optimum tire pressure on MP3's....

[mazdamp3_18]

I have been doing some testing to see the best tire pressures for handling on our cars...
i found the absolute minumum yesterday... i entered my normal on ramp section... at about 60 mph and i did a 180!!!! scared the s*** out of my friends and i... LOL

dont go higher than 38 on the rear tires... makes the rear unsteady...

i found optimum tire pressure in the rear is b/w 35-36.5
it is a preference at that point... i prefer 36.5 b/c i like to left foot brake and make the rear rotate out a little... i can get it to over steer instead of undresteer like usual...

i found 40-42 in the front are the best i prefer 41 but 40 makes it more neutral with the rear.. but 41 dosent roll over as much...

some people say that you MUST run suggested pressures in the tires... which is BS.... i run 41 front and 36 rear daily and i have had ZERO problems and my tires are going to last 16K miles.. i drive pretty hard and i have auto Xed a few times... i work at discount tire and we are 10th in the nation and i experience a lot in a days work... if you run the suggested pressures that mazda gives your outside and inside tread will wear rappidly and the center will not wear much... i see too many people run too low of pressure on ultra high performance tires and ruin them very fast... i would say if you dont want to run 41 and 36 daily then at least run 36 in the front and rear.... i prefer a very stiff ride so i like the 41 and 36 pressure in my car...

Hope you guys found this helpful....

Chris

 

[big_ben]

I've been running about 37 in the rear and about 42 up front and my gas milage sky rocketed. I went from getting about 295miles per tank to getting over 330 to 340 miles per tank. During auto x's I've found that about 35 to 36 in the rear and 41 up front is best for me.

 

[fastdrvr23]

I have been doing some testing to see the best tire pressures for handling on our cars...
i found the absolute minumum yesterday... i entered my normal on ramp section... at about 60 mph and i did a 180!!!! scared the s*** out of my friends and i... LOL

dont go higher than 38 on the rear tires... makes the rear unsteady...

i found optimum tire pressure in the rear is b/w 35-36.5
it is a preference at that point... i prefer 36.5 b/c i like to left foot brake and make the rear rotate out a little... i can get it to over steer instead of undresteer like usual...

i found 40-42 in the front are the best i prefer 41 but 40 makes it more neutral with the rear.. but 41 dosent roll over as much...

some people say that you MUST run suggested pressures in the tires... which is BS.... i run 41 front and 36 rear daily and i have had ZERO problems and my tires are going to last 16K miles.. i drive pretty hard and i have auto Xed a few times... i work at discount tire and we are 10th in the nation and i experience a lot in a days work... if you run the suggested pressures that mazda gives your outside and inside tread will wear rappidly and the center will not wear much... i see too many people run too low of pressure on ultra high performance tires and ruin them very fast... i would say if you dont want to run 41 and 36 daily then at least run 36 in the front and rear.... i prefer a very stiff ride so i like the 41 and 36 pressure in my car...

Hope you guys found this helpful....

Chris

Thanks for the above post Chris, I was actually wondering about this on my way to work this morning. I posted a similar reply to this one over in the P5 section, but I figured I would try here as well. I commute ~25 miles highway every day to work one way, and I'm wondering what the best pressure would be for me to run in my P5. I have been running lower pressures (ie. 32/32) since I have been driving pretty hard for about the last week. Would you recommend a higher pressure with all my highway driving? I was thinking maybe 37 F / 36 R. I am not too worried about having oversteer, since I carrry a bunch of junk in the back that would get tossed around. Let me know what you think. (It's about time I got to ask someone that worked in the industry. ) The guys we have in town looked at me funny when I told them I needed new valve stems the other day on my truck's new tires! Thanks for the help!

Will

 

[Youngblood]

crap,man this explains so much cause Im on my second set of tires and only have 20k miles on my car ,Ive been running 34 all the way around.


MP3 110
Injen CAI
Carbonfiber Tails
Custon grill

 

[mazdamp3_18]

yeah that is a lot of misconceptions that people have ... we have a car that is supposed to handle great and we have 17" wheels... we dont have a honda civic with 14" wheels... if you dont want a stiff ride ... -1 or-2 size your wheels and tires that will solve your problems... ill be on my 2nd set of tires soon too.. ive only got 15K miles but ill probably get them to last through a cuple AutoXes and possibly to 16K miles or more....

 

[cjstringer]

Temps are a big factor

Now that the weather has changed here in Indy, my tire pressures are too. I used to run 35 F and 32 rear daily. That was when it was 65 or less outside. I would also run 43F and 34R in autoXs. Well, now that it's 90+, and bare metal will melt if left in the sun too long, I am running 41F and 33R daily and 53+F and 36R in autoXs. Things sure can change with the weather!
Just ran an AutoX yesterday with those pressure, and took the class and overall wins again! WOOHOO! Go little blue! Damn I love this car.

 

[JMS'sMSP]

WAIT A MIN

I don't want to sound like mr. conservative here but just so you know our manuel for the car says to put the front at 32 and the rear at 29. There is a sticker overtop of the stock tire press. marks for the reg. protege that has our tire size and I have been running that. Not to say you should have it at that or anything but that is what the book says. I have 7000 miles on my car and just rotated the front to the rear, and the rear ones (now the front tires) have almost full tread on them... and the front ones (now the rear tires) had about half tread.

 

[cjstringer]

I felt the same way for a long time JMS'sMP3, and I was confused as to why so many people were running higher pressures, but as the temps climb, the tires get softer, and they get really mushy. They roll over on the sidewalls if you drive hard (and I do). So raising the pressures keeps the sidewalls stiff and more of the tread on the pavement.
Racing/AutoXing is a whole different world, and requires TONS of pressure to keep them from rolling over. I never imagined it would be so much, but the results are showing something is going right. Changing the tire pressures has been the best way for me to improve performance yet.

 

[MP3#872]

I'm running 41 F 36 R and the car sticks to EVERYTHING! I have not noticed any bad wear on the tires and I'm at 16,000+ miles. The wierdest feeling is driving a couple blocks to fill up my tires after a rotation! The car almost feels uncontrollable.

 

[JMS'sMSP]

Ok thanks CJ, but what if like me you just drive normally not really all that hard or race at all is the stock tire press good??
Or would it benifit me to put a little more air in them. I don't want to have any uneven wear or overinflation...

 

[Bonzhel]

I had my P5 for one month and some homies rolling 5 deep in a caddy dropped their muffler on the highway...blew out both right side tires...looked for replacements and NOBODY in houston had two...in fact I only found one tire in my size...ended up at discount tire and bought 205/45's on the car....right now i'm running about 43-45psi in the front and 40 in the rear...my gas mileage has dropped a bit but i attribute that to the loss in circumfrence....i think it's about 1% difference....haven't had any issues with a rough ride or loss of traction at all though....car sticks like glue no matter what i do....and I'm working on the left foot braking technique...it's amazing how well the car settles with just a little tap of the brake....feels like it drops on rails...

 

[eatmyrice]

I've noticed on my 2 front tires that the inside and outside of the tire have like no tread at all. should i get new tires now? i'm at like 12k. I rotated them today, and i've also noticed that my back tires have like no wear on them at all. my right front wore a lil worse than my left front too. kinda weird. i ran with about 32/30.

 

[Bonzhel]

when the sides of the tires wear out first you've been running too low an air pressure...the tread ends up cupping in the center as the sidewalls are compressed under the car...that's why the center portion doesn't wear....vice versa if you put too much pressure in the tire it wears more in the center(although not as bad on todays stiffer radial tires than the old bias ply tires of yesteryear) run more pressure in the front and have your alignment checked...whenever one tire wears uneven from the rest youve generally got an alignment issue