How much air?

Several of us have had this happen. I put in nearly 3,000 miles and found all pressures to be 45 psi. Service dept. says they are shipped over pressure in case they lose some air, they will not have to bring in equipment to storage yard to inflate. Basically dealer prep is sloppy. Frank

Checked with the dealer this AM. He said they normally put 33 psi in for all-around driving in this area (So. Calif.).

Did the "several of [you]" go with the "official" inflation pressures or something else?

What strikes me also is: how does Subaru define "load" or "loaded"? The max load for the car is 900 pounds. So, is that the number that triggers the need for 36 lbs. in back? Or if, say, three large adults are in the car, with some luggage, is that a "load" or "loaded"?

Hal

My owner manual describes what is light/normal and what is considered heavy. What does your manual say?? ed

Hal, I (and several others I know have responded many times before to similar threads) run 35psi all the time. That's a personal choice, but I know that is what my dealership usually advises folks too. This gives longer mileage wear on your tires, somewhat better gas mileage (not scientifically measured in my case, just logically assumed), and still provides good handling. The lower recommended psi ratings should give a softer ride, admittedly, but I'm happy with 35psi. You can certainly experiment, and find what suits your driving tastes etc. You certainly don't want to run terribly LOW pressures, for obvious reasons, but running higher, as allowed by whatever limits your tires have, is not a problem if you know what the tradeoffs are. You're not locked in to one setup and one setup only.

Again, find what suits you. I typically have no passengers in the back seat, but carry a toolbox and bike wheel in the rear, and bike on the top rack. All these variables affect something, but as I said above, I just run

35psi and it works fine for me and gives good tire wear as well.

Does it make sense, then, for me to run with a higher pressure for a long highway-only drive?

I always check tire pressure and oil when filling up for that long, highway only, trip. I always make sure it is a bit over what is stated on the inside of the driver's side door. Upon looking at my tire's max rating of

45psi, I've wondered if I should push it up to the high 30's or ever 40 psi, then let the extra pressure out at the end of the trip for better handling in wet.

cheers!

-- Dominic Richens | snipped-for-privacy@alumni.uottawa.ca "If you're not *outraged*, you're not paying attention!"

I know of some on this newsgroup who say they do run 40 or even more, I believe. My tires are usually max of 35, so that's what I run. I guess you might try the higher #s and see how it works in terms of ride stiffness, handling, etc.

Hello HW

My previous car's (1982 Mercedes) owner's manual suggested adding 2psi if doing a lot of highway travel and 4psi if doing high speed highway travel. I run my 2000 Legacy with 3psi more than suggested by the owner's manual as I do quite a bit of highway and the harder (not by much, if anything...) ride is OK with me.

My 2 cents...

Nicolas

P.s. sorry if this is duplicate, not sure if sent the first time...

i run 40# all the time in my 205/55 re92's, oem tires on impreza wrx.

much better feel for the road.

jm2c ken

For years, in all my cars, I have run 32psi with no ill effects

I'm not sure why the manufacturers always seem to recommend less (or why dealers always seem to pump in more) -- I find the 30s give longer wear to the tires. But 32 doesn't make it as rough a ride as maybe 38 would.

Yes, I was noticing yesterday as I shopped for tires online that the 55 series tires tend to allow that higher pressure. First time I had occasion to see why some can run the higher pressures, since I had never run across it on any tire I owned previously. (Of course, some truck tires allow the higher psi too, for obvious reasons.)

One of the advantages of radial tires is the flexible sidewalls allow the tire to keep the rigid (belt) in contact with the road surface. If you exceed the recommended pressure by more than a couple of pounds (I use

If it does that, I haven't found the page yet. I've looked both in the area about tire pressures, and the area about loading the car.

Your manual is for an '04? I'd be interested in the page reference(s).

Thanks.

Ummm...then why do you us +4 psi over recommended? You want to "loose the radial advantag"? Sorry, I'm missing something here.

HW

The "radial advantage" is in traction and handling, not fuel economy. Add

4psi if you don't care about the former and want more of the latter.

-- Dominic Richens | snipped-for-privacy@alumni.uottawa.ca "If you're not *outraged*, you're not paying attention!"

Thanks for the clarification. I'll doublecheck the driver's door post, where the pressures are posted, but I don't think anything so clear as you describe is there.

HW

significantly.

What is your general impression of the 2004 WRX STi?

I was looking at one today and it seemed pretty impressive. I was a bit surprised that it weighed as much as it does. I was expecting it to be under 3000 pounds, but instead it is close to 3300. I guess 4-wheel drive adds quite a bit.

I asked about the additional weight of AWD on a Forester XT. The salesperson said about 100 lbs. Since that vehicle is on the same Impreza platform as the WRX (in fact, my XT engine is a detuned version of the STi engine.....yee-haa!), it should hold true for the WRX, if he's correct.

HW