15k Mile: Tires and Spare Wheel


Check the condition and tire pressure

Tire pressures are a matter of personal preference especially among those that have training on the track and at autocrosses. There are many different ideas on what the tire pressures should be, but my general rule of thumb is that if you don't know what you like from personal experimentation, then start with the factory recommendations.

Front: 29 psi
Rear: 36 psi
Spare: 60 psi

This will give you slight understeer, which is often preferred for general street driving.

Now a word about the spare tire. The most important tire pressure to check from a maintenance and reliability standpoint is the spare tire. This is because if one of your main tires goes flat or is damaged, you'll know it immediately. But if your spare tire goes flat, the only time you'll notice it is if you go out of your way to check it or if you need to use it.

Finding out that your spare tire is underinflated when you already have a flat tire is not a good thing. Like all rubber products, the air pressure in the spare will bleed out over time. You should be checking that pressure frequently, and the 15k inspection is one good time to check it. If you take a long time to go 15k miles, you should check it more frequently. In fact, I would check it once a month or two if you can. I don't practice what I preach often enough, I found my spare tire was down to 25psi. That would have been pretty disastrous if I had needed to use it.

Unfortunately, Porsche made it hard to check the spare tire's pressure while it's in the car. But if you remove the tire, you can double check that your emergency jack is still present and in good condition too.


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