According to the owner's manual and the driver's door tire chart, the recommended tire pressure is 36psi. Upon driving it climbs to 38-39 and it's not even summer yet. Does that seem a bit high to you?

 

No that's normal. When my tires heat up I'm at 39/40 psi. Are you using air or nitrogen? It costs but nitrogen will hold more consistent psi numbers.Plus you service tires cold.

 

It's nitrogen and yes the tires were measured when they were cold. It just seems high because my old car I was at around 32-34 psi.

Thanks though. Picked up my 2016 black on black yesterday!

 

Looks great!!!!

 

Yes, mine has 36 psi when cold, with nitrogen, and heats up to about 39 when hot. Also, my 2015 GS 350 F-Sport (which I'm in the process of selling) has staggered 19's also and calls for 35 front and 36 rear when cold.
Thanx

 

When Ford Explorers were new, they used to turn over pretty easily. Eventually they discovered people weren't used to the more truck-like suspension so they drove with less tire pressure to soften the ride and came out of their rims on hard curves, etc.. I guess me telling naysayers I ran two sets of Michelin Defenders to 100K at 40lbs cold on my 1996 Acura RL; advised by a very highly qualified service manager (Scottsdale Acura, Earnhardt Lexus and Chapman BMW) to run them at 40 is what? I am lying? Mistaken? Stupid? He ran his tires at 42 cold. I find 42 a bit much.
Setting them at 40 cold at the Costco self-serv nitrogen station (any two self-serve stations can be off by 2+lb, i.e., pressure reading error) and settling out at around my sweet spot of 39, keeps the tires running cool and stiff and as I stated on my 2013 Lexus, I am at about 80K with no center wear whatsoever. Turns out I live in mountains of N. Arizona and I've decided if I slow down on the many hairpin curves I drive, I might get closer to 100K. (The Lexus is far sportier than the Acura RL designed as a soft ride Japanese chauffer car.
Keeping the tire stiff, runs them cooler and they roll better. No center line wear whatsoever By the way, a quick bit of research calls for about 200lb before tires become dangerous from over inflation. I will always run 40lbs nitrogen. PS the car feels great with 40lbs Have fun..

Note: Since when did mfg or the gov ever have us in mind? They are catering to the soft-ride sell and they don't care how often you replace tires.. Bet you Tesla tires would run longer at 40lb.

 

Cooler tires don't grip as well. Rubber compounds have an operating range, and for street tires it's pretty wide, but if you're using the tire to its potential, it needs to be in the 160F to 180F range on the tread with the exact temperature considered a trade secret for the compound. Most racers figure it out from measuring tire temperatures in service and looking at wear patterns on the tires. The massive volume An Introduction to Race Car Engineering by Warren J. Rowley devotes the first three chapters of the book to examining and understanding tire wear to fix problems because there is nothing on your car more important to performance than your tires.

You're massively misunderstanding what the maximum pressure number on the sidewall means. This is a number based on the tire rolling against a drum at full rated load. The carcass might survive 200 psi, but the tread compound will not, and it will come off in chunks from overheating if you choose to violate this maximum. It's not a regulatory conspiracy to keep us buying tires. The little laser device Discount Tire has adopted is definitely a conspiracy to convince you to buy new tires when you don't need them, but the manufacturer's numbers on the sidewall are not.

There's a whole lot more to tire performance than center wear, and I've spent enough time at the track for myself and for my customers to understand their performance and how to get the most from your tires. 40 psi might work just fine for you and be a greasy slippery ride for me. I know I would never consider running pressure that high for a track day. I wouldn't get 3 laps done before I'd be sliding all over the place.

I run the recommended pressure from the factory in all my cars unless I've experimented and found something different works better for me and my driving. I don't run nitrogen, and there's zero magic to nitrogen despite all the claims. There is only ONE advantage to nitrogen filling - it has no water in it. Compressed air is already ~80% nitrogen, but there's always water in it, and the water component is what makes a much larger pressure change. Where you are in Arizona, there's likely very little humidity and your compressed air has a very small water component. Where I live in Georgia, the humidity is high and water in your compressed air is a serious problem compared to dry nitrogen especially for compressed air containers which experience loss of integrity from internal corrosion. Tire pressure rise from water is well known, and the reason dry nitrogen is used in aircraft - the tires and the landing gear struts are serviced with dry nitrogen to stabilize the pressures under extreme temperatures experienced by aircraft in normal operation. IMHO, it's a marketing ploy more than anything, and I might just know a little bit about nitrogen. I was Chief of Operations at an Air Force lab using 7 tons of liquid nitrogen a week to process gas samples at the end of my career and I worked 6 years on the flight line servicing WC-135B aircraft for global deployments.

 

lobuxracer,
Great to hear your insights! Love what this forum is capable of.. tire compounds, heat and cool and "unless I've experimented and found something different works better for me and my driving" are great insights we don't get hanging around a convenience store parking lot. Tire pressure is a huge component of driving and we can vary it and get different results. Certainly to me, my cars have always felt more nimble and agile at 40lb and is very enjoyable. Because tires don't explode until the range of 200 psi, I don't think running 40lb, a few lbs over what is "recommended", is a very big deal, and for longer tread wear. Sidewall flex is a huge consideration regarding tire temp, but so is which side of the car the sun is shining on in Arizona.. I am quite happy with 40lb on three sets of Michelins, two on the Acura RL and one on the sportier ES350 and wished to share my thoughts and experience and where it comes from, i.e., a knowledgeable service manager for Acura, Lexus and BMW, and my own personal findings.

Driving is fun! And a lot of it comes from the automation of patterns and habits we've settled into as driver's subtly sensing our surroundings as we navigate curves and complexities of traffic, watching for cops and recognizing we just stopped for a stop sign or a red light without consciously being aware of stopping. Driving with a friend with favored music in the background, great shared conversation at a normal voice and scenery blasting by on mountain roads, or pasture or desert lands is quite the feat.. That we are in the creative alpha frequency is how good it can get.. I do a Sunday drive loop most Sundays watching the sky, noticing lake levels changing, counting elk, raven and maybe a few hawks as I hone in on the beginning of my next week.. Great forum.