Car Care Advice

I was in a BP petrol station one morning, I knew I was due to check the air pressure of my tyres but I was late for work and just didn’t have the time. While at the counter I noticed a large display of these electric air pumps… now let me tell you, at first I assumed it was one of those promotions, and I’m yet to be impressed by the quality of any of the rubbish they tend to give away, stainless steel pen-knifes that don’t hold an edge and torches that fall apart while still in the glove compartment. And these electric pumps were just £5. ‘Oh yeah? How good is that going to be?’

And then I noticed that it had an AA badge on it, and it wasn’t part of a promotion, I thought to myself that if the AA are willing to put their name to it, it can’t be that bad. So I bought one and chucked it in the boot with the intention of trying it later. I’m ashamed to say that ‘later’ turned into 3 weeks! I’m a very naughty boy! You really should check your tyres every 2 weeks — if you are short of time, then at least check the front tyres. It doesn’t matter how good your car is, your tyres are the only point of contact with the road. So if your tyres are over inflated, under inflated, or worn, you are risking your life. Having properly inflated tyres also helps with your fuel consumption, and it was the fact that I was low on motion-potion yet again that finally prompted me to open up the box and try what was inside.

(Actually, two weeks previous to this I had to take Anna to the dentist to have her wisdom teeth removed and I fully intended on using this pump while waiting in the dentists car park, but when we got there I found the car park had about a 15° incline. Whenever you you check your tyres, make sure that you are parked on flat level ground).

The unit has quite a long lead which plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter, I have to say that it could be a little longer, but it was certainly long enough for my VW Golf. I opened the two front windows on my car and threaded the lead through there as it was raining when I pumped up my tyres. You then push the nozzle onto your valve and push down the lever to clip it on. This was the first drawback that I found, the nozzle arrangement is quite large and only just fitted in between the spokes on my alloy wheels. My car has the old fashioned spoke type alloys which I have to admit, are rather rare these days with most alloys now having a 5 or 6 spoke design which is far more open, but there is the possibility that this nozzle wouldn’t fit on some wheel designs, and if your car has wheel trims, they may need to be removed.

Once the nozzle was fixed on the tyre valve you turn the pump on by means of a switch on the lead which is of a wheel design. It’s a horrible switch and feels very cheap and nasty but it works so I can’t really complain.

As I was about to begin, one of the guys at work walked by and commented “It will take all day to pump up your tyres using that thing”, he couldn’t have been more wrong. It took all of about two and a half seconds to pump the tyre up by 3lb — if anything it was a little too quick! Out of force of habit I was holding the nozzle onto the valve even though it was firmly clipped on, and had put the pump on the ground. When I switched the pump on it vibrated so much that it behaved rather like an overloaded washing machine on a spin cycle… unfortunately, the pressure gauge is on the top of the pump and you can’t read it while the pump is doing the jitter-bug. I quickly tried to turn the pump off by turning the wheel switch, which took several swipes of my thumb, and I accidentally turned it off and then back on again in my haste. The result was an over inflated tyre.

I begun again, I let some air out of the tyre by loosening the nozzle, firmly affixing it again. This time I held the pump in my right hand while operating the switch with my left hand. What can I say? It worked okay.

I then checked the air pressure using another gauge and what do you know? It seems that it was accurately pumped up to 32psi.

So my verdict is that this little pump is a great buy for £5. I’d prefer a simple on-off switch instead of the wheel which is a bit of a pain to operate. The gauge goes up to 300psi, which means that tyre pressures of around 30psi barely register on the gauge, meaning accuracy is going to be slightly difficult as the difference between 30psi and 40psi is a distance of 3mm. Having said that, the accuracy of most pressure gauges at petrol stations leaves a lot to be desired and I always try to find a garage with a digital pump.

When all is said and done, this little pump did the job. A friend of mine popped in while I was testing this pump and he told me that he has one in the back of his Lotus. He keeps this classic car garaged for months on end and so it’s not unusual for him to find that he has 4 flat tyres when he wants to go out for a jaunt. He tells me that he has a very similar pump which is quite capable of pumping up the tyres from pretty much flat, so it’s pretty powerful - at least it was! It’s broken and he needs a new one, but he tells me that he has had many years service out of it. He also does a fair bit of camping and so it has been used many times on holiday to pump up inflatable mattresses, dingy’s and mountain bike tyres. The AA tyre inflator even comes with 3 extra attachments so you can pump up anything from footballs to paddling pools.

So then, never again do I have to go out of my way to find a garage to pump up my tyres, I can do it any time I like and I think that’s worth a £iver of anybody’s money. However, I will be on the lookout for a tyre pressure gauge so I can double check the accuracy. And I ended up with dirty hands covered in brake dust — I keep some individually wrapped hand wipes in my glove compartment, these came with a KFC bargain bucket. In the past I have kept packets of hand wipes or baby wipes in the car, but the packaging isn’t well sealed so when the car gets hot in the summer, they dry out. So I’ll be looking for a better solution in the future.

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