Rental car tyre pressure issue.

Rental car tyre pressure issue.

Author
Discussion

King Herald

Original Poster:

23,501 posts

215 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
Picked up a car from Europcar at Heathrow and noticed the tyre pressure warning was on. I pulled into a petrol station and types looked okay, no flat or even soft look. When I got to the midlands, to my dads place, I checked the pressures. 38 in three types, 42psi in the one giving the warning!!!

How on earth can that happen, seeing as each car is signed for as 'prepared' by some bozo?

Google tells me 30-32 is recommended pressure.

Adjusted them all, drove it, no tyre pressure warning now.

And it is a lot quieter and smoother too.

Mound Dawg

1,915 posts

173 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
You think the tyre pressures on rental cars get checked?

Roo

11,503 posts

206 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
Rental car I had in July put up a low oil level warning within a couple of hundred miles of collecting it.

Checked it and no oil. Had to go and buy a litre.

vikingaero

10,256 posts

168 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
King Herald said:
How on earth can that happen, seeing as each car is signed for as 'prepared' by no bozo?
Corrected for you.

The prep with 99.9% of car hire firms is nothing more than a cursory glance.

Birdster

2,529 posts

142 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
I picked up a hire car (Skoka Superb) in Ireland and it still had the blocks in the suspension from delivery. I posted on here to check it was what I thought it was and drove into a Skoda dealer who removed them FOC in 20 minutes. Not want you want to be doing on holiday, but the ride was terrible.I don't know how previous renter(s) had driven it around for 1000km.

Vipers

32,799 posts

227 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
King Herald said:
as 'prepared' by some bozo?
You have answered it your self biggrin




smile

accident

582 posts

255 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
so you have a warning light telling you TYRE pressure warning.
your plan is to pull onto a filling station equiped with a TYRE inflator and just look at them?
you then drive from heathrow to the midlands and only then do you actually check the TYRE pressures.

well done

Motorrad

6,811 posts

186 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
Roo said:
Rental car I had in July put up a low oil level warning within a couple of hundred miles of collecting it.

Checked it and no oil. Had to go and buy a litre.
Hope you charged them for it. They'd hammer you for every penny.

Had the same issue myself with a Hertz car supplied from Gatwick. Rang them and asked them what to do. They advised I'd need to pay for it without recompense. I turned round and dropped their POS back off with them and picked up a vehicle that didn't have 30K miles on it.

Next time I'll just find out how long a car can operate without lubrication. tts.

FiF

43,960 posts

250 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
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Not just car rental. When the Audi A7 had just been released we had a factory demo delivered for fleet test. Tyre pressures were anywhere between 18 and 42, plus as delivered it was running on fumes. Unimpressed.

In fact the whole thing was unimpressive, considering with all the stuff loaded on it the otr price as listed on the info provided was serious money for a company car it was more amusing to work out what else we could buy.

GC8

19,910 posts

189 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
accident said:
so you have a warning light telling you TYRE pressure warning.
your plan is to pull onto a filling station equiped with a TYRE inflator and just look at them?
you then drive from heathrow to the midlands and only then do you actually check the TYRE pressures.

well done
You are a sanctimonious arse.

Well done on being a forum bell-end. Hopefully your 500th post will be more worthwhile.

227bhp

10,203 posts

127 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
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The chap who over inflated the tyre was probably more preoccupied with writing a dull and pointless thread on some internet forum to take any notice of what he was doing.

delta0

2,334 posts

105 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
Might want to check them again when they are cold. Checking them straight after a long drive is not the best time. They are warmer and the air expands resulting in a higher pressure. Lowering the pressure means when it cools down the pressure will be low.

Mr E

21,583 posts

258 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
A million years ago I had a rented fiat marea for a large rental firm.

Muppet pulled into lane without looking, I knew the outside lane was empty as I was already prepared to move out should they indicate they needed the room. So, quick lane change.

Car decided to try to swap ends on me. A stop at the next garage showed 55psi in the rears and 20 in the front...

Chucklehead

2,729 posts

207 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
vikingaero said:
King Herald said:
How on earth can that happen, seeing as each car is signed for as 'prepared' by no bozo?
Corrected for you.

The prep with 99.9% of car hire firms is nothing more than a cursory glance.
Have you worked in the industry then?

The threat of death due to negligence and repercussions for lapses in duty of care (in the UK anyway) are so serious that each car rental company has pretty rigorous checks before each rental.

Jezzerh

816 posts

121 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
Chucklehead said:
Have you worked in the industry then?

The threat of death due to negligence and repercussions for lapses in duty of care (in the UK anyway) are so serious that each car rental company has pretty rigorous checks before each rental.
Yes, as shown by the OP. Oh, wait.

Forever Alone

8,842 posts

186 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
Chucklehead said:
Have you worked in the industry then?

The threat of death due to negligence and repercussions for lapses in duty of care (in the UK anyway) are so serious that each car rental company has pretty rigorous checks before each rental.
rofl

Forever Alone

8,842 posts

186 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
Chucklehead said:
Have you worked in the industry then?

The threat of death due to negligence and repercussions for lapses in duty of care (in the UK anyway) are so serious that each car rental company has pretty rigorous checks before each rental.
rofl

Chucklehead

2,729 posts

207 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
Perhaps the OP can advise what car it is.. Google doesn't need to tell you the tyre pressure, it's marked usually inside the frame of the front door.

Generally speaking they are set to the "fully laden" psi, which probably isn't 32 psi.

All three set to 38 and one at 42 isn't ideal, but I'm willing to bet that 38 is the fully laden setting.

Roo

11,503 posts

206 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
Motorrad said:
Roo said:
Rental car I had in July put up a low oil level warning within a couple of hundred miles of collecting it.

Checked it and no oil. Had to go and buy a litre.
Hope you charged them for it. They'd hammer you for every penny.
Yep, as soon as I got back to the UK. Car was hired in France.
Got a refund within 48 hours.

davepoth

29,395 posts

198 months

Sunday 30th August 2015
quotequote all
I once rented a 2008 Vauxhall Astra with no synchromesh on 2nd gear. That was a bit st.