Tyre Pressures

[John042]

Hi, my 1988 350i is without power steering. Tyre pressure according to the hand book states 24psi front, 20psi rear. Seems a bit low? Any thoughts? J C.

[FHCNICK]

Sound too low at the back to me unless you light up the rears and power slide everywhere. I always found 24 all round feels right but my cars have all been earlier models with 205/60 all round.

[Englishman]

Also depends on tyres fitted. Factory recommendations, IIRC, was 22 front, 24 rear for the Bridgestones originally fitted. For Toyo's I add 2psi all round and seems to work fine.

[KKson]

I've got Toyos and run 23psi front and 25psi rears.

[colin mee]

I run my front at 26 makes the non power steering a bit easier

[eesbad]

24 all round for me. PAS in my case, but used the same on my old Wedge which was non-PAS.

[BIG DUNC]

When I had my 85 350i, the book said 22 at the front and at the rear, it was 26.

Word on the street was that for track use you should go 10% higher.

I really struggled for grip and this was really illustrated when at a familiarisation lap (cannot remember exact term) when the guy in the car behind could see that whenever I tried to put power down the back end stepped out.

We tried a few things but the one thing that made a big difference was reducing the tyre pressures.

After a lot of (semi) controlled experimentation, I found that best grip / balance was achieved with 20 psi at the front and 25 psi at the rear.

Those pressures will depend on a lot of things, including tyre brand / size / age / rest of suspension set up / driver etc, but the moral of this is don't be afraid to try lower pressures and see what it can do for you.

[John042]

Thanks all. Yes Collin I was thinking of increasing the front to assist with no PAS. I think the rear is probably light enough not to increase above 24psi?