Think you weren't speeding? It might be your car.

There are a lot of factors that create errors when your car calculates your speed. Here are some of them:

• Over or under-inflated tires – over-inflated tires are bigger than properly inflated tires and under-inflated tires are smaller than properly inflated tires. With over-inflated tires you may be speeding and not know it. Speeding ticket anyone?
• Tire wear – worn tires make your tire circumference smaller and your reported speed higher than your actual speed.
• Carrying a heavy load – heavy loads will cause your tires to compress and shrink in diameter causing over reporting of your cars speedometer reading as well.
• Low or high temperatures – Extremely cold temperatures reduce air pressure in your tires. High temperatures increase air pressure. The result on speeding is the same as over or under inflating the tires.
• Alternator voltage – automobiles use computer sensors to read your wheels rotation and report speed calculations. They rely on the voltage coming from your alternator. An alternator with a voltage that is off can impact your reported speed as well.

If you want to stay off the police persons scanner and make sure you are not speeding you need only use your trusty cell phone.

Run the timer function on your cellphone and drive between two mile markers on the highway while holding your speed at 60mph. If it takes you longer than one minute then your car is over reporting your actual speed. If it takes you less than a minute then it is over reporting your actual speed and you may want to be cautious about speeding. A speeding ticket is never a fun thing to get. If you do get a speeding ticket we can help with that too.