I was in a bit of a rush once and I wasn't able to inspect my car before I left. I just got in, switched the car on and tried to scram.
Unfortunately, the car wouldn't accelarate normally. It felt sluggish and really odd. I found myself pressing much harder on the gas to get it going. Plus, I felt that something was wrong looking out the windshield but I couldn't figure out what. The world around me seemed tilted in a way.
So I traveled really slowly thinking of what could be wrong. After around 7-10 yards of driving, a car caught up behind me. The driver of the car was honking the horn and flashing the head lights and pointing to the rear left of my car. That was when I got it: I got a flat tire. It turned out that my tire sustained a very slow leak the night before. And only 8 hours later did it fully run out of air.
A flat tire is probably an extreme example but it is also a good example to point out that when a tire is under pressure, it does slow down the car. They simply won't generate the traction it needs for the car to run efficiently.
Running on tires that are under pressure means that a driver is likely to step harder on the gas to compensate and get the car running on the pace the driver is accustomed to. In other words, a driver unwittingly consumes more gas than necessary.
Checking your tire pressures diligently results in improving your gas mileage.
However, you also have to be carefull in not over-inflating your tire. Too much air can result in disastrous consequences.
When a tire warms up, the air inside it expands. If there is too much air before the car gets moving, as soon as the tire does heat up, the tire won't be able to contain the expanding air and will simply blow-out.
Hence, it is important to always keep your tire pressures in their optimum levels. The basis for the optimum levels should be stated in a car's owners manual. Every car that you can buy should indicate the ideal tire pressures. This is because there is no standard tire pressure for all cars. Every car differs in its weight, chassis, suspension set-ups etc. and therefore require a distinct tire pressure level to run efficiently. Those who can determine that are those who designed the car.
Unfortunately, the car wouldn't accelarate normally. It felt sluggish and really odd. I found myself pressing much harder on the gas to get it going. Plus, I felt that something was wrong looking out the windshield but I couldn't figure out what. The world around me seemed tilted in a way.
So I traveled really slowly thinking of what could be wrong. After around 7-10 yards of driving, a car caught up behind me. The driver of the car was honking the horn and flashing the head lights and pointing to the rear left of my car. That was when I got it: I got a flat tire. It turned out that my tire sustained a very slow leak the night before. And only 8 hours later did it fully run out of air.
A flat tire is probably an extreme example but it is also a good example to point out that when a tire is under pressure, it does slow down the car. They simply won't generate the traction it needs for the car to run efficiently.
Running on tires that are under pressure means that a driver is likely to step harder on the gas to compensate and get the car running on the pace the driver is accustomed to. In other words, a driver unwittingly consumes more gas than necessary.
Checking your tire pressures diligently results in improving your gas mileage.
However, you also have to be carefull in not over-inflating your tire. Too much air can result in disastrous consequences.
When a tire warms up, the air inside it expands. If there is too much air before the car gets moving, as soon as the tire does heat up, the tire won't be able to contain the expanding air and will simply blow-out.
Hence, it is important to always keep your tire pressures in their optimum levels. The basis for the optimum levels should be stated in a car's owners manual. Every car that you can buy should indicate the ideal tire pressures. This is because there is no standard tire pressure for all cars. Every car differs in its weight, chassis, suspension set-ups etc. and therefore require a distinct tire pressure level to run efficiently. Those who can determine that are those who designed the car.
When checking pressure levels, always use a reliable pressure gauge. Never cheat yourself by judging a tire's pressure more or less by how it looks. For some people, if they happened to have the right pressure the day before, they would simply look at the tires and feel it a bit and estimate if the pressure is okay.
Don't!
For one thing, you can't judge the levels accurately yourself. Not getting the accurate gauge means that you are also consuming more gas than necessary.
Secondly, different tires have different profiles. Some tires don't look flat until it already lost significant levels of air. Hence, you are simply increasing the possibility of getting flat in the middle of the road.
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