Tire inflation pressure question?

[worm]

I'm new to this forum, and I have a question about tire inflation pressures. I am running a set of Champiro 205/40 ZR17 84W tires mounted on Focal K5-17 rims. The tires tell me the max inflation pressure is 49 PSI, the vehicle they are mounted on is a 2002 mazda Protege 5. The placard for the car says inflation pressure should be at 32 PSI. what pressure should I inflate the tire to?

Keeping in mind that the stock tires are only 16 inch not 17's. Should I still follow the car manufactures recomendations or do I need to increase or decrease the pressure so my tires wear evenly?

[chris]

the max inflation pressure is the pressure that the tires might blow up at, follow your owners manual for tire pressure

[hockeybronx]

Originally posted by worm
I'm new to this forum, and I have a question about tire inflation pressures. I am running a set of Champiro 205/40 ZR17 84W tires mounted on Focal K5-17 rims. The tires tell me the max inflation pressure is 49 PSI, the vehicle they are mounted on is a 2002 mazda Protege 5. The placard for the car says inflation pressure should be at 32 PSI. what pressure should I inflate the tire to?

Keeping in mind that the stock tires are only 16 inch not 17's. Should I still follow the car manufactures recomendations or do I need to increase or decrease the pressure so my tires wear evenly?

Yeah I was kind of confused by this as well. I just got a new set of tires for my car, and I saw the same thing: "do not exceed X PSI blah blah blah". Inside my fuel door there is a reading for recommended PSI's for half and full loads.

Basically I just took a reading of what Kal Tire filled my tires up to when they installed them, and I'll keep it within that number.

[quiksilver]

follow the placard is the easiest way to go.

[QuasarCav]

I had the same problem. I switched from 195/60/14 winters set at 30 PSI to 205/50/15 Kumho 712's. A guy on this board told me to set them higher than stock.

I set them to 36 PSI front and 35 PSI rear. Any lower and they squeak and any more they are really hard and i spin all the time.

[sillyd]

The best thing to do is go somewhere you can corner hard and play around with the pressure until you are using all of the tread but not riding the sidewall.

[worm]

Thank you for your input.

I have changed the inflation pressure to 32 psi and I will monitor the tire tread depth to ensure they wear evenly.