When Is The Last Time You Had Your Tire Pressure Checked?
Did you know thatneglecting even simple routine maintenance, like changing the oil or checking the coolant, can lead to poor fuel economy, unreliability, or costly breakdowns?It can also void your warranty and we know nobody wants that! Not to mention, some avoidable automotive mishaps happen and cause accidents, further piling onto the damage.
One serious malfunction that could cause a lot of damage is a tire blowout.Every year, more than 500 people die and approximately 19,000 suffer injuries due to tire failure-related crashes.The scary truth behind that statistic is that almost all of those incidents could have been prevented if tire pressure was checked regularly.
Most tire blowouts are caused by under inflation; there simply isn’t enough air in the tire. When a tire is underinflated, the side of the tire flexes more (the side-wall always flattens a bit at the bottom as the tire rolls). That generates heat, and heat leads to tire failure.
With the wide range of temperatures Chicago experiences throughout the year, it is no surprise that the tires on our cars go through a lot of changes. Tire pressure varies based on the temperature so it is important that as the seasons change, tire pressure is monitored to make sure it is between 30 and 35 PSI (the optimal pressure for an average vehicle).
If your car was made after 2007, then it is equipped with a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS)that willalert you when your pressure falls or rises above where it should be. However, there are still a large number of vehicles being driven today that were made before 2007. These vehicles are the ones at great risk because most vehicle owners rarely, if ever, check their tire pressure.
In fact, tire pressure is always checked at auto repair shops as a part of protocol when performing an oil change. While this is good to know, it doesn’t help because most people do not bring their cars in often enough for an oil change. This leaves the tire pressure a mystery for however long the car goes between oil change visits. Not to mention, the negative effects of not getting your oil changed enough (but we won’t get into that now).
Keep your car safe and running efficiently by giving it a little more TLC.