Is 97 PSI too high for the front tire on a Fit?

A friend asked me to check her tires. She said she thought one of them was low, so she stopped somewhere and added air. I thought my pressure gauge was acting up when I saw it reading 97 PSI. She said that the machine shut off at that point, so she thought it must be the right pressure. Lucky, lucky, lucky.

 

Scary. I'm a bit biased because my dad was a mechanic and I've always enjoyed learning how things work, but it constantly amazes me how many folks know absolutely nothing about how vehicles work. I can't imagine jumping into a 2500+ lb metal box capable of speeds unattainable to humanity prior to about 100 years ago without having a basic understanding of how it works.

I like to watch "customer states..." videos on Youtube and I've seen more than a few clips where they show car tires in the 90-100 psi range. Or they pull the oil pan from a vehicle with 50K+ miles (and a locked motor) where the owner states that they didn't know they should get the oil changed. Or they show broken suspension parts secured with rubber trailer tie-downs and zip ties (so the driver recognized that it was broken, but thought that they could fix it with spit and bailing wire as my dad would say).

What does 100 psi in a car tire even feel like?. With the rough roads where I live, even mid-30s on my Fit can feel horrible. I've had to lower my road bike tires down from the recommended 70-80 psi to 40-45 psi because it's too jarring otherwise. The tires probably wear out a bit faster, but my groin and wrists may survive.

 

Well, the tire warning indicator did light up. She didn't know how to reset it.

When I was a kid, a friend lost an eye by overinflating a bicycle tire. He later lost his life as a volunteer fireman when two fire engines collided at an intersection.

 

SMH.... knock on wood.. Glad no one was hurt from it.

 

My first thought, too. Scary.

Don't get a pinch-flat on your bike! That would suck.

 

In general, if you don't know what you are doing you should not do it! I keep telling that to my kids too. There is a sticker on the doorsill to tell the correct pressure, and also marking on the tire to tell the maximum allowed pressure, which I would guess to be about half of that mentioned pressure.

 

When my internet was out for 2 days because of a rain storm, I was reading the service manual for my 4Runner.. In the manual it states that in the United States tire pressure should be 32 PSI and in Mexico tire pressure should be 29 PSI.. it makes me wonder if I should have been running lower tire pressure this entire Summer during the heatwave.

 

I've been inflating tires to 33 psi on everything for years.

 

Might be summer heat; might be average road conditions?