Correct tyre pressures for 1980 2000cc Spider??

[pykara38]

Can anyone help me please, I bought a 1980 spider in Nov 2007 and an engineer suggested 25 psi as the recommended pressure all round, but other garages I've visited are saying it should be 30 psi. I was running the car with 26psi until I got this new information, but as I had no reference to look up the pressures, and can find no indication on/in the car, I thought I'd seek help on the net. However, although I've searched quite a lot of pages, I've not found this information anywhere. Can you guys here help me, please? I'm in UK and although we do get a mix of weather, try mostly to drive when its dry. I'd really appreciate some help here. Thanks Dave from Cambridge, England, UK.

[racydave]

My 79 owners manual says 25, and thats what I run too.

[pope]

Do we have to do some weird conversion for the Brits in Europe? Isnt it something like pound per kilo-meter, or some meteric celcius figure? LOL

[mbouse]

i run 26 psi, and have for years.

[kilrwail]

It will depend on your wheel and tire size. If you have 13" wheels and 165 tires, the recommended pressure is 26 psi. But if you run 185 tires, you'll probably prefer something like 29 psi because of the higher sidewall. At worst, you can experiment and see what feels best, in that approximate range.

[So Cal Mark]

the tires being manufactured now are different than the tires that came on the Spider when new. I run 35psi in mine, as the P-metric tires use higher pressure. Many of the new tires suggest 40psi and higher, depending on the aspect ratio

[Europa]

I have a 1983 and the owners manual specifies 28 psi.

I looked at an owners manual for a 1981 spider, and it too specifies 28 psi. The tire sizes listed for the '81 are 165SR13 or 185/60 R14.

[launieg]

There was a pretty vigorous thread on tire pressure just a while back. Might be something there that will help. There seems to be two camps: follow the car manufacturer's recommendations or follow the tire manufacturer's. It seems to me that the tires created after the car was manufactured could not have been predicted by the manufacturer. So I go with the tire specs, with some thought about what the car is like of course.

That old thread:http://www.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtopic ... ure#p51216

[Europa]

You can follow the vehicle manufacturers recommendation for tire inflation. Realize that you can vary the tire pressure between the front and rear tires to achieve the desired handling balance that YOU prefer. SO several factors go into deciding the "correct" tire pressure.

I used to autocross RX-7's. I used to get to the track and then drew a thick band across the tread and into the sidewall using a light colored chalk. I then drove the car around and adjusted the tire pressure until the chalk marks on the treads were evenly removed. This is probably a good setting for normal driving. In the case of the RX-7, I used to go 2lbs over from that baseline for the front tires and provided a great handling setup for autocross. HTH...

[pope]

I called the top 10 tire manufactures sold in America. And asked the exact same questions. Every one of them said to follow the car manufactures tire pressure and not follow the tire max. pressure on the side of the sidewall. Not one of them recommended using pressure different than the car manufactures, and were whole heartedly against increased pressure. They each said that there is no tire in their stable that indicated the pressure to use on the tire. There is no new rubber compound or manufacturing process that would require an increased pressure over the car manufactures. None of them recommended running the tire for passenger use anywhere near the max. listed on the tire. The age of the car (and I told each one that we were running Fiat Spider's from the 70's and 80's) doesnt have anything to do with having newer tires on it. Always follow the car manufactures tires specs.

All agreed that a few PSI increase (2 to 3) for long trips and/or increased passenger weight.
All said that a tire pressure is a result of the vehicle weight and not the tire. Tire manufactures do not know which cars those tires are going on, so follow the car manufactures specs.

Tire pressure for racing is a different story.

But, these are your cars and you can put whatever pressure in them you want. But now you know the official answers.

[So Cal Mark]

since no tires are made in the USA any longer, you made 10 calls to China or Korea?

[pope]

Cooper tires are made in America.
Firestone/Bridgestone has 7 plants that produce tires
Michelin has 21 plants and produces tires for BF Goodrich and Uniroyal
ProComp produces tires in the USA
Continental has three plants here
Goodyear produces a good portion of their tires here, but some are from overseas and Brazil
Toyo just open a plant here a few years ago.

others that have some are Yokohama, Dayton, Dunlop, Pirelli & Armstrong

This does not include many more plants in Mexico and Canada.

[So Cal Mark]

warehouses aren't plants, Automotive News reported last week that the last remaining tire manufacturing plant in the US moved overseas

[pope]

Mark, who you going to believe, your lying Detroit produced Automotive News Rag eyes or the fact that these companies still produce the tires in factories here. Michelin also has a rubber producing plant here along with the tire production of passenger tires. They have a big plant near Vegas for you to go look at. I have been to a couple of these plants in the midwest. They product about 40,000 tires a day. Virtually every tire producer does some tire production still in the USA. One Michelin factory produces more than 10,000,000 tires a year and they have 7 tire factories.

WOW! Where do you come up with this stuff.

[pykara38]

I'd like to you all for posting me some great information this week, it is really helpful. I drove my Spider today for quite a distance on 30 psi, just to try. I have to say it did rather emphasise the rough roads and I felt less confident of the handling. One plus point though was the lighter steering, but I didn't think a good enough pay off for less confidence in handling. I also had a passenger in the car and they remarked on the bumpiness of the car today for the first time! I reduced back to 26 psi mid way and although the steering was immediately much heavier, I felt the handling was more secure. I ran with 30 psi all round and then 26 all round, and I would say I prefer the lower pressure. Unfortunately I can't remember the tyre/wheel sizes, but I will update this so the full story is reported. Thanks again. I was sure there were enthusiasts that would come to my aid. I am grateful. David of pykara38, Cambridge UK.