Does air pressure decrease in tires when it gets really cold outside?

Question

My tires are supposed to have 35 or 45 pounds of pressured and I checked them and they were down to 15 or so. Why?

Answer 1

You can expect a SLIGHT decrease in pressure when the ambient temperature is really low, but not the twenty pounds you seem to have experienced. I hope you checked the tires with a good, pencil-type gauge and didn't rely on the meter attached to the air pump, especially if it is really cold (the gauge may have been frozen, and in any event, those gauges aren't noted for their reliability). Invest a few dollars at WalMart, the QuickStop where you get your gas, or at an auto parts store and check the tires again). I'll bet you just had a faulty reading - twenty pounds low is an awful lot, especially on all four tires!

If, indeed, you had only fifteen pounds of air in each tire, I'd suggest you either get in the habit of checking them more frequently or having the tires replaced.

Answer 2

Tires lose pressure from driving conditions. Your supposed to check your pressure everytime you fill up. And yes, summer air and winter air affects your tire pressure. When in the summer; your air is typically warm inside the tire. When winter starts rolling in and the air gets colder, your tire pressure goes down. Its kinda like when a thunderstorm reacts when hot and cold air interact with each other. Also, alittle tip for you, don't fill your tire up to the psi recommendation. If your tire requires 35 psi; only put in 30 to 32 psi. Your handling will be extremely better!!! Your tire wear will also be better!! 3 to 6lbs less psi gives you better handling and saves you from buying tires all the time. A lot of people don't know that, and some will say I'm crazy, but I know tires. Do this and you will see the difference in your cars handling! Just ask anyone who races for a living, they'll tell you the same thing. If you drive fast and take corners fast, if you have 3 to 6lbs less psi, you'll hug the road better. I hope this helps!!!

Answer 3

When the temperature changes the molecules in your densely packed rubber tires contracts/expands very little, but enough for possibly a small releasing of air. Most likely you will not notice the difference. If you woke up one morning when it was cold and found your tires flat, you probably have a hole that needs patching.
Fill your tires up with air 35psi, and if they are reduced in 24 hours, you probably ran over glass or something. If you are capable, remove a tire from the car after jacking it up. Take some soap and some water and a paint brush. Cover the tire one section at a time with the soapy water. If you see any portion bubbling, then theres a hole there. No need to do the rest of the tires if you see this, because your sample tire will logically explain the deflation of the others.

Answer 4

Absolutely, the air in your tires approximately follows the ideal gas law: PV = nRT, or (pressure)*(volume) = (amount)*(universal gas constant)*(temperature).

Since volume, amount, and the universal gas constant are approximately... constant, pressure decreases proportionally to absolute temperature.

A hot day can be about 38C, while a cold day can be -18C. These correspond to 336K and 280K, respectively, so you might expect a pressure drop to about 280/336 (or 83%).

Now 15 lbs. is much less than 83% of 45 lbs. so most likely your tires also leaked some air. But in answer to your question, yes, tire pressure does decrease with temperature.

Answer 5

Leakage. The pressure does indeed decrease when things get cold, but not by that much. Re-inflate them, and check the pressure again in a week; for each tire, if it is down by two pounds or more, get it checked.

Answer 6

The cracks are not reducing the air stress on your tires. With use, tires merely lose some air and it would want to variety tire to tire. in many cases when I verify my tires there is a few huge difference from one to a unique, all of them have not lengthy gone down the very similar quantity. fill up your left tire and keep a watch fastened on it via the undeniable fact that is conceivable you would have a sluggish leak in it and seem at it to work out in case you ran over a nail. in the adventure that your tires are in user-friendly words 4 months previous you shouldn't have a leak already although.

Answer 7

It depends on where you live. With temperature the air pressure will increase or decrease just like a balloon. If you live in a cold climate.. the tires will definately deflate with change in weather.
Don M

Answer 8

hell yes! cold air shrinks like when your nads shrink jumping into cold water. and the tire shrinks. everythinhg shrinks. you would have to be a shrinkage engineer to be sure. or you can call george on seinfeld and get an exact figure: 2%, 6%, 10%, who knows maybe its genetics or polluted air much in this life we will never understand better not to take up good time thinkin of such thnings. life is short and there are so many theings you shopudl be doing like going to hong kong or tihitia or londdonh or learning to play texas hold'em. i want to sky dive and go down 300 feet in a scuba dive befoe i die. what are you gonna do before you die, spend weeks studying tire pressure. i am scared of yo!

Answer 9

Tires loose 1 lb of air pressure for every 10 degrees in tempature drop

Answer 10

Yes. pressure changes a lot with temp.

Be sure when the weather warms up to check and be sure they are not overinflated. Biggest problem with under or over inflation is tread wear.

Many tires have slow leaks also, so you should check regularly.