Even if you purchase car tires Goodyear Eagle Sport at an affordable price in the online store "Tires and Wheels" or similar products from another well-known manufacturer, for comfortable and safe driving it is also important to use them correctly.

First of all, it is necessary to control the optimal temperature of the rubber, which, as is known, largely depends on the air pressure inside it. The energy spent during movement on rolling the car is transformed into heat and affects the degree of tire heating. At the same time, there is a direct relationship between tire temperature and pressure.

Can pressure regulate tire temperature?

Practical experience confirms that pressure indeed has a noticeable effect on the degree of rubber heating. However, in certain situations, reducing tire pressure leads to an increase in temperature (for example, in professional motorsport), while in other cases heating intensifies with increasing pressure (in karting).

Pressure and temperature are different physical parameters that do not directly affect each other when the car is moving. For a thermodynamic system to arise, a third indicator is also needed — volume. Consequently, tire pressure is only one of the factors that indirectly affects the change in its temperature.

What is determined by tire pressure?

The indicator of "normal" tire pressure varies depending on the conditions of its use. If it is underestimated, then:

  • the load on the road surface is distributed unevenly, which leads to deterioration of wheel grip with the track and accelerated tire wear;
  • the amplitude of deformations increases, heating and rolling resistance grow, and fuel consumption also increases;
  • the likelihood of damage to the tire or wheel when hitting a pothole increases.

When hitting an obstacle or during a sharp maneuver, an underinflated tire can come off the wheel or even burst. A lack of pressure by 20 percent reduces tire life by a third.

Excessive pressure, on the contrary, makes the tire stiffer. The wheel rolls easier, but due to a decrease in the contact patch area, grip with the road deteriorates. Due to overstrain of the cord threads, the central part of the tread wears out faster. When hitting a pothole, the load on the suspension and body increases. Driving such a car is uncomfortable, and noise in the cabin also increases.

However, even more dangerous is driving a vehicle with different pressure in the wheels. The car begins to pull to the side of the tire with lower pressure, and it moves as if sideways.

Why does a tire heat up?

Based on the physical law of converting kinetic energy into thermal energy, we can conclude that the main cause of tire heating lies in internal deformations. Being elastic, they resist rolling when moving in a straight line.

The resistance force provokes tire deformation, which leads to its heating and a decrease in speed. Thus, rolling resistance and the amount of heat generated are inversely dependent on pressure.

However, the situation is not as clear-cut as it seems at first glance. On straight sections of racing tracks, tires more often cool down rather than heat up. Why is that? The working temperature of a racing car's rubber should be about 80–100 degrees. At the same time, the air and road surface temperature rarely exceeds 50 degrees. Therefore, even reducing tire pressure is unlikely to achieve the working temperature solely due to rolling resistance and deformation.

Added to this are the grip force with the road, lateral and longitudinal loads in corners, the size of the contact patch, and other parameters. But this is already material for the following publications.