Has anyone ever bothered to compare tire pressure from an actual tire gauge to what is on the tire pressure display in the instrument panel?

I consistently get 2 lbs less on my analog tire gauge (a quality one) than what's displayed on the screen for each tire. Should one be inherently more accurate than the other?

 

Go get your analog gauge calibrated. That's the only way to tell which is more accurate.

 

The manual tire gauge I use is within 1 p.s.i. +/- to the TPMS display in my 2018 F-150. You can buy more accurate tire pressure gauges.

 

I use a digital tire gauge and mine is right on.

 

I have a professional grade tire gauge is tested and calibrated to American Standard ANSI B40.1. These vehicle TPMS are very accurate -- especially for how much they cost.

 

I took the first and longest trip to date yesterday. Before leaving home when the ambient temperature was around 36 degrees. All 4 stock tire pressures indicated to be balanced at 34 p.s.i., As I put a few miles on the tires the pressure begin to increase as it normally does. Sometimes one tire may gain a pound or two before the others but all in all the tire pressure instrument panel display stay well balance as the tires heated up. That is until about 150 miles down the road when the right front tire pressure display increased from 36 p.s.i. like the other 3 tires to 41 p.s.i.

I'm curious as to what may have caused that anomaly.

 

Who was riding in the passenger seat when you saw this? Increased weight in a particular area will put more load on a specific area causing that areas tire to overheat a little more and cause tire pressure to increase. More weight in passenger seat than driver seat will cause this. I have seen this in my Lariat Supercrew.

 

If this really bothers you, get your tires filled with nitrogen.

 

Left home with a driver and a front seat passenger. Returned home with the same. This is my 5th late model F-150 with TPMS and this is the first time I have seen this. I guess it's possible that the right front tire sensor accuracy could be a little off.

I'm not at all concerned, only curious. I used to run Nitrogen in my Harley Davidson motorcycle tires.

 

Brand and model?

 

Digital tire gage I have been using

 

I just uploaded pictures of the digital tire gage I have been using

 

I use to be of the opinion that nitrogen filled tires was a selling gimmick. However looking back at my past experiences dealing with nitrogen gas, I remembered it had a unique property that it does not expand or contract with temperature changes and it is not flammable. This is why it is heavily used in to inert tanks that carry flammable mixtures. But who really wants to buy bottles of nitrogen or carry them around in their car or truck. The air stations I see have a means of airing up a tire that has a leak and is low but have not seen nitrogen set ups to do the same thing.

 

Well, if you have to top up a leaky tire, you may have to use air, it mixes fine. Some tire stores will do top ups with nitrogen for you, if you bought the tires from them with nitrogen, they may even do it free of charge. There won't be any self service nitrogen, that ain't happening.

Costco does nitrogen fills, replacements, and top ups for any member free.