All the talk about pipes, plants, pools, pets and people this week and I haven’t heard a word about those four important players in your life -- your tires. So with that in mind, I’ve brought back a blog about keeping you safe on the roads. Talk about a re-tread!
You may be noticing that yellow warning light coming on in your car today. That PSI warning for your tires refers to the air pressure inside the tire measured by “per square inch” and usually that pressure reads in the upper 30s or low 40s. For instance, your tire may require a 40psi (you can find this in the owners manual, on the tire itself, on the car door, or just google it!).
So what happens? Pretty simple -- hot air expands and cold air contracts, including the air inside your tires. So on a day like today, that cold air in your tires contracts so that the pressure inside the tire drops. In fact, for every 10° drop in temperatures, the pressure can drop one to two pounds per square inch! Considering we were 51° Sunday and were 19° yesterday and this morning, that will drop your air pressure considerably! And the problem with best-case scenario is that with a drop of only three to five pounds PSI, you might not get that warning light, yet you still have underinflated tires. But you get no warning!
That’s important because underinflated tires can be dangerous. According to Cars.com and the Rubber Manufacturers Association, underinflated tires can lead to tire failure. Low tire pressure results in added tire stress and irregular wear, which the agency cautions could lead to a loss of control and accidents. And looks are deceiving. “A tire can lose up to half of its air pressure and not appear to be flat,” the Rubber Manufacturers Association said in a statement.
Before you ignore all this, consider the airplane recently in the news that lost part of its fuselage: as an airplane goes up, the high air pressure inside the cabin tries to equalize to the very low air pressure outside the cabin (15lbs psi inside vs 5lbs psi outside). That puts stress on the plane every time it goes up and down and, as we have seen, if the doors and windows are not fully secure then they can come apart. Correct pressures are important and we can’t just ignore the laws of physics.
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The best thing to do is simply check the tire air pressure and make sure it’s up to the recommended PSI. You can read more from Cars.com right here.
And we’re not done--a warm up to almost 70° tomorrow will be followed by another 28-30° cold snap Saturday morning, so that yellow warning light may flash yet again!
Stay warm!
Frank