Tire Pressures

[Doutdoor]

I have a 92 LT1. It has Faulken tires which were on the car when I bought it. The tires only have a few thousand miles on them. I was wondering.....the max tire pressure says 44 psi on them. I drove the car a few hundred miles at 44 psi with my wife in the passengers seat and it seemed fine. I then lowered the tire pressure to 40 psi and now the car seems to not handle bumps road irregularities as well. It kind of jerks slightly going over them. Is 40 psi too low? What is the ideal tire pressure for these tires?

Also, I don't know much about the tire brand other than they are Japanese made. I hear a lot about Firestones & Goodyears. How much better would a set of these be than the Faulkens? A mechanic who did work recently on the vette kind of made a snide comment to me about "nice car, but man I don't know about those tires".

Thanks,
Dave

 

[c4ever]

I run about 34lbs on my HP tires. 40lbs seems a little high to me for that tire though it will most likely handle the pressure. Faulken is owned by Goodyear. A middle of the road tire at a inexpensive price, which is why there are so many out there. When it comes time to replace I would look at a superior tire.
Handling performance problems could be a number of things but I would take a look at shocks first.

 

[Ken]

You run the higher pressures on the track, not on the street, and never run a tire a the maximum rated pressure you see marked on the sidewall; that number means just that - the MAXIMUM pressure the tire is designed to hold, not the pressure at which the tire is designed to operate.

_ken

 

[Doutdoor]

Thanks for the reply's.

Dave

 

[vetsvette]

C4ever

Just curious. Where did you hear that Goodyear makes Falken tires? I work for Goodyear Tire & Rubber and as far as I know we have Goodyear, Dunlop, & Kelly. We bought Sumitomo Tire a couple of years back to get the Dunlop brand and take a larger share of European business but as far as I know we don't own or make Falken. If I'm wrong please correct me.

 

[Derek]

tires

I run 30 psi in my Bridgestones...just for street driving...gives an even wear

 

[c4ever]

Whitey,
I stand corrected. I was thinking Fulda.
Sorry bout that Dave

 

[vms4evr]

I'm running 35psi on my92 with the Firehawks. I've played with 30-32psi and decided to go back to 35psi as is recommended by GM. I'm not seeing a problem with uneven tire wear. But I rotate mine every 2,500mi.

On the Faulkens. Kinda on/off topic. I put a set of their tires on my sons 95 Chry Cirrus. They handle well in wet and dry and give a smooth ride. The tread pattern on the ones he has is very similar to the ones they show for the Vette. We'll see how well they last. Price was good.

Graham

 

[FrankM]

I have found that anything less than 30 psi will bend the 17" rim when a good deep pothole is hit.:eek

 

[jay17]

I run 30 in my pilot sports

 

[Derek]

I have found that anything less than 30 psi will bend the 17" rim when a good deep pothole is hit.:eek

seem the wrong way to go..to set a car up because you might hit a pot hole.

 

[FrankM]

seem the wrong way to go..to set a car up because you might hit a pot hole.

I am only interested in just driving it. Very rarely do I even hit passing gear.

I usually run close to the max air pressure in my vehicles except when it is snow season.

Different folks different strokes.:Twist