QuestionMr. Smith, I bought this neat little car brand new in August of "05. I drive a lot due to work. I have some 41,000 miles on the car now and have gone thru two sets of tires. I am use to getting more than 20,000 miles out of a set of tires so this is disappointing. Any ideas? The manufacturer seems to recommend tire pressure of 30 psi and the tire states a max of 44 psi. Should I stay with the 30 psi figure? I appreciate your counsel.
AnswerMichael,
Let's do the basics first.
Pressure: What is written on the vehicle placard is valid if you are using the same size as written on the placard.
But a little bit more inflation pressure is probably going to help things. 3 to 5 psi more will get you better fuel economy, better tire wear, and a whole bunch of other things, and will only hurt the ride quality.
But the issue of tire wear is complex.
First is that tires with higher speed ratings - and the SX uses V rated tires - are designed more for grip than wear. 20K miles out of V rated is not unexpected. The obvious thing would be to downgrade to a tire with higher wear ratings. This is going to be problematic.
First is that the general rule is to use the same speed rating as came on the vehicle so the vehicle handling isn't changed very much by changing tires. Tire Dealers tend to follow this rule because to do otherwise tends to open up the risk of a lawsuit should something bad happen.
Plus this type of change is in the direction of less safety. So while I am sympathetic to the problem, I can only suggest that you don't go lower than an H rating.
Another issue is cornering - where most tire wear occurs. The more corners you take (or the less you travel in a straight line) the more wear your tires experience. So if you travel a lot in the downtown area, you'll wear your tires faster than if you are traveling on the interstate between cities.
And last, but not least is alignment. You didn't say whether your tires were wearing evenly, but in case the weren't, you should get an alignment.
Hope this helps.
