What tire pressures are everyone running? And other question

Mitsubishi i-MiEV Forum

Help Support Mitsubishi i-MiEV Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
When my original treads were getting thin last fall, I bought a salvage set of steel rims with near-zero mile tires and ran them through the winter and wet spring. This weekend I put the alloys with original tires back on, in order to get the last few thousand miles out of them during summer driving. These EnaSaves aren't quite down to the wear bars yet, but wow-what a difference! Between the lighter wheels and thinner tread, my butt-o-meter sensed a significant improvement in performance. My regular Saturday morning 54 mile trip that usually ends up with 2-3 bars remaining still showed 5 bars of capacity when I got home! Of course warmer weather helps, but I was cruising the highway at 60+ mph and running the air conditioner for the first time this year, rather than resorting to the slower surface streets as I often do in winter.
I normally run 50 psi, but tested the traction in heavy rain this morning and broke loose easier than last week, so I will bring these thin skins down to 40 psi to regain some of the lost grip.
 
I drove my brother's i MiEV on Saturday, and I noticed it wasn't coasting very well, compared to my e-Golf or my Leaf. The Leaf in particular is an excellent coaster, with the stock Ecopia tires at 45PSI. The e-Golf is not as good as the Leaf, even with 50PSI in the stock Continental tires.

I checked the tires on the i MiEV, and the fronts were at ~38PSI on the left and ~36PSI on the right, and the back tires were both at ~44PSI. I pumped them all up to 45PSI and I did not get to drive it again afterward.
 
The i-MiEV isn't as heavy or as aerodynamic as the LEAF. Increasing the front pressure should make quite a difference.

That said, I run my tires at 40 PSI. Seems to be a good balance of range and comfort. Roads in my area are too rough for higher pressures.
 
When I first got my i-MiEV, I set the tire pressure to the Enasaves 51psi max. Later that week I took it in to my local Mitsubishi dealership for an inspection and the tech lowered the psi to the recommended 36psi. The service advisor said for some crazy reason they were set super high! I just chuckled in my head to myself. Lol

So later I set them back to 51psi and i rode like that for a while. When I got a screw in my tire, my tech friend said not to set it so high because once the tires heat up with rolling resistance, the psi would increase and could cause a blowout. So I lowered and currently set my tire psi to 45psi.

Honestly I don't even think the stop and go city driving I do even heats up the tires by much. I could be wrong, but I'm willing to run them at 51psi as stated on the tire.
 
Back
Top