Stupid question about rear tire PSI
Thread Starter
Senior Member

Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 106
Likes: 0
From: Troy, Michigan
Vehicle: 01 Veilside Tibby
Kind of a dumb question but would it hurt any to run the rear tires a few PSI less than the front because theres less weight on the back end, compared to the front?
Super Moderator


Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 10,795
Likes: 5
From: Pflugerville, TX
Vehicle: 2000 Elantra
It hurts fuel economy and causes uneven tire wear, to have the tires low on air. The manufacturer had an engineer figure out what the tire pressure should be. Follow the recommendation.
Administrator

Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 12,515
Likes: 2
From: Lacey, WA
Vehicle: Two Accents, Mini, Miata, Van, Outback, and a ZX-6
For lateral and braking traction if your tires are up to temperature you will achieve the best handling with staggered tire pressures. When I autox the Accent I usually settle on around 42PSI in the front and 32 PSI in the rear. I won't run that on the road though because I don't get good braking or lateral traction with the front end when the tires are cold.
For daily driving it would not hurt anything to be 1 or 2 PSI lower in the rear than the front. I also don't think you will notice much of a difference with that setup though.
Experiment with your air pressures until you find a combo you like. Sometimes I vary the PSI between the front's and rear's by about .5 - 1 PSI depending on how I plan to drive the car or when I need to carry heavy stuff. I keep the tire pressures even all the way around for daily driving though. I usually run 32 - 33 PSI on my BFG g-Force Supersport A/S tires. Anything higher causes a rough ride and anything lower affects ride control.


