I'm looking for winter tires and would like narrower wheel hubs for them. So I find this page called "The Wheel and Tyre Bible", which has lots of cool info. Here's the location:
Car Bibles : The Wheel and Tyre Bible Page 1 of 2
On page 2 there is a section on tire inflation, starting from "Checking your tyres" about 2/3 down the page. Among many things, the author comes to the conclusion that door sticker tire pressures are on the low side and a better rule is max pressure -10%. This gives just under 40psi if the max is 44psi. The whole page is really nice to read.
Our car has a door sticker of about 36psi, but the max on the tire is 51psi. Going with the max-10% rule, I should pump up to about 45-46psi. BUT the tire also has a big warning, which states (in slightly different wording):
Terrible things will happen if:
1) You underinflate your tires,
2) You inflate them over 40psi.
I keep them at 40, but am wondering if I can go up to 45psi?