Car Mom's Winter Driving 101

ByABC News via logo
February 7, 2006, 5:43 PM

Feb. 8, 2006 — -- After my stint at the Bridgestone Winter Driving School in Steamboat Springs, Colo., I leave with a sense of enlightenment. I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I've been driving for so many years without understanding the importance of tire care, and such basic driving concepts as braking, accelerating, oversteer, understeer and weight transfer.

With help from Bridgestone's Winter Driving School, here's the Car Mom's Guide to tire care and winter driving:

What I thought: I did my research and bought a car with all the fancy safety features; antilock brakes, vehicle dynamic stability control, air bags and more. Tires? It has 4!

Eureka!: The only things connecting my very fast moving hunk of metal to the highway are the four contact points on the tires -- when totaled about the size of my child's spelling homework (an 8-1/2-by-11 inch piece of paper). Everything my car does (braking, accelerating and cornering) is transmitted through those four points to the road. In other words, tires matter!

What I thought: I have my tires rotated (or I did once or twice). I'm sure they fill them up with air. If I notice one looking low or flat, I'll take it in.

Eureka!: Tire pressure constantly goes down (about 1 psi per month) just from the oxygen molecules leaking through the rubber. In addition, tires lose 1 psi for every 10 degree drop in outside temperature. As my tire pressure goes down, my load-carrying capacity goes down (no more hauling the kids' friends around), my fuel economy goes down (more stops and more dough dished out at the pump), and the tires wear more quickly (even more dough for new tires). A visual check or kicking the tires is not an accurate measurement method.

What to do: It is recommended that everyone check the tire pressure once a month. Like that's going to happen! When pressured on the subject, Bill VandeWater, Bridgestone's sales engineering consumer products manager, conceded that once every three months is better than nothing. That sounds doable.

How to do it: With a private tutorial from VandeWater, I've nailed the basic technique -- no mechanical skills, filthy fingernails or plumber's butt required!

Before you Start:

Make sure your tires are "cold," meaning they haven't been driven on for at least three hours. Also, you need to have a tire pressure gauge that has been checked for calibration at a tire store (some may consistently measure low or high -- mine measures 4 psi low). Digital gauges are the most accurate, but also the most expensive.

Step 1: Determine your tires' proper inflation level. Look for a small sticker on the driver's door jam. It may also be located inside the gas tank cover. If you can't find it there, check the owners manual that's been hibernating in the glove compartment since you bought the car. Don't feel bad; nobody else reads those either. Don't be surprised if the required inflation level is different for the front and rear tires.

Step 2: Remove the valve cap from the tire (and consider replacing it with one sporting a rubber gasket in the cap to help keep crud out of the tire's air valve). Don't use ones claiming to measure the air pressure -- they supposedly turn red when air pressure is low. These have not proved to be accurate in Bridgestone's tests.