Best road tyre pressures

[Jamie16v]

After a professional inspection of my tyre (kick and poke) I need to stick some air in tonight.

I have michelin pilots all round and was wondering should I stick the pressure in the owners manual or does anyone else use different pressures?

 

[TheEvilGiraffe]

RTFM. :rasp:

Why would you use anything other than that for regular road tyres, on road !?

 

[Cueball]

Good question I would like to know this aswell. Mine are 195s on Clio 182 alloys.

 

[Inferno]

Really depends on whether it's a standard road car - have you lost any significant weight from anywhere on the car?

 

[montana]

I have always stuck to 32 psi all round on my cars - front and back.

Reading the owners manual the other night i realise it states 29 rear 31 front or something similar

 

[CR1S]

I believe mine states 33 front and 30 on the back
Thats an FF with cup packs though so 16" wheels

 

[KevF182]

I agree with Montana, same front and back, anything between 30 and 35 will work fine and depends on which tyre (and how worn it is - see below) what will work best.

One interesting thing I've found that I've not really heard others mention - I find worn tyes like higher pressure than new ones. With more tread a greater proportion of the slip angle will be created by the tread rubber and not the carcass, so higher pressures just make the tread move about more. The result is a floaty feeling car. On worn rubber, you can try higher pressures to sharpen the handling, but outright grip will still suffer.

small changes to either front or rear make a notable difference so try it and see what you like.

I find upping the rear pressure and dropping front (eg 31 front, 33 rear) makes steering more feelsome and reacts quickly on direction changes. Doing the opposite makes the steering lighter and the car feels a little slower to react to direction changes but will be more stable on and off the throttle. This took me a while to find as I'd always thought it must be better with higher front pressures as that is where the weight is, but try it for yourself!

Renualt say 33 front and 30 rear for phase 2's (IIR) and I think it can be bettered by going for 32 all round.

 

[Don]

I think that this has probably been covered on here a fair few times before...but I use 32 front and 30 rear...as you have to remember that the engine is extra weight and therefore the extra pressure on the front should help compensate for this.

 

[fletch8]

as donny has said and mines the same as his