I had my oil changed at a good local shop and they kindly reset my tire pressure back to factory specs, which produce a soft ride for me. I had been using 35 psi all around, same as in my former 15-year-old Golf TDI, a very stable ride.
It took awhile getting used to the lighter 2016 Fit, but I refuse to drive so soft a ride if increased pressure would work.
Recommendations?

 

That's what I ran with the stock size and now wider 205/50/16 as well. Going to try going up a bit on rear to get the rear end to rotate a bit more.

 

Where, on the street? No offense but you most likely won't be pushing the car on the street enough to notice any difference in rear tire pressure. If you are, you're most likely endangering someones life?

 

im one of those like you that can tell which corner is soft when tires are low on air. i dont drive the GK much since it's my wife's car but i usually keep the psi around 36-38 cold, snow tires 34 range.

 

I like to Tokyo drift into the primo front spots at the local Piggly wiggly.

We all like to modify our cars to fit our driving styles. This is just another layer of it. Only small woodland creatures have been harmed in my commutes.

 

I call what your talking about "taking a set" in corners, if you have the tire pressure balanced when you turn in to a corner the car bites in and turns, track style rotation can only happen if your sliding/scrubbing at least one end... (its how I explain it anyway...)

or another explanation,,
On a road race course your car is always sliding in turns as apposed to biting in, you can feel it when the wind suddenly goes cross ways through the car from outside to inside, the car is stepped out as it rotates through the apex. It where all the tire worms come from on the edge of the track peeling off rubber as the tire slides...

 

Not really sure what it's called, but I guess riding motorbikes for years I like taking late apexes with the feel of the rear end sliding out.

 

Thanks. Looks like 35 psi is not a bad idea.

 

I've autocross for the last three years in two very competitive regions. While air pressure changes have made some difference. I do not think it was enough at my level to make any improvement and that focusing on driving was more important and made bigger gains.

Again; on the street I've seen no difference in tire pressure and don't think you can safely push your car to see the difference. I'm not going to take a 45MPH freeway on ramp at 110 MPH to push the car to it's limits or even take a typical interception turn at 40MPH to see if 3psi increase in rear pressure helps with it's rotation?

I guess you just must be a better driver than me?

 

The original post was asking about normal driving related to tire pressure.

 

I'm with the OP. I don't like the feel of lower tire pressures. They can also lead to premature tire wear and decreased fuel economy.

I use the old school approach of watching tire wear. If wearing on the outsides, you have too low of pressure, if wearing in the center, you have too high of pressure.

As long as you have even tire wear, you're probably fine with choosing the pressure you like the feel of the best. That is usually anything between 32 and 40 psi. I run 38psi on our 15's and 36psi on our 16's. The ride with the 16's gets pretty harsh with higher pressure with the short sidewalls of the 205/45's.

All very relative to vehicle though. For example, I ran 60psi in my Ford Superduty.

 

old school meaning before pressure gauges were available? or before you learned how to correctly inflate tires? i mean you'd have to be considerably under or over inflated to see that condition on your tires especially if all seasons.

 

It doesn't work so well with low profile tires...this is true.

Works as a good measure for tall truck tires. You can easily see tire wear pattern differences in 60+ series tires.

 

yah on a truck tire but i thought we were talking about fit tires..?