Winter Tire PSI

[iantan05]

So, should I follow the recommended PSI on the door jam or should I follow PSI on stated on the winter tire sidewall?

It is a Goodyear Nordic 215/55 R17 I believe.

[Trippp]

My guess is the PSI number on the tire sidewall is the MAX allowable cold pressure. That's usually not a good idea. However, I would suggest running PSI in a dedicated snow tire at +5 of OEM recommendation for the same or equivalent size tire.

1) Snow tires tend to have a soft side wall. The extra PSI helps manage load.

2) Winter temps are colder (duh) and keeping the PSI above OEM will ensure that it doesn't drop below the factory recommended setting. You would rather be over a few PSI than other. Bonus is that slight over-inflating is better for fuel economey.

[iantan05]

ah alright thanks, so ill be running about 37 PSI on a dedicated set of winter tires.

[tommyz23]

I followed the owners manual of +4.3 psi... I am running 37 psi which is close to the +4.3 psi.

[ThirdMazda]

So, I just got my 16 inch Michelin X-Ice Xi2's on yesterday, went around the block pretty much and that's it. They arrived from Tire Rack inflated to 35 psi and felt fine yesterday so I just let them be. Today I drive over to my garage by back roads, about 11 miles and I get the expected little bit better than city gas mileage on the trip computer, about 24mpg. On the way back I took the highway, 13.5 miles and 2 bucks in tolls, just to see how the tires felt at highway speeds. I reset the average fuel economy on the trip computer right as I entered the highway. I thought I did something wrong, the computer was showing high 30's to low 40's AVERAGE fuel economy the whole way on the highway. The 205's instead of 215's at a higher pressure on lighter rims and me being alone in an unladen car should make some difference, but I wasn't expecting that much. The route is essentially flat (93 North to the Mass Pike West in Boston). The car feels smoother and more lux than sport on the winter tires. I'll report back as the miles add up, but I'm just going to leave the tires at 35 psi for now.

[Mazda3sguy]

Originally Posted by ThirdMazda

The 205's instead of 215's at a higher pressure on lighter rims and me being alone in an unladen car should make some difference, but I wasn't expecting that much. The route is essentially flat (93 North to the Mass Pike West in Boston). The car feels smoother and more lux than sport on the winter tires. I'll report back as the miles add up, but I'm just going to leave the tires at 35 psi for now.

ThirdMazda,
Just curious, what wheel setup/specs are you running for winter? I know 205/xx/16 but what are the wheel specs?

[ThirdMazda]

Originally Posted by Mazda3sguy

ThirdMazda,
Just curious, what wheel setup/specs are you running for winter? I know 205/xx/16 but what are the wheel specs?

205/65/16 tires on Sport Edition D5 alloys from tire rack. Here are the wheel specs (I liked that they are light and within 5mm of stock offset):

16x7

$98 (each)

Offset: 50mm Backspacing: 6.02" Bolt Pattern: 5-114
Rec. Tire Size:205/65-16
Weight: 17.4lbs.

Here is the winter wheel mounted, stock 17 incher on the ground: