Tyre Pressure Gauge

Raja Taimoor

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Hello everybody!

Tyre pressure is a sensitive issue and most of the ordinary tyre shops have gauges with errors.

Which one is the best for non-professional use?

How to be sure if a tyre pressure gauge is truly calibrated or not?

How to calibrate your own it or check calibration to find the error yourself (other than matching it with the one on the tyre shop-I don't rely theirs)?

Regards

Raja
 

television

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The meters with the dial are said to be the most accurate, so are the digital ones sold by the RAC etc,, the pen type are not accurate at all
 

turbopete

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2017 '17' Ford Mondeo 2.0TDCi ST Line X 180 (sorry)
The meters with the dial are said to be the most accurate, so are the digital ones sold by the RAC etc,, the pen type are not accurate at all

id tend to disagree with that to a point. a number of years ago, a car magazine did tests on these (at the time) and found that the 'pen type' pcl guage was probably as accurate as you were likely to get, short of spending ridiculous amounts of money! its all ive ever used, and tyres have always worn perfectly flat! however this test (by auto express IIRC) i must admit was carried out around 20 years ago (it was what i read in school!) so may be somewhat out of date by now
 

television

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I probably have about 10 laying around if you would like them Pete,,not one reads the same as another
 

turbopete

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I probably have about 10 laying around if you would like them Pete,,not one reads the same as another

i imagine they go out of spec after a while. i change mine every so often, but i always buy the PCL one. when i read that test all those years back, PCL were in the top 3 for every category they had a guge to be entered in. i also have a pcl in line guage (the sliding scale type, not the dial type) like tyre centres etc use, which again was rated highly at the time. although not cheap. luckily i got mine as a freebie!
 

Waved

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Hello everybody!

Tyre pressure is a sensitive issue and most of the ordinary tyre shops have gauges with errors.

Which one is the best for non-professional use?

How to be sure if a tyre pressure gauge is truly calibrated or not?

How to calibrate your own it or check calibration to find the error yourself (other than matching it with the one on the tyre shop-I don't rely theirs)?

Regards

Raja
Yeah. If you've got a car, you probably own one of those pen-sized tire-pressure gauge*s. It's got a funny little spherical thing on one end and a little sliding scale on the other end. Just look this article about Tyre Pressure Gauges

http://www.howstuffworks.com/pressure-gauge.htm
 

television

Always remembered RIP
Joined
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Your Mercedes
2002 SL500, 216 CL500, all fully loaded
Yeah. If you've got a car, you probably own one of those pen-sized tire-pressure gauge*s. It's got a funny little spherical thing on one end and a little sliding scale on the other end. Just look this article about Tyre Pressure Gauges

http://www.howstuffworks.com/pressure-gauge.htm


Hello and welcome to the forum wave,, thanks for the link,,I have about 7 of these things laying around and not one of them gives the same reading, but saying that the one does give the same reading constantly, so one could always check it against a known accurate one
 

dieselman

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A diesel
I have a Race-X gauge and a pencil type one.

both appear consistent and read near as damn it the same. I can understand a spring type pencil one being out, but not one that just uses the differential between the inner bore and outer sleeve diameter, as they use air pressure as the spring, which doesn't really alter.

Autoexpress test
 

jberks

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Jaguar XF 3.0 S, LR Freelander 2, Fiat 500 & Fiat Panda
People seem to get hung up on accurate pressures and really there is no need. We're not F1 drivers.
There is a range of pressures applicable to any vehicle. The important thing is to have the ability to be consistent. If you use garage gauges, they will vary and you'll be running different pressures every time.
What I do is to set it up slightly higher than the minimum on the plaque using a pencil gauge I keep in the car then adjust based on handling and tyre wear until I find a level I am happy with. Then I always use the same pencil gauge to adjust the levels or after I've fitted new tyres. I accept that it may possibly be 1-2psi out (seems to be pretty accurate in reality but it doesn't really matter) but so long as whatever I set it to is the same every time, that pressure allows for even tyre wear and I'm happy with the ride and handling, that's good enough. I have a gauge on my pump that reads 2psi higher than the pencil gauge,so if I'm putting the rears to 36psi, I simply fill to 38psi. Check with the pencil gauge - 36.
So, consistency is what matters, not accuracy, within reason anyway.
 

copternadley

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Hello everybody!

Tyre pressure is a sensitive issue and most of the ordinary tyre shops have gauges with errors.

Which one is the best for non-professional use?

How to be sure if a tyre pressure gauge is truly calibrated or not?

How to calibrate your own it or check calibration to find the error yourself (other than matching it with the one on the tyre shop-I don't rely theirs)?

Regards

Raja

Use Accura 1 Tyre inflator. It's accurate and cheap.
 

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