TIL my cheap tire gauge was off by 5 PSI for months

I always thought my tires felt a little squishy but the $2 gauge from the gas station said 32 PSI so I ignored it. Last Tuesday I borrowed my neighbor's digital gauge and found all four tires were at 27 PSI which explains the wandering on the highway. Anyone else ever get humbled by something this basic or am I the only one running on bad data?

3 comments

3 Comments

patriciap521mo ago

Bet that gauge was accurate when you bought it but drifted after getting knocked around in the glovebox for six months.

danielhenderson1mo ago

@patriciap52 you're probably right about that. I kept a cheap tire gauge in my door pocket for years and by the end it was off by almost 3 psi. I only noticed when I borrowed a friend's good gauge and checked all four tires. That little plastic gear inside must get tossed around every time you hit a pothole.

nancy5241mo ago

That 3 psi drift is actually a lot worse than most people realize. @patriciap52 I've seen those cheap gauges be off by 5 or 6 psi after just a year of bouncing around in a glovebox. The plastic gear mechanism is garbage, the metal ones hold up way better over time. I switched to a stick style gauge with no moving parts and it's been dead on for two years now. Checking pressure wrong can throw off your gas mileage and tire wear by a lot.