Ideal tyre pressures for 996 Turbo

[dank]

So I have just got two new rears fitted to my Turbo, Bridgestone Potenza S02's, and I am struggling to find the ideal tyre pressures.

I tried the recommended 44psi rear / 36psi front and found it was far too slippery, and felt as though there was no grip, and it was on ice!

So tried much lower, i think around 30 rears and 25 front and this felt like it was a jelly, wallowing all over the place,

can someone suggest the perfect tyre pressure !

thanks

[smj996c]

dank said:

So I have just got two new rears fitted to my Turbo, Bridgestone Potenza S02's, and I am struggling to find the ideal tyre pressures.

I tried the recommended 44psi rear / 36psi front and found it was far too slippery, and felt as though there was no grip, and it was on ice!

So tried much lower, i think around 30 rears and 25 front and this felt like it was a jelly, wallowing all over the place,

can someone suggest the perfect tyre pressure !

thanks

I run 32F/38R - cold measure

note your rears will feel slippy for a few miles whilst you run out the release agent from the tyres

[dank]

Thanks for that, ill try those, yes they felt very very slippery straight after fitting them, guessed there maybe some initial sloppiness

[Rockster]

Based on what I'm told the rear tire pressure of 44psi is for a fully loaded car. However, 25 front and 30 rear is quite low, almost certainly too low.

The techs where I take my car subtract 4psi from those inflation pressure numbers on the gas cap lid label.

Thus the fronts are at 32psi and the rears at 40psi and these numbers deliver reasonable ride and handling.

Oh, new tires are a bit slippery even if they are properly inflated. It is the mold realease chemical I believe. Take it easy on the new tires a hundred miles or so.

Last but not least if you are going to experiment with tire inflation pressures do so in small steps. 2psi changes at a time with some road time with the new pressures is the best way to go.

[Moosh]

I run the recommended pressures on mine and never feel lack of grip. May be the make of tyre you are using. I run the recommended Michelin on mine. They wear fairly quickly but I feel are best suited for the car.

[g7jhp]

Moosh said:

I run the recommended pressures on mine and never feel lack of grip. May be the make of tyre you are using. I run the recommended Michelin on mine. They wear fairly quickly but I feel are best suited for the car.

+1

[dank]

Thanks for the info everyone, I have been running Potenzas for a year and the car has always felt amazing, have heard Micehllins are very good too, thanks!

[stubbsy996]

Moosh said:

I run the recommended pressures on mine and never feel lack of grip. May be the make of tyre you are using. I run the recommended Michelin on mine. They wear fairly quickly but I feel are best suited for the car.

Me too!
Aren't the pressures recommended by the manufacturer for a reason?

[Rockster]

stubbsy996 said:

Me too!
Aren't the pressures recommended by the manufacturer for a reason?

Yes they are recommended for a reason.

But you have to be sure you using the right recommended pressures. For my Boxster the pressures listed on the back of the gas lid are for an unloaded car. For the Turbo the pressures listed are for a fully loaded car. For the Boxster the techs have the tire pressures set to the lid numbers. For the Turbo the tire pressures are lower by a few PSI.

Before I learned of this I ran the Turbo tires at the fully loaded settings and the grip was ok - good in fact -- and tire life was ok too. The biggest problem was when I had a passenger and invariably he or she would complain about ride harshness. I just kind of brushed it off -- although I had to mentally agree with the harshness observation -- until one day when the car was on the lift and the tech was adjusting tire pressures I asked him why lower than the pressures on the lid? That is when he explained to the me the pressures were given for a fully loaded vehicle: 4 passengers and their luggage.