Michelin’s ‘Fill Up With Air’ roadshow will visit the car park of Total Fitness, Blackglen Road, Sandyford, Dublin on Thursday and Friday, and 21/22 August. The roadshow offers drivers a free tyre safety check, advice on tyre care and importantly, tips on how to save fuel. This summer, Michelin is embarking on a major programme to help educate and advise motorists on how they can potentially make their tyres last longer, reduce fuel consumption and ensure greater safety on the road.

Michelin’s Bibendum man will be on hand for the Michelin ‘Fill Up With Air’ show, which takes place Total Fitness, Blackglen Road, Sandyford, Dublin on Thursday and Friday, 21/22 August.

Michelin supports the EU’s road safety charter and the Fill up with Air programme has been run throughout Europe since 2003. The check takes just a couple of minutes and any cars found to have under-inflated tyres are given a free “fill-up” to the recommended pressure and then sent safely on their way, improving fuel consumption and reducing CO2 emissions as a result.

In 2005 when the Fill up with Air roadshow last visited Ireland 78% of cars surveyed were running under inflated tyres and 56% were dangerously low, at least 0.5 bar (7psi) below the recommended pressure.

Michelin’s previous campaigns returned damning results for the UK, which was placed 25th out of the 27 European countries surveyed in 2007, well-behind Germany where only 1 in 8 cars had dangerously under-inflated tyres. The results showed that:

Almost 80% of cars on British roads are running with incorrect tyre pressures

It’s amazing to think that 80% of motorists are effectively charging themselves an average of 4 cents per litre extra every time they fill up PLUS all the extra CO2 they create simply because their tyres are running several psi below the optimum pressure. This adds to the cost for both themselves and society due to faster tyre wear, which means more raw materials are required to manufacture tyres and more end of life tyres need to be disposed of.

Having the correct pressures in your tyres - the only contact between your car and the road - is essential for safety. Under-inflated tyres are dangerous; running 15psi under-inflated lowers the speed at which the car will aquaplane on a wet surface by 10mph. Low pressure also affects the car’s handling and reduces cornering ability, and can cause a build up of excess heat that can permanently weaken the tyre’s structure, possibly causing it to fail.

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