Ever seen the message ‘Check Cold Tyre’ and wondered what it means? This guide explains why tyre pressure should be checked when tyres are cold, how long to wait before testing, and why readings taken on warm tyres can give inaccurate results. Learn how this small detail can make a big difference to your safety and tyre performance.
The maintenance checklist of drivers and vehicles everywhere is already fairly long – from checking the tread depth on all four tyres to ensuring that they are filled with optimum pressure and suited to both the road surface and season.
And that’s just the tyres – with other jobs including fuel checks, mechanical systems, and more.
All things considered, the must-check list for drivers is lengthy and covers all areas of the car – with specific items needing to be clear cut and well explained, if drivers have any hope of optimising their maintenance time.
This article covers a very specific part of vehicle maintenance, focussed on the tyres. The item ‘Check Cold Tyres’ may sound like something you need to do in winter – but is that really what it means?
What Are Cold Tyres?
You aren’t wrong in thinking that cold tyres could refer to tyres in winter. However, that isn’t the correct definition in this instance.
When drivers are told to check cold tyres as part of their vehicle maintenance, they are actually being told to check the tyres while the vehicle standing – that is, when the tyres haven’t been driven on for a period of time.
Typically, it is best to check cold tyres when they haven’t been driven on or used for at least three hours – as this allows the air inside the tyres to have cooled down enough to give an accurate reading. But why is this important?
Why is it Important to Check Cold Tyres?
We probably don’t need to tell you that tyre pressure is an incredibly important part of good vehicle maintenance. The pressure of each tyre plays an integral role in its handling and safety and impacts how well the vehicle steers and brakes in different situations and on different surfaces.
But the pressure inside a single tyre changes before and after its driven – and it’s this change that makes a cold tyre pressure reading so important.
The ‘cold’ tyre pressure is the most accurate representation and reading. Once the tyre has become warm through driving, the air inside the tyre heats up and the pressure reading increases.
Therefore, taking a reading of the tyre pressure while the tyre is still cold is the best way to get an accurate and clear reading on whether tyres are inflated to the correct reading.
How Do I Know if Tyres Are Cold Enough for a Reading?
You will find that most car manuals recommend taking a pressure reading when the tyre is cold.
This has nothing to do with the external temperature, and everything to do with when they were recently driven.
In short, you could take a pressure reading on a ‘cold’ tyre during a heatwave and still get an accurate reading – provided you are checking that tyre after a few hours of the vehicle standing without being driven.
Where possible, check pressure when the vehicle and tyres have been standing dormant for at least three hours. NOTE: Driving a few miles to your local fuel station to reach a pressure gage will not change the reading significantly.
