As I said, I checked it against a recently calibrated one at a friend's garage, and against my digital gauge and all three coincided so they can't be too far out?
"you need the engine running to use it"
I don't bother to have engine running. Battery seems to cope OK - but then tyres are rarely out by much if checked regularly.
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just come back from Holland where I was showing my car at a mega event - FULL SPEED at Rosmalen where they had 30,000 or so visitors! it was great fun!
After washing my car before the event I decided to do the tyres at the garage while I was at it. I knew I wanted 40 so that was the setting I put in.
All my tyres seemed to be incredibly down...
until I realised the setting was "bar" and 40 psi equals about 2.6 bar (give or take a lot!)
so make sure you don't mix up the psi and bar numbers - if you ignore the decimal they are too close for comfort but sufficiently different to be well out!
pat
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And Lidl will sell you a compressor for £9.99 from next Thursday.
tinyurl.com/28smh
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>until I realised the setting was "bar"
Just as well you didn't get 40 bar...
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>until I realised the setting was "bar" Just as well you didn't get 40 bar...
Yes, I think you would've ended up quite literally, blowing your tyres up! :-)
Chad.
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Had to laugh one day a few years back when filling up with petrol I spied a lad about ten showing off to several of his mates taking his new chopper bike to the airline to inflate his tyre despite the warning notices against this.
His tyre literally exploded - he was last seen disconsolately pushing his bike down the road with his mates falling about with laughter.
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Well, what an unusually plaintive post from the take-no-prisoners moderator's desk.
I, too have problem. I want some means of telling the time so I don't keep missing those important appointments. I look at clocks whenever I can but they often tell different times and the pips on the radio don't agree with any of them. Somebody told me that a clock that corrects itself by radio signal is the most accurate but I can't find one nearby. This is all very confusing. How can I get an accurate handle on the time? Let's assume that I'm not likely to buy a reliable, accurate watch because I'll only lose it even if I had the patience to look at the blessed thing in the first place.
Mark, this is a safety issue. Not only your own but that of your loved ones. Assuming you can't get hold of (!) a scantily clad Filipina to check your tyre pressures for you I suggest you, despite your misgivings, buy a tyre pressure gauge such as is recommended on this very site and train yourself to use it weekly. If you lose it, buy another one and so on until you realise its importance. New tyres aren't necessarily the answer; what if one doesn't seal to the rim correctly? Or, new tyres or old, are you just going to wait for an underinflated tyre to overheat and give you a fright or worse as it goes pop? Tyre safety is not the responsibility of the tyre manufacturer, the tyre fitter, nor that of any garage you might drop into in search of a working airline; it's yours and yours alone.
Somehow I feel that this post will fall on deaf ears; I suppose, as a smoker, you have the self-destruct gene anyway ...
Hawkeye
-----------------------------
Stranger in a strange land
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Mark: if you have a slow puncture, it may be caused by a nail, bolt or similar which is one day going to work through and cause the tyre to deflate. Just hope it doesn't happen at a time when you're putting lateral g into the rubber! Why not get the tyre off the rim and checked/repaired before you incur a greater bill?
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Well, that's all your privileges removed for a while, HE!
I have to say I'm not too clear why one slow puncture "really means changing all four tyres", unless it's because having three that are known to stay up means you don't have to check their pressures :-)
I guess that's me done for, too, now...
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Hawkeye said >" a lot of stuff that I completely agree with "
Plus if anyone is unsure of the accuracy of their gauge then a call to the local Trading Standards office will usually get a helpful response.
Failing that a call to your local IAM / RoSPA (RoADA) group will get you a steer in the right direction where the gauge can be checked. Might get some other good advice too, obviously needed.
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got myself a digital tyre inflater today from halfords thought i would give it a try on the company tranny connect,plugged it in to the cigar lighter it would not stay in the lighter.tried it in my car all ok.it appears the lighter in the connect is not deep enough to hold it in.explaines why we have a locking device to hold our laptop chargers in place.is it just the connect or have ford re-invented the cigar lighter.the inflater works a treat by the way.
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I decided one day that I wanted to know THE TIME. Not just the rough time you understand (quarter to, twenty past etc), but the absolute, accurate, actual TIME. NOW.
Well, I eventually discovered after much research that it doesn't exist!! The official, absolute time is an average taken from 12 atomic clocks in some US Navy basement - so they can't even agree. Seems no-one knows the time. I always suspected the Swiss lived a lie...
Anyway - I stopped asking, binned my Casio, and took the Rolex off my birthday list. Much happier now, you'll be pleased to know, and spent the money I saved on a GPS.
So now I know exactly WHERE I am :o))), but am invariable about 15 minutes late.
Anyway, will endevour to buy a tyre gauge.
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"So now I know exactly WHERE I am :o))), but am invariable about 15 minutes late.
Anyway, will endevour to buy a tyre gauge."
So you will now know exactly where to go to buy the gauge but will arrive a quarter of an hour after they have closed!
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Not that simple :o(
I have recently discvered that a GPS is in effect an atomic clock in your pocket! Now I know how they work out your position - time delay to fractions of nano-seconds! But I notice they don't display said atomic time, not that I would want to know.
Well, what goes around comes around.
Now, where was I?.....tyre gauge....
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Just be careful you don't use a garage airline like the one I used some time ago, which sucked all the air OUT of my tyre rather than inject some.
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HF,
Most garages now have a vacum cleaner on the forecourt. Are you sure you didn't make a mistake....
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Just in case you don't already know about this, HF - every airline I've ever used worked by letting air out of the tyre when partially squeezing the trigger, and pumping air into the tyre when fully squeezing the trigger, all in order to enable you to get the exact air pressure you require. I apologise in advance if you read this and think "Of course I already knew that"!
--
andymc
Vroom, vroom - mmmm, doughnuts
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Most of the direct pump air lines used at garage forecourts do not have a water trap in them and can inject considerable amounts of water. If you have to use one blow it into free air and make sur a mist of water does not appear. The water causes corrosion of the inside of the rim and can even cause erratic imbalance of the wheel. I always use my own dry air line or if out and about a plug in car compressor. Regards Peter
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LOL @ Tom and Andy!
I can see why you might not believe this, but I really am not that dumb! ;)
The machine I was using at the time was actually faulty, it's just that the 'out of order' sign had been nicked. Honest...!
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Mark's a long time...maybe he's gone to buy a gauge after all?
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Perhaps his MiL has brought forward her UK holiday ...
:-)
Chad.
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God forbid.
Actually I am going to forlornly spend money on some tyre gauge or whatever from Halfords or similar.
I shall then pop-off down the local Shell and blow my tyres up to some particular pressure or other and then see if the gauge tells me if it is the same pressure.
Whatever error I get I shall then assume that all filling station air lines are similar since I will definitely have lost the gauge thinghy before I ever get around to testing another.
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"Whatever error I get I shall then assume that all filling station air lines are similar"
Ah now I see how you did so well in the IQ test
If some Wicks are Slicks, and some Slicks are Snicks, then some Wicks are definitely Snicks.
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Or if one air line is close enough and most air lines are similar then very few air lines are not close enough.
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our local garage has just replaced it's "old-style" compressor "puffer-up" which cost 10p, with one of the new digital machines, that now costs 20p. i complained, and was told ..."thats the cost of inflation!!".
billy.
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