I was cruising the strip in the Versa looking for Mustang GTs to humiliate when I noticed that the low tire pressure warning symbol came on. It's that yellow icon in the middle of the speedo that looks like the letter W -- it's actually a cross-section of a tire with an exclamation point in it. So we checked the tires and found the right front was low -- 28 pounds versus the 33 it's supposed to be. That's cold pressure spec -- the car had sat for a few hours in the garage when we checked them.
We inspected the tire and saw nothing, the tread was clean and free of mean-spirited nail- and screw-heads. Checking the other three tires revealed that they were all at 30 pounds. So we aired 'em up to 33 and a few days later nothing's changed, so no worries.
Let this serve as a reminder to all of you in Blog land -- you should check your tire pressure even if your car has a rudimentary TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System) as our Versa does, because they typically don't alert you unless a tire is five pounds or so low. And as you all know, low tire pressure can degrade handling and cause the tire to heat up (due to the increased rolling resistance and hence friction) -- not good for safety. Also, maintaining the specified pressure optimizes fuel efficiency.
Okay, now everyone put that coffee down, get off eBay and check your tires!
John DiPietro, Automotive Editor @ 10,195 miles.
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