What tyre pressure for my Xsara?
I have just bought a 1998 1.4 Citroen Xsara and it has no handbook with it. I am wondering what the tyre pressure should be for the car? Also, would you know if it would be possible to get a handbook for the car from somewhere?
Patricia Dodd (Mallow)May 2010 Filed under: tyres
Expert answer
Hi Patricia,
The correct tyre pressures for the Citroen Xsara from 1997-2000 are 31 psi front and rear, but you might want to adjust this upwards slightly if you carry a fully laden car.
Remember to check your tyre pressures every 2 weeks to ensure you have the correct pressure as under-inflation can cause uneven tyre wear and decrease fuel economy. You can buy small devices to check your tyre pressure at places like Halfords or other car parts outlets.
As regards the Xsara owner's handbook, you could go down the route of getting them from a dealer, but we reckon eBay is your best (and cheapest) bet. We found one for around a tenner here
Hope this helps!
Is my excessive tyre wear normal?
I've got a 01 Audi A4 1.6 Petrol (newer shape) and spent €620 on four firestone 235 x 45 R17 tyres. However, after only 13,000 miles there is very little life left on them, another 2-3k miles at most. I've really looked after them, had them rotated after about 7k and haven't been spinning wheels or any of that boy racer stuff. One of them (back left at present) is worse than the others alright and is pretty much at the end of its life already. The wear is even through all of the tyres.
Question 1: Is this about the normal for this size wheel? It seems terrible to me.
Question 2: I've heard that some of these big name brands aren't really worth the money; can you recommend a more reasonably priced tyre for what looks like an almost annual expense I'm going to have to budget for?
Thanks
Ciaran Lutttrell (Cork)May 2010 Filed under: tyres
Expert answer
Hi Ciaran.
Funnily enough, I was just last week at a tyre event and we got a full briefing on tyre wear, which I knew would come in useful somehow.
Firstly, no this isn't normal wear at all unless you were on a track racing. I take it that you aren't and from what you are saying the wear is even. Usually shoulder wear is a sign of under-inflation. Under-inflation can also lead to tyre blow-outs.
Drivers should check their tyre pressure every two weeks according to the manufacturers. One-sided wear is usually an alignment issue and that doesn't seem to be the case here.
Anyway, we contacted Bridgestone / Firestone on your behalf and they are happy to send out an engineer to inspect your tyres. I have sent you their details. They want to check out if there is a fault and we can take it from there.
What we will say about tyres is that it does not make economical sense to buy cheap ones. They tend to be of lower quality and there is no wisdom in having poor tyres on your car. See how you get on with the engineer and let us know by posting a comment back on this page.
Hope that helps.