HOW should drivers check their own tyre pressures accurately? According to Darryl Baines, managing director of Wakefield-based Tyre Safety Products, many forecourt airlines give inaccurate readouts.

He said: ‘We estimate that anything up to 80% of these gauges are giving inaccurate readings, due to these garage gauges being faulty. They are giving misleading information to users, which is a real problem as accurate tyre pressures play a crucial part in vehicle safety. They also help fleets to get the most out of their tyres.

‘With correctly inflated tyres, the tyre rolls more regularly and safely, causing less rolling resistance, providing a greater driving pleasure, which in turn produces better fuel economy, reduced tyre wear and enhanced safety.’

However, advances in the use of nitrogen in tyres is ‘set to go through the roof in this country’ according to Baines. He said: ‘Nitrogen will help fleets maintain tyre pressures better, because it’s a much more stable gas to put into tyres than air.

‘Also compressed air contains oxygen (water vapour), which oxidises and eventually eats away the rubber; it also impairs the structural capability of the tyre over time.

‘Oxygen also permeates through the sidewalls quite quickly, causing regular and on-going underinflation which is very dangerous.’