Tyre Temperature Sensors – An *ESSENTIAL* Tool
April 25, 2025You could be wasting a lot of money upgrading your wheels, tyres and suspension and then using the factory recommended wheel alignment specs. A tyre temperature sensor system can fix this problem.
Suspension Secrets have done an excellent video where they fine tune the suspension on a Porsche Cayman GT4. The car in the video was using Porsche “recommended” geometry setup, to call it sub-optimal is an understatement.
The key component of the geometry optimisation process were tyre temperature sensors (in their case they used a system from Race Logic).
IMPORTANT: We talk about tyre temperature sensors that measures the surface temperature of the tyre, not the temperature of the air inside the tyre.
Eureka
After watching the video, the sheer usefulness of knowing tyre temperatures hit me. It opens up a world of possibilities like….
Wheel Alignment
Being able to optimise wheel alignment is probably the biggest plus to having tyre temperature sensors looking at the surface of the tyre (and I suppose all of the benefits can be listed under the umbrella of wheel alignment).
It’s all very well having the suspension of the car set up to “factory specifications” but are those specs really the best for your car?
You may have changed the tyres from the factory supplied model you may have changed the size. Different tyre models have the potential to have a different optimum wheel alignment vs the factor specs.
And if you have altered the suspension parts (coilovers, lowering springs, dampers etc) the “factory” optimum setting could be anything but optimum.
If we are running stiffer suspension then might be able to run a wheel alignment that is closer to perfect because we don’t have to cater for such a big range of suspension movement.
Tuning
So not only can we can see if the factory wheel alignment specs are suited to our setup (tyres, usage, suspension parts). With a tyre temperature sensor system we can tune our alignment easily.
If for example we are seeing the outside edges of the tyre are getting hotter than the inner we will increase camber and/or caster.
And with tyre temperature monitoring we can see what effect our adjustments had immediately. Was it too much? Was it too little? We don’t have to wait to see uneven wear on the tyre to see what our next move should be. And we don’t need to be at the track to do it.
Understanding Our Tyres
After seeing the Suspension Secrets video I did some research on tyre temperature operating windows.
Specifically what are the recommended or optimum tyre temperature operating window for some big name tyres like Michelin Pilot Cup 2s and PS4S.
If you’ve done the same, you’ll have seen this data is a bit thin on the ground or perhaps more accurately non existent. There are a lot of assertions out there but little if any links to actual data sources.
With a tyre temperature monitoring system we can see for ourselves at what temperatures our tyres are performing at their best. At what temperatures do we see the best lap times? At what temps does the car feel best on the road?
Rabbit Hole
And when we find the optimum temperature we can adjust our tyre pressures accordingly.
It’s great if we see our best times with a 70C tyre temp but what if we only have those temps in the first two or three laps of a session? What if after three laps our tyre temps climb to a point where the tyres start to fall off due to heat?
Assuming we have already done stage one and optimised our wheel alignment we can start adjusting tyre pressures. At what tyre pressure can we best maintain our optimum tyre temperature?
Head Start
And when we have found our optimum alignment and our optimum pressures we can note down the track temp and ambient temp where this optimum pressure occurred, so next time we see the track we don’t have to start the pressure setup process from square one.
If the track temp is 10C more on our next visit, we can increase our tyre pressures to compensate.
We arrive at the track with a huge head start. Better lap times, less time spent in the pits making adjustments, less wasted laps (and fuel) and our tyres last longer because they are operating at or closer to their optimum temp. We are saving money in all directions.
It even opens up the possibility of asymmetric alignment settings to suit specific tracks.
Road
Driving around knowing our tyre temperatures.
For 99.99% of the time we won’t care or be in a position to do anything because of traffic.
But when we are in the mountains or out in the countryside, knowing where our tyres are temperature wise can give us much more confidence about the level of grip available. Especially important on unfamiliar roads.
At what temperature does it feel like the tyres are giving us the best traction out of corners? And likewise for braking and cornering. Again, we can adjust our tyre pressures to put our road car in the optimum operating window for more of the time.
Without knowing our tyre temperatures we are completely in the dark.
We don’t know why the car felt so good on one day but less good on another. Was it the road temperature? Was the tyre pressure? Is our alignment off? Or it the tyre temperature?
It’s a complete guessing game when we don’t have such a huge piece of the puzzle.
Perhaps I’m taking it a bit far to be using tyre temps to find the optimum tyres pressures on our daily driver but for sure, knowing our tyre temps so we can optimise wheel alignment on our daily driver is important.
Drag Racing
What was out tyre temp on the line when we set our PB? I don’t think I need to say any more on this.
Tyre Temperature Sensors – In Summary
Having sensors which measure the surface temperature of our tyres lets us save money, get better value from the money we have already spent & improves car performance.
By optimising our wheel alignment we make our tyres last longer, let our tyres give us the most grip and allow us to get the most from any upgrades on the car.
We no longer have to rely on the factory alignment specs which may have been on a car wearing different tyres, different suspension, different ride height, different brakes, different weight, in different temps and so on.
We no longer have to rely on generic “fast road” or “race” setups from our local alignment centre. With a tyre temperature sensor system we can optimise our wheel alignment for our specific car and driving style using real data. It’s a potential game changer.