A deflated car tire is the most common issue every car owner encounters often. If in some cases, the tires are fine enough to make it to the nearby repair shop, in others, it might seem possible to do so.
What can you do in such circumstances? You realize that there’s a bike pump in the garage but you aren’t sure of its use here.
Of course, the tires of a car and bike are made differently and incorporate different amounts of gas inside them.
Hence, it’s good to ponder over the chances and possibility of using a bike pump to pump air into the car’s tires. If you want to know more about this, continue reading.
Can you pump a car tire with a bike pump?
Yes, you can pump a car’s tires with a bike pump.
However, you will need to prep your car for this purpose like parking the car on a flat surface, checking the optimal tire pressure, attaching the bike pump, and pumping the air as per the optimal tire pressure recommendations.
However, inflating a car tire with a bicycle pump will take more effort like more pumps and time.
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How long does it take to inflate a car tire with a bike pump?
How long will it take to inflate a car’s tire with a bike pump will depend upon several factors like the type of bike pump you’re using, car tire size, how much air is present in the tire, etc.
On average, if you’re using a standard bike pump to fill a standard-size car tire with zero air inside, you will need to pump around 100-300 times or for 3-4 minutes to completely inflate a single tire of the car.
The number of pumps and time consumed will increase as the tire size increases and will decrease if you use an electric pump.
Things you should consider when using a bike pump
Though using a bike pump is not that hard as what’s the case with a car pump, you should know the following things before using one.
Check the PSI ratings of your car tires
For filling the car’s tires with sufficient air, you need to know the PSI ratings of your tires.
You can find them in three different places in your car: the door, the body of the car, or the car’s manual. The PSI value is further vital to know whether the tires are suitable to get inflated by a bike pump or not.
Check the current tire pressure
Second, you need to check the current tire pressure. For this purpose, you should get a portable pressure gauge that you can load in the car’s trunk. It’s a necessary step because this will ensure sufficient air in the car tires.
Get the pump ready
Now that you have found the PSI rating of the tires and have checked the current tire pressure, you can now get the bike pump ready for inflating the tire.
Here, it’s important to clean the tire valve before use as if it’s not clean, the flow of air will remain slow (it’s a bike pump!). As a result, you will need more pumps and time than usual.
For the pump, make sure to use one with the Schrader valve as the Presta valve isn’t suitable for cars. Plus, the Schrader valve resembles the valve of the bike tires. So, it will fit perfectly into the car’s tires.
Pump the tires
For pumping the car tires with the bike pump, connect the pump to the car’s air valve but make sure the valve and air valve are clean.
Once it’s ready, you can manually pump the air. While the air fills in, keep an eye on the pressure gauge to avoid overfilling the tires.
This is because over-pumping will not only affect the performance of the tires but will lend serious damage to the tires.
Since you are using a bike pump, remember that it’ll take time and effort to fill the car tires which are much bigger in width.
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Carefully remove the pump
After filling the desired air in the tires, remove the pump carefully to avoid any air escape. Although the air won’t escape at the pace it’ll escape from the bike tires, you should carefully remove it.
Conclusion
Filling the car tires isn’t a big deal no matter what sort of tires they are.
If you don’t have access to any nearby garage or don’t have a proper car tire pump at home but have one for the bike in the garage, you can use it too.
Yes, even a bike pump can inflate the car tires though you’ll need to invest more time, patience, and number of pumps.
For example, for a standard tire with a standard pump, around 3-4 minutes of 100-350 pumps are a must.
