What's the best tyre pressure on my zetec s red edition for general driving? A mix of town and dual carriageway driving with either just myself or a passenger. No other load.

The recommended tyres pressures by load are on one of the door frames, I can't remember which one.

As per the owners manual or the passenger B pillar sticker.

Passenger side door sticker from my ST-Line 140.

Look at the  row which corresponds to your tyre size then look in the1-3 columns for both front and rear tyre pressures.

 

Thanks,  I had it right but my car was in for a service last week and It seemed very harsh on the bumps after I took it back.  Took it to my local supermarket and checked them and they were way up.  Not sure why they had pumped them up so hard.

I bought a good guage many years ago I always check them using that, I don't trust the garage ones too much, they get dropped and bashed about.

Had to use one on a garage forecourt a few years back after I'd forgotten to put the guage back in the boot, I picked up a slow puncture so put the space saver wheel on. Stopped at the garage to check the pressure, it showed as 40 so I pumped it up to the recommended 48 psi. Seemed very hard so I checked it on my guage when I got back home and it read 56psi.

Took the guage in to work (was in a lab at the time) and tested it against a calibrated pressure guage and mine was correct so the forecourt one was 8psi out

3 hours ago, ayrshiredude said:

Thanks,  I had it right but my car was in for a service last week and It seemed very harsh on the bumps after I took it back.  Took it to my local supermarket and checked them and they were way up.  Not sure why they had pumped them up so hard.

the main reason is to improve fuel economy. 

12 hours ago, Blatto said:

I bought a good guage many years ago I always check them using that, I don't trust the garage ones too much, they get dropped and bashed about.

Had to use one on a garage forecourt a few years back after I'd forgotten to put the guage back in the boot, I picked up a slow puncture so put the space saver wheel on. Stopped at the garage to check the pressure, it showed as 40 so I pumped it up to the recommended 48 psi. Seemed very hard so I checked it on my guage when I got back home and it read 56psi.

Took the guage in to work (was in a lab at the time) and tested it against a calibrated pressure guage and mine was correct so the forecourt one was 8psi out

I've had the opposite experience recently, been surprised by how accurate the Sainsburys machine actually is, but the gauge is in the machine, rather than at the end of the hose.  I only use the Sainsburys one as it's free...not paying 20p for air!  

Anyway, I'd relied on their machines for years but a couple of months back treated myself to a digital tread depth gauge, which also happened to have pressure on it as well.  Amazingly, the gauge read exactly the same as the Sainsburys machine on all tyres I've checked so far.  Including the space saver at 22psi...which should've been 60psi (oops, I wrongly assumed they wouldn't deflate much with so little use!).  When I had new tyres fitted I had 32psi put in them with the tyre fitters machine, checked with my gauge, and then the forecourt gauge, still exactly 32psi... 

14 hours ago, ayrshiredude said:

Thanks,  I had it right but my car was in for a service last week and It seemed very harsh on the bumps after I took it back.  Took it to my local supermarket and checked them and they were way up.  Not sure why they had pumped them up so hard.

It's to bust your wheels/suspension to get them a bit more work before xmas.  

What pressures did they put in them out of interest?  37/46 for heavy load must feel like classic wooden wheels!