Checking your tire pressure is something that every driver should do regularly. Your tires need to be correctly inflated to remain in good condition for as long as possible. Over or under-inflated tires will suffer additional wear or damage as you drive. This additional wear means your tires may need replacement sooner than otherwise necessary. As your Mazda dealer, we’d like to give you some advice on the correct way to check tire pressure.
Some Advice From Your Mazda Dealer: How To Correctly Check Tire Pressure
Before You Check the Tires
Make Sure Your Car Is Securely Parked
This can be easy to overlook, but you’ll be kneeling by your wheels to check the pressure. Ensure your car is safely parked on a flat surface, switched off, and the parking brake is on. No one want’s their car to roll backward.
Don’t Check the Pressure if You’ve Been Driving
If you’ve been driving, the friction from the road surface heats the air inside the tires. Heat increases the tire pressure, which will give you an incorrect reading. Always wait three hours after driving for your tires to cool and the pressure to equalize.
Checking the Tire Pressure
Confirm the Correct Tire Pressure
The tire pressure for your Mazda is listed in your car’s manual, and it’s also displayed inside the door jamb of the passenger front door. You’ll see different pressure listed for the front and rear tires. Write these pressures down so you can compare them to your actual tire pressure.
Check Each Tire
Remove the valve cap from the first tire and connect your tire pressure gauge. The gauge will either display the pressure on the screen or a slide-out section. Write the tire pressure down and replace the valve cap. Repeat this step for the other three tires.
Compare the Results
Once you have all your tire pressure readings, you can compare them to the recommended readings you wrote down earlier. A difference of 1-2 PSI between the recommended and actual pressures is no reason to worry. Your tires lose this amount of pressure naturally each month as the pressure inside the tires tries to equalize the external pressure.
If one or more of your tires show a greater pressure drop, this is a cause for concern. There are many reasons why a tire could lose pressure. The affected tire could have a damaged valve stem or a slow leak. The problem could also be as simple as a valve cap that wasn’t correctly tightened.
If any of your tires are lower than they should be, or you saw any damage to the tires while you were checking the air, this is a problem. Call our service department at Tom Bush Mazda, and we’ll examine your tires.
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