How To: Check the Air Pressure in your Tires

I love to fix our cars.  Mr. is the car-repair man, but I'm the lovely assistant.  My dad, and my husband, have taught me lots about car maintenance.  I can easily check and refill my oil, wiper fluid, power steering fluid, & coolant.  An often overlooked and simple thing to do is check your tire pressure.

Some of you have new-fangled cars that alert you when your pressure is low.  Neato!  But driving around with low tire-pressure reduces your gas mileage and wears out your tires faster.  I hate buying new tires.  Ugh.

This will be the easiest thing you've ever learned about cars, and will ensure you're driving safe.

Here's how it's done:

Look closely at the side-wall of your tire.  There will be printed the optimal tire pressure for the particular tires you have.  They are all different so don't assume all your tires should hold the same PSI (Pounds of air pressure per Square Inch).

My tires should be at 50 PSI.  

I read mine and they were all at around 30 PSI.  Yikes! 

There are several types of air pressure gauges:  

The pencil gauge looks like a pencil, and has a "ruler" inside. When you press it into the valve of your tire it pushed out according to how much pressure is in your tire and you read the number off the ruler.  I carry one of these in my car.

The dial gauge looks like a clock or bike pump and the hand points to the pressure reading.  We also have these, one in one car, and one on the tire-filling attachment to our air compressor.

  The digital gauge tells pressure, well, digitally.  These look pretty nifty, but I might have trouble keeping batteries around for when it inevitably runs out of juice.

So use the gauge to read your current tire pressure.  If it's low, pull out your air compressor or head down to your local Chevron.  Most Chevron gas stations have free air.  You read it right, not every gas station has free air, and I refuse to pay for it.

Pull up so your front bumper is centered on the pump.  This will ensure that the hose will reach all four tires without having to move your car.  Which is so annoying.

Unscrew the black valve cap.  Don't lose it.

Attach the air hose to the valve and start filling up.  Check occasionally with your tire gauge.  Too full is just as bad and too low.

When you get to the correct PSI, screw on the valve cap.  

Drive easy knowing you are safely riding on the road and saving your family money, too.

Happy driving!