New Tires / Worse Gas Mileage
Created January 23, 2009, at 3:22 pm by rbuck
I have a 2007 Civic Hybrid and I just changed out my 4 original tires to new Michelin Primacy MXV4 Performance 195/65/R15 91H tires. I just hit 42K miles and also had the car serviced. My mileage has gone down from an average of 42 per gallon down to 37 per gallon.
Any idea why? I saw the earlier post on tire pressure and I live in the SF Bay Area.
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3 years ago
Hi RBuck
New tires will always cause a hit on your FE for a short while.
Also, check the maximum pressure rating for your new Michelins. The OEM tires are usually rated at max of 44psi but if the newer ones have a higher max rating then your FE will get hit if you practice the same pressures as you had with your OEM's. This is a certainty and neither the dealer nor the tire shops care much about this since your FE is not their most pressing concern. ;)
To make up for the difference (if it exists) I would recommend you use the following formula:
Front tires ps i= max pressure psi - 2 psi
Rear tires psi = max pressure psi - 4 psi
Your mileage will improve for sure and your tires will run cooler and last longer.
Cheers;
MSantos
3 years ago
Thanks for the quick response. I forgot to mention that I bought the tires at Costco and they fill the tires with Nitrogen. Will this make a difference?
3 years ago
No difference whatsoever. :)
Cheers;
MSantos
40 weeks ago
This happened to me too when I first changed the tires and I didn't know that they always cause a hit on the FE for a short while, like MSantos said, I just thought the car wasn't good enough so I decided to get rid of it by leaving it at a donate car USA center. I still don't have any idea if this is true or why the mileage goes down in this case.
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