Tire Pressure @ Delivery?

Thank You! I fixed the psi on them putting it at 40/38. Max psi on the tires say 50 so I should be in a great range!

 

Mine was 36 front 34 rear, filled it up to 41 front 40 rear for now. Will experiment more later on. Let me know what you find as the best pressure for MPG. Also will you be lowing PSI during the winter months for increased traction?

 

Mine were 39/37 - and I've left them there. Decent mileage and better ride comfort than I'm used to.

 

The effects of air pressure on traction is mainly based on your driving conditions and road surface types. 40psi is not going to change much in the way of traction. Hydroplaning resistance is higher with higher inflation than with lower but wet braking could suffer if pressure gets too high. 40psi is kind of a nice medium. Especially considering cold temperatures where rolling resistance can double. Remember that for every 10F difference in temperature you can expect a 1psi change in tire air pressure. So inflating your tires to 40psi when it's 100F outside could cause your tires to only be 36psi in the morning.

Tire Tech Information - Air Pressure: When and How to Set

 

I just checked mine and Toyota of Pasadena had mine set to 33/32 front and 35/34 rear. Figures...

 

Mine were 32/32 at delivery [not surprised, porters probably put every cars tires there]. Currently running 40/38 on mystery stock alignment.

 

I took delivery two days ago and checked mine yesterday. All four were at 50psi. I let some air out and it appears to be a smoother ride. They're at 42/40 now.

 

Woah. I just checked mine today after a month of having the car. I was intending to put the tyres a little higher than the placard values but then the system started letting air out. I was so shocked that I didn't end up checking what they had been, but they were well over the placard value. The spare was at the maximum on the sidewall - 300 kPa (~43 psi) and I suspect the four on the car weren't far below that.

 

I'm confused: is there some sort of active tire pressure maintaining system on Aussie Prius C?

More confusion: up here at least, the spare is typically a compact, temporary tire, with 60 psi embossed on the sidewall. And the owners manual says to use the sidewall pressure. I've got a reg. Prius, so don't know for sure about the Prius C, but would think they're also compact temporary spare, in Canada.

Do you have a full size, regular tire for spare?

That's a good strategy.

 

Ah, no. I just went to the local service station and (assuming after four weeks a top-up/adjustment was likely in order) used the semi-automated air pump device - not sure if that's a unique thing here or not (I assumed not). You set the pressure you want on the main unit's display by pressing up/down buttons, then put the hose to the tyre valve. It will pump in or let out air as it sees fit to get to the pressure you set, then start beeping and you pull the hose off the tyre. To be honest I'm not even sure where my hand-held guage is now... I haven't used it since these automatic ones became the standard... only smaller places don't have them and most of the time I'm going to use one of the two nearest my home.

EDIT: They look like this: http://www.slengineering.com.au/wp-content/uploads/wpsc/downloadables/AIRTEC89BEP-2.jpg

We don't have anything fancy on the car - no tyre pressure warning or anything like that... just a regular tyre and a regular old fashioned valve.

Yes - Australian c's have a full size spare (and as such we also don't have those foam spacer things). The liftback is different (it has a compact spare in the base trim model and a repair kit thing in the i-Tech trim).

Looking at the Owner's Manual again now I notice it does have commenatary for vehicles with compact spares and normal spares, eg. in my case including the spare in the tyre rotation is recommended. In the specifications section there are details for a Type A, B and C. Types A and B feature compact spares for which they do recommend 420 kPa / 60 psi. I have the Type C which is 185/60R15 84H for which they recommend 220 kPa / 32 psi on all wheels.

I've so far dropped the pressure of the tyres on the road to 260 kPa... the spare is still higher... whatever it dropped to before I pulled the hose off.