How To Check Your Car Tire Pressure Without A Gauge

Correct tire pressure is essential to the proper and efficient operation of your vehicle, just like wheel alignment and other routine maintenance. Not only does this optimize fuel economy, but it ensures you are kept safe.

There are a variety of ways to check tire pressure, and using a tire pressure gauge is probably the easiest. Most modern cars also come with a tire pressure monitoring system (TPMS) as standard that measures pressure in real-time as you drive. Since it effectively works as an automatic tire pressure gauge, it's easy to be lazy, but you should know how to check pressure yourself, because you never know when a sensor might stop working if it stops getting power from the battery due to an electrical problem.

Of course, before you start fussing with gauges and other tools, you'll need to know the correct PSI value for your specific setup. PSI is the measurement for tire pressure, denoting pounds per square inch. The correct figure for your vehicle can be found in the owner's manual, but if you know how to find the PSI on a tire on the sidewall or on the label in the door jamb, you can check to see whether your tires are correctly inflated.

There are a variety of ways to check PSI, and not all of them require you to go out and buy specialized equipment. If you have a TPMS, the information will show up on the digital display on the dashboard. If not, you can try a more analog approach, and this should form part of your daily car care routine:

• The eyeball method: If you regularly check your tire pressure, you will get accustomed to what the wheels look like when the pressure is correct. WIth this mastered, you can spot problems at a glance. The best way to ensure accuracy is to park your car on a flat surface and walk the perimeter, paying close attention to any part of the tires that protrudes more than another tire.
• Hand pressure method: Another way to gauge car tire pressure without a tool is by hand - quite literally. Simply apply pressure to the tires with your hand to see how much resistance there is. If it's overly pliant, then the tires are under-inflated, while no reaction at all is a warning sign that they may be overinflated.

These may not seem like accurate methods, but practice makes perfect. If you're not quite confident enough in your expertise, then you may be wondering if you need a tire pressure gauge. It certainly makes things easier. Be sure to check tire pressure in an unladen car - if your tires are bulging, but you're certain the pressure is correct, check the cargo isn't weighing your car down unnecessarily. Read up on how often to check your tire pressure here.

There are a few different types of tire pressure checkers out there with varying levels of complexity. If you want to know how to fix high or low tire pressure, some of these tools will allow you to do so. There are three main types of air pressure gauges:

• Stick or pencil gauges are long, thin, cylindrical gauges that rank among the cheapest on the market. While they are accurate, especially when newly purchased, they can be difficult to read due to their size. If the tire pressure gauge isn't accurate or working, it's luckily not expensive to get a replacement.
• Dial gauges use a large circular face with big, legible numbers and a pointer similar to an odometer. More often than not, there will be a short piece of piping running down from the dial to connect to the tire outlet. These are often used at gas stations, where it's possible to perform a pressure calibration as you measure it.
• Digital gauges are the most expensive, but if you're wondering what the most accurate tire pressure gauge is, this is it. They are very easy to read since you simply connect them to the tire, and the display shows you the exact pressure in big, bold numbers. The gauge will show low-psi tire pressure if you need to add some air, and higher numbers when overinflated.

It's easy to fix low tire pressure once you've checked it, so there is really no reason to suffer poor gas mileage or any of the more serious troubles that result from over- or under-inflated tires.