i've noticed a considerable discrepency in recomended tire pressures between the sticker on the door jam and the label on the sidewall of the tire. i think the door jam label takes in things into account like car weight and weight distribution, but what do you inflate to when your change rims from 16s to 17s?

 

door jam #'s,went from 15's to 17's tires give range. door says 33

 

The door jam will tell you the proper pressure. The sidewall will usually give you the maximum.

 

Door is the recommended tire pressure for everyday driving based on the OEM tires and the weight of the car, etc. The amount on the tire sidewall is the maximum allowable tire pressure regardless of car..don't want to use that number for proper inflation.

 

Yeah are you on new rubber? The sidewall sticker is for the OEM tires. If you got new ones, it may be different.

 

I run 36psi in the front and 34psi in the rear on 195/60/15 tires. I came to these numbers after watching wear patterns and assessing handling characteristics. Basically, trial and error.

 

+1

 

Yeah, I believe the sidewalls on my tires are almost 50+psi. Try driving THAT over a pothole!

You don't HAVE to listen to the car manufacturer. You gotta try it out. Good rule of thumb is any lower than the manufacturer recommended PSI is no good. If you do a lot of highspeed driving on the track or autobahn (if one is available), higher PSI is good.

You gotta play with it. It is a long and arduous process.

 

There should actually be two stickers in the door jam with pressures listed. One for normal driving and one for driving over 100mph.

 

That's the thing. The sticker is for the OEM runflats. The aformentioned trial and error may be the way to go. I don't think there are any hints on tire manufactureres sites.