oblu

Maybe I'm just a one-off ... and usually I check this with every new car regardless, but this time I didn't ... but I ended up doing a couple of long trips with seriously ganked tire pressures.

When measured cold this weekend after my car'd sat all week (wife was out of town so I drove her Q7 ... I love that thing).

LF: 19.5psi
RF: 41psi
LR: 24psi
RR: 33psi

As testament to the platform though, I never felt anything to indicate my tire pressures were that wonky. No pulling, no tramlining, nothing. In my BMWs if you had one tire off by more than 1psi you'd get the car wandering in the opposite direction.

qwerty1024

Good advice!

Unfortunately, I didn't check the tire pressure when I got the car thinking that it must be set right, it "looked" okay.

So I drove it for the first 1000 miles without checking the tire pressure. Shortly after the first 1000 miles, I hadd the free "diagnostics" service performed by the dealer. The only thing they reported was that the tire pressures had to be set to 34 PSI. I only wish I knew what PSI they were at prior to that; were they way off or just a bit? Anyways, good advice.

ismeto

I think that W204 comes Standart with Tire Pressure Warning System !

yeah..... in state it could be loss

alexyanglaw

When I got the car from the dealer, my tire pressure is 38 psi all around on my 18's AMG, but if you open the driver's door, you will see a sticker with Vin # and tire pressure psi info for your car, for the front, it should be 32 psi and for the rear, it should be 38 psi, I corrected it right away after i noticed, and I only had 60 miles on my car at that time.

I suggest everyone to check their tire pressure after they purchase from the dealer, sometimes dealer or factory is just careless.

chilledbenz

I think some of you have some real bad service departments at your dealerships, checking tire pressure is something on their checklist weither it be new car prep, or even getting your oil changed. By the way, the user above mentioned he checked his sticker and it said a different tire pressure, but he also mentioned that he has the 18's which aren't standard and the sticker is refering to the standard 17's, I'm sure there is a difference, might want to check with the owners manual or call the service department and find out. I usually run lower than the recommended tire pressures anyway, gives it a softer ride over all those damn surface joints.

alexyanglaw

my sticker shows the correct psi info for my 18s amg only, not for 17s.

If you have 17s, I think you can still find your psi info on the stickers for your 17s, or you can call the dealer to find out.

BlackMercBenz

That's weird... Shouldn't this function have kicked in if that was the case???

oblu

It only kicks in if pressures deviate from what they are set at ... that's my understanding anyway.

So they probably slapped the wheels on there, didn't check and then as part of the process reset the tpms.

That would be my guess anyway.

peabers

I would have suspected that the thresholds for the TPMS should be set by the factory, and not at the dealership/service centre level. My MIL has an RDX and the TPMS started going off when her RF dropped to 25 psi. Gave it a few pounds at the gas station and the system was happy once again.

zakklp

I will check mine in the morning. Thanks for the heads up

Jorg

Some years ago, when I visited Germany, I noticed that some cars had red valve stem caps. I had no idea why and I asked.

Some people use over there gas in the tire and not regular air. So if a car had a red cap you make sure you would add gas and not air.

The benefit, I was told, is that under high speed driving, for long periods of time, tires filled with gas do not heat up like tires filled with air.

I know a big tire dealer here and I asked him why he would not offer that service? His reply was that when he sells you a new tire you don't want to pay for the gas and you want it free.

Have you ever heard about it?

Jorg

peabers

Is it Nitrogen? I believe a few tire stores here in Toronto prefer it.

oblu

You can reset it yourself via the instrument cluster whenever you feel like it. I'm sure as they were setting the date/time they hit that too.

Jorg

Hi peabers:

Yes they use Nitrogen in the tires. Maybe they start some trend in your town.

Jorg

marakbai

My Acura dealership sells Nitrogen as an option ... bit write-up on mileage and safety and all that.

Stiggs

I wish I had checked this thread earlier. Honey just had her free 1,000 mile checkup. Only thing wrong with the car was too much air in the tires. The Tech guy asked if we added air to the tires after delivery. Of course we didn't. He actually apologized saying this should have been checked at the pre delivery inspection. Not sure how much air was in them...he didn't say. Hope the tires are ok after 1K miles of too much air.

omgitselaine

Funny but one would think that checking air pressure on all 4 tires would be a "norm" on all PDI's ( Pre Delivery Inspection ) on all new cars at a dealership bit obviously its not of course its very minor however its these attention to details that sets one dealer apart from another

jrct9454

Yes, they're supposed to check the tires at PDI. No, that doesn't mean it always happens.

Two observations:

-The cars are shipped with 50-60 psi to avoid flat-spotting during the long time in transit. They're supposed to be reset at PDI. [I NEVER EVEN TEST-DRIVE A NEW CAR WITHOUT MY TIRE GAUGE, and always check before driving away from the dealership for any reason - the track record so far is that they're right less than 50% of the time.]

-On another thread, we're carrying on a debate about the value of TPMS. There is no way the system should not have posted an alert with the pressures described in the original post, regardless of when it had been last reset. Nothing could better illustrate for me the waste of money that this whole business of TPMS represents.

Save yourself time, money, and potential heartache - buy a tire gauge and use it at least twice a month. You may be very surprised at what you discover.

tanktube67

Good advice
What kind of gauge did you use, I would not trust anything that is not digital

oblu

It's my understanding that tmps is only as good as the monkey that's operating it. You've got the option to set it's parameters in the on-board computer, so I'd assume that unless it deviates from you set it at, it's not going to throw an alert.

On the other hand though, I can remember a lot of times I've adjusted the tire pressures without resetting it and never gotten a warning.

Also, I park outside because my garage is currently full of remodeling supplies. The system would have to have a big variance built into it to handle stone cold tire pressure vs hot weather pressure.

So yeah, I've talked myself into agreeing that the systems suck.

But I guess it's somewhat important for the 99% of idiots on the road who have no idea that they're driving around on a flat tire.

c300_993

I had problems with my pressures as well. would had been a nice touch for the dealership to get that one right.

Stiggs

Saying I'm slightly dissapointed with the dealership for not checking tire pressure is an understatement. It really makes you question their ability to do things right. My confidence in my dealership is not what it used to be.

jrct9454

Since we're on this topic, keep in mind that each 10 degree F change in air temperature [up or down] will change the tire pressure, on average, 1 psi.

We're entering a time of year when ambient temps can change pretty dramatically over the course of a week.

norcal5

+1

I have been using Accutire gauges and am quite happy with them.

Savage c-300

i ran out and checked my tire pressure as soon as i read through this post. my front tires were over inflated by 3lbs!