Check your tire pressure at least once a month when the tires are cold, meaning the vehicle has not been driven for at least 3 hours or no more than 1 mile. The Tire Information Label located on the inside of your vehicle’s door frame has the recommended cold tire pressure for your vehicle. Use a quality gauge. Don’t try to eyeball it—radial tires may appear fine even when they’re underinflated. Look for objects that can get wedged in the tread—they’ll work themselves even further into the tire and cause air loss. To make sure you’re covered, every check of your tires should include a check of your spare (if available), as well.

Air is a gas, expanding when heated and contracting when cooled. For most of North America, fall and early winter are especially important times for checking tire pressure — as the ambient temperature falls, tire pressure decreases. A good rule of thumb: with every 10 degrees Fahrenheit of temperature change, tire pressure changes about 1 psi – higher as temperatures rise, lower as they fall.

If the Tire Pressure Monitor light appears as a blinking yellow light for more than 1 minute and stays solid, then diagnostic service is needed. If your TPMS is not functioning properly, it cannot detect or signal a low-tire condition.

Inflation pressure maintenance of tires is critical for overall tire and vehicle performance. Maintaining the correct inflation pressure allows the tire to perform as intended, including for comfort, fuel economy, stopping distance, cornering, traction, tread wear, and noise.

General Motors does not oppose the use of nitrogen gas in tires. We expect the theoretical benefits to be reduced in practical use due to the lack of an existing infrastructure to continuously facilitate inflating tires with nearly pure nitrogen. Even occasional inflation with compressed atmospheric air will negate many of the theoretical benefits. Given those theoretical benefits, practical limitations, and the robust design of GM Original Equipment TPC tires, the realized benefits to our customers of inflating their tires with purified nitrogen are expected to be minimal.