Hey guys, had our first taste or chilly weather here, (-3 celcius) this morning and incedently enough my low tire pressure light came one, now when i measured the pressure some time later, i found it had dropped almost 10 psi in all four tires, form 35 psi to about 20-25 psi. Is it normal for the cold weather to have done this?? and Should i air them back up to 35psi or wait?

thanks for the help!

 

Happened to me as well. I think I'm just gonna leave it be unless it's extraordinarily bad for the tires to be that low

 

Mine did the same thing but did not drop that low, maybe to 28 -30 lb. Now dropping to 20-25lb just because it went to -3*C that seems excesive. Just pump them back up to 35 lb and the light should go off. We just had -20*C and they did not fluctuate at all.

Cheers

 

Nitrogen or Pro-Cal are a couple of other options.
Nitrogen is less affected by temperature change.
Procal will allow you to set the tolerance to whatever you like.

 

Tire Rack people say for every 10 degrees F change, your tires will change 1 pound of pressure.

 

Thanks for the help guys! im going to leave them like this over night and see what happenes, the temp is supposed to drop even lower and then ill fill'em up tomorrow

 

I'd fill them with nitro if you weren't going to be airing them down much. I did all my other vehicles except the jeep since I air the tires down sometimes. My other vehicles never have tire pressure lights anymore. Also just a tip if anyone is planning on getting nitro. When I went to get tires I just told them that I would order the tires that day if they would fill my tires with nitro for free. I already price checked before I went there also so I knew I was getting a good price on the tires.

 

Don't all gasses follow the same gas laws? I've heard other's say the above about nitrogen but it didn't make sense to me. Here's a link to the Wiki page on gas laws: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_laws

If I'm missing something, please, someone set me straight.

 

If there is moisture in the air the tire was serviced with, it will condense more than the moisture free nitrogen will contract, thereby causing a greater pressure loss.

 

Just like fluids, different gases act differently. Nitrogen doesn't react as quickly or as much as air does to temperature changes. The gas molecules of nitrogen are also larger which is also another reason to get nitro, it won't seep through the walls of the tire. No not all gases are the same. Think of it in terms of a liquid. Liquids have laws just like gases but general laws. However, not all liquids are the same, ex. water and oil, both liquids but very different. Same with gases. Thats why helium can lift some objects and oxygen can't.