No it doesn't. Different tire compounds, different size tires, different carcass construction and stiffness, will require different pressures.

How could GM possibly know what size and type of tire a person might run? How would a sticker, predict the future? How would one pressure that works on a stiff AF run flat, magically be optimal on a much softer summer tire that is not a run flat and relies only on air pressure to support the weight of the car?

If you had a Jeep with smaller tires, like a base model, and then you upgraded to 35's, you won't be running the same pressure. If you have a motorcycle that shipped with an older sport touring tire and you updated to a Dunlop Q5 street/track day tire, you won't be using what's in the manual.

What about 5 or 10 years from now when tire compounds and tech have changed significantly since that sticker was printed? How would the sticker know and account for that?

Next time you are at a car dealership, find a car or truck from different trim packages that comes with different OEM tires, and compare the door jam specs and see if the recommended pressures are the same? They likely won't be.

 

No what Dave and Andy wrote is correct.
If the sticker on the door jam was meant for any tire it would only have 30 psi on it and not specifically state the exact tire size.
As the 2024 manual states:
" The Tire and Loading Information label
on the vehicle indicates the original
equipment tires and the correct cold
tire inflation pressures. The
recommended pressure is the minimum
air pressure needed to support the
vehicle's maximum load carrying
capacity. See Vehicle Load Limits pg 173."

Note the pressure on the sticker only tells us the MINIMUM pressure for the max load. However it is a great starting place from which to adjust your actual running pressure in order to achieve maximum tire life which is what the majority of drivers out there are interested in.

 

Exactly. I might be new to the Corvette, but I have had lots of cars and trucks and dozens of bikes over the years... The sticker on the bike or car always correlates to the OEM tires that were sold with the car. If you stick with those tires over time, then it applies. If you swap out tires and/or wheels for something else then you can call the tire maker and tell them what vehicle you have them on and they can give a recommendation. When I bought my 2018 Silverado Z71 the sticker on the door sill I think said like 33psi. But I had the dealer put on a set of Nitto Ridgegrapplers and they put the same pressure in and the truck felt mushy... I called Nitto, and they said for that truck, run 48psi(max for the tire was 80psi) and it raised the truck at least half an inch and made the handling much better, and was still good off road.

The reason was a different size, but also a vastly different tire construction from the OEM.

 

I personally can't wait to get rid of the Michelin lead heavy tires, I will likely replace them when the tread is about half gone. I haven't bought a Michelin as a replacement tire on any of my 4 and 2 wheel vehicles since the 2005 US Grand Prix(I was at that one). I'll be installing Conti DWS 06 or newer version and use 30-32psi as a starting point when the time comes.

 

 

Correct, but if you swap out the OEMs for something else, like a conventional non run flat tire, then the pressure will need to change.

Another thing I always wondered was... They give you a cold tire pressure, under the assumption that at that temp, the tire will warm up to operating temp and the air inside will rise to a certain "hot pressure". Too low or too high of a cold pressure, would cause the hot pressure at operating temp, to be different. Hence why they say do 30 at cold for that OEM tire, and at temp it might go up to 34psi or whatever, which is where they want it to be. By adjusting the cold pressure, you adjust the hot operating temp pressure.

So when you fill the tires with nitrogen, how does that factor in? If the purpose of nitrogen is to keep the pressure stable regardless of temp, then a 30psi cold might not translate to 34 hot(or whatever their target is), because nitrogen doesn't expand with temp at the same rate that regular air does...

Thoughts? Was just curious if anyone actually ever studied that.

 

Now busy with making list of pressure-rising
Its not the pressure rising you have to worry about, its the temperature of gascompound in tire, and with that temperature of tire-material.

I read tire-material may not go above 120 degrC/ 248 degrF.

When driving in ambiënt temperature of 40 degrC with yust enaugh pressure for the load and speed on tire, the tire-inside then rises to 75 degrC/ 167 degrF, and tire material then not above 248 degr F. What main goal is of pressure-determination

This would give, a pressure of 35 psi filled at 20 degrC/68 degrF, at 75 degrC a pressure of 44.3 psi if no water in tire, and 5.25 psi more, so 49.55 psi if enaugh water in tire.

But when driving in 68 degrF ambiënt temperature, tire inside rises to 60 degr C/140 degr F. And 35 psi rises to 41.8 psi dry and wet 2.7 psi maximaly more so 44.5 psi.
Then still tire-material not above 120 degr C.

So 20 degr C/ 36 degr F hotter ambiënt temp gives under same conditions 15 degr C/ 27 degr F hotter tire inside.

​​​​​​If you want more info, mail me at my hotmail.com adress with username jadatis ( like this to prevent spamm-machines reading it, combine your selves) .
Can send you my made pressure/temperature-calculator for dry and wet, in that wet part, I am first, I think.

Older version

 

Yep, Nitrogen filling tires is mostly effective for folks who have large 18 wheeler truck fleets where they get 200,000+ miles out of a tire carcass by recapping. The reduced oxidation has a benefit. It's a gimmick for passenger cars! Dry air contains 78% Nitrogen and does just as well. Getting it dry is needed to match! Including the tire pressure requirements. SEE sidebar

SIDEBAR
I worked for the largest Industrial Gas Company. You make liquid, Nitrogen, Oxygen and very profitable Argon by liquefying all air. Very expensive process required compressing at high pressures and once made into a liquid distilling the various gases in columns. Argon actually requires additional columns and some chemical steps adding ~20% to the cost of a a very expensive plant. Typically, the extra cost of producing Argon is only justified on very large plants. We had very large gas liquefaction plants supplying oxygen to steel mills in ~6-inch pipes so had a lot of Nitrogen (78% of the air) that was hard to sell. Frankly after all the cost to produce the liquid, often a lot of liquid Nitrogen is simply vented!

There was a ~30-person Market Development group developing processes that could use Nitrogen. Food freezing for example, but CO2 was actually better and cheaper! It typically comes from chemical waste streams since it's only ~0.035% of air and not viable to distill from liquid air. Because we had many very large production gas plants we invested in Argon production capability which is 0.9% of the air. Although our typical market share was ~30% we had ~60% of the US Argon production capacity. Sold about half ourselves and the other half wholesale to the few competitors. We controlled the Argon price! That was a key part of the welding market development I managed, to define and promote uses for Argon in Welding! The Argon Product/Business manager didn't care if we or others sold it, we made the high profit, much higher than Oxygen and for sure Nitrogen, which we all had in excess!

Recall when my counterpart in gases market development promoted Nitrogen to replace compressed air. Those engineers did a lot of research and as mentioned Nitrogen is a benefit in large truck fleets, etc. And we sponsored Richard Petty for >15 years and his race team, like others, used cylinder Nitrogen to fill tires at the Track. Easier than having an air compressor and high-quality dryer!

BTW, you're making way too much about different pressures needed for different tires when street driving! Sure, when racing depending how aggressive "cold tire pressure" is lower and racing pressure is key. You measure tread tire temps inside and outside to define what pressure is best. I have been using performance tires even before racing in the late 1960's. Recall buying the first radial tire, which were skinny Pirelli's. Good in rain, which I wanted but not as good as the wide dog bone pattern soft tread tire I had bought. It was great in dry, terrible in rain on my 1st new car a 1967 Chevy. Discovered Continental 714 that were low profile when "low profile" was not a word used in 1968! Fit a Plus 1 I used by making lots of measurements. Great tire.

My 1st Vette, a 1988 came with Goodyears. I put on sticky when hot Continentals. Much better tire and watched tread wear to define pressure needed. Was about what GM OEM recommended. Michelin won the Corvette Business for the 2014 C7s by providing a more race car compound and tire construction. Recall got about 10,000 miles!

The summer only tires I had on my 2014 Z51 and 2017 Grand Sport were great. But that more race car tire construction included low slip angels causing so much chatter on full lock turns when below ~45F GM put a tag on the shifter that said, "Don't Worry it's Normal." Chatter or Hopping as GM also called it, was so bad that after I backed out of my garage and in warmer weather made the full lock turn to go down the driveway ,when below ~45F I did not use full lock and made a "K" turn!

I have not found evidence that would cause me to switch from Michelin for my aggressive street driving. In fact, IF I wanted to change from the Michelin 345 rear/275 front Michelin tires on my upcoming E-Ray (at 3000 waiting for GM to start production) would switch from the Michelin Pilot Sport 4S Summer tires that come with the ZER option I have on order to Michelin Cup 2R's!

Tadge said with the ME C8 they did not have to use more race car type construction and there is no chatter! Well there is some when <~45F but not enough for me not to use full lock to go down the driveway!

The idea that switching to none run flats makes a dramatic difference is old history. Not that much!

 

 

Dealer had mine at 37psi too when I picked it up for delivery. The next day I put them all at 30psi per the door sticker. This has happened to me most of the time when I have had work done involving the tires on other vehicles when I have taken them in for service. Why do most dealers and tire shops over inflate the tires?

 

When you leave a tire shop they most often over inflate BECAUSE...

You drive away on harder tires and feel the car turn easier, and roll further. Your "***" tells you .. "Gee these new tires sure are great. The steering feels lighter, and they just roll right along". .. .. It's intentional.

 

I told my dealer I would handle the tire pressure when I got it home along with most other PDI checks.
I'm not so sure you guys with 37 lbs should blame the dealership for putting that much in them, maybe just blame them for not checking them at all.
Reason being that when I got the car home and checked the tires: They were 37, 29, 24 and 35 lbs. That's what was in them when it came off the truck, meaning that what was put in at the factory or wherever they were mounted.
The consistency of the plant/assembly line leaves something to be desired, including the settings on the lug nut installer. Half of my lug nuts were about 140 and the rest of them struggled to reach 100. A good PDI is not a 1/2 hour job!

 

^^^
My "guess" is the vendor who mounts the tires on wheels and delivers to BG is responsible for having them at whatever pressure BG specifies. Expect it's high. Why should BG bother when they pay Dealers to do that as part of the PDI. Know my Courtesy Delivery Dealer gets paid by GM.

Don't get me wrong, smart to check pressure and wheel torque yourself.

 

My head hurts. Is that normal? haha

 

Modern runflats don't have the ultra stiff sidewalls that early designs did. Fact. The construction of the Michelin's is such that the extra stiffening doesn't come into play unless the tires are at very low pressure.

 

The stock tires are run flats, so they are very stiff and don't need as much air pressure to support the car.

Yes they do.

 

Well, for whatever reason, run flats usually seem to require lower cold pressures than the non run flat tires. I assumed the reason why, was due to the stiffer construction that allows the tire to travel 50 miles when completely flat... But whatever the reason is, if I had a set of aftermarket tires fitted that were not run flats, I would be running cold temps higher than 30psi...

The run flats in my Mustang GT PP, were 32psi cold... but the tires I fitted to replace them, the manufacturer recommended 35F and 37R, I think...

 

GM/Corvette and Michelin have a very long lasting relationship. Hard to believe any Corvette owner would think they know better.

 

With the OEM tire, I agree. Switch to a different tire and that changes the equation.

And while I am typically a fan of trusting the engineers... these are the same engineers that had have almost 5 years to troubleshoot the DCT failures, and they still haven't...

 

Tire pressures and lug nuts torque all the fun things for us to do when we get it home. I love that. I wouldn't have it any other way. I trust my own tools. Snap On, Longacre.