TPMS on Vehicle - Your experience

[bdGreen]

My next car should I need one will be a 1970 Monte Carlo.

BTW I am headed to the garage to check my tires now.

I love that I can check the tire pressure on both my vehicles on my cell phone. Isn’t technology wonderful? Ha.
bdGreen

 

[soFlaNative]

Geeez, and I thought my auto door unlock was a problem...

 

[bobsguns]

Sorry! Something went wrong!

Your link proves my point. I saw nothing of brands other than GM or Ford.

$199 for a tool for resetting a sensor? No thanks.

 

[LVSteve]

I recently went through this issue with two vehicles. Discount Tire tested the sensors and recommended replacing the one that shown defective. It was $66.00. About 1 month later I got another TPMS light on my dash. Discount Tire tested and found another sensor bad. At the age of the tires and mileage I had them replace all for tires and replaced the other 3 sensors. The sensors were $140 total for all 3.

I have noticed that when the ambient temperature drops low, the tire pressure drops and I see a light on my dash when I start the car. After about 5 miles down the freeway the TPMS light goes off.

I have pumped up all the tires to max cold, but I don't like it because the car rides rough and generates more road noise.

There's only one digital tire pressure gauge I use... ETENWOLF

https://a.co/d/7OwTlSs

Tires typically lose 1 PSI for every 10°F of temperature drop. That's why the light comes on in the winter, unless you get ahead of it and put more air in as soon as the weather starts to cool.

I can second the ETENWOLF tire gauge recommendation.


What do you mean by "I have pumped up all the tires to max cold, but I don't like it because the car rides rough and generates more road noise." Please don't tell me that you typically inflate your tire to the max number on the sidewall. The recommended pressures are either on a plate/sticker on the door jamb or on the insdie of the filler door on European cars.

 

[S&W Fan]

2010 Nissan Titan 4wd, just under 96k miles, warning light has been for a few years. It’s the receiving unit that has gone bad. Too expensive to replace, just got a new set of tires. The guy at Big O jokingly kidded me about still not replacing the unit. I told him I’m good checking the pressure on my own lol.

 

[greenwellg]

My tire gauge is an 80 + year old A Schraeder&son made in Brooklyn It reads to 160 PSI and is accurate still. So old the gasket is actually leather. Don't use it much anymore both cars read the pressure themselves. I do have a Harbor Freight Tire pressure machine. Hook it up and it does everything and the car tells me they are right. Reminds me I need to add a few pounds to the Prius. I usually keep them around 43 PSI and they have dropped to 40 PSI in 6 months and 7500 miles. I like them higher and the MPG averages just over 66 now in summer. I generally do not use AC except when the wife is riding. Last tank was .044 cents a mile for fuel. This one is a little lower Costco dropped the fuel price by 35 cents then it jumped back up. Was $2.649, earlier it was $3.049. Now its $2.779. They probably found some winter blend left over because no one else dropped their prices that much and this tank mileage dropped 2 to 3 MPG.

Cover the TPMS light with a piece of electricians tape.

 

[SWOH]

I like what's on my Honda - uses ABS sensors to detect a difference in tire rotation speed and issues an alert based on that. I find it's sensitive to bumps, but it's simple to reset and I will do so and check to see if it comes on again before taking action, though I do listen out the windows, as if the tire is really low, you'll hear it. It doesn't ID which tire is low, but that's not really that hard to figure. Replacing a sensor on those with them mounted in each wheel is going to be over $100 each and I know that not every place could reprogram the sensors, so you may end up back at Toyota and have to pay them an hour's labor to do the reset. Also, the physical sensors are susceptible to damage at the valvestem.

 

[SWOH]

After replacing the tire sensors a few times on my Suzuki the portion of the TPMS in the car itself failed. The light has been on most of the time ever since, I just ignore it!

Since this I have done things the old way, look at the tires, kick them to see if the rebound and sound is equal, and have tire pressure checked frequently by Discount Tire. Just like semi-truck drivers do, that's why they have tire clubs. Most tire shops will check your pressures just by asking them.

Overall I don't see the advantage of the TPMS unless you are the kind who just puts gas in the car and drives until something breaks before checking anything.

That's most people.

 

[John in Yuma]

My first encounter with TPMS was in my 2014 Lincoln MKZ. My dog broke away to chase a chicken in the groomer's parking lot. Both ended up in the street under a Suburban. Dog bleeding and trying to continue the chase.
I scooped her up and into the car to hurry to the vet. As I started to drive, the alarm chime went off like impending doom. A little yellow tire light appeared on the dash. Oh no! I was already freaked about the dog. What new hell was this?
Got out and looked at the tires. All seemed normal. I drove to the vet half expecting something to blow up.
After getting Sasha checked in at the vet, I looked in the owner's manual. Low tire pressure?! Is that all? Sheese!
Aired up the tires, no charge. Dog repairs, $1800.

 

[LVSteve]

My tire gauge is an 80 + year old A Schraeder&son made in Brooklyn It reads to 160 PSI and is accurate still. So old the gasket is actually leather. Don't use it much anymore both cars read the pressure themselves. I do have a Harbor Freight Tire pressure machine. Hook it up and it does everything and the car tells me they are right. Reminds me I need to add a few pounds to the Prius. I usually keep them around 43 PSI and they have dropped to 40 PSI in 6 months and 7500 miles. I like them higher and the MPG averages just over 66 now in summer. I generally do not use AC except when the wife is riding. Last tank was .044 cents a mile for fuel. This one is a little lower Costco dropped the fuel price by 35 cents then it jumped back up. Was $2.649, earlier it was $3.049. Now its $2.779. They probably found some winter blend left over because no one else dropped their prices that much and this tank mileage dropped 2 to 3 MPG.

Cover the TPMS light with a piece of electricians tape.

No way would I run that kind of pressure on the roads in Vegas, I'd be getting fillings redone every week.

Since the Firestone/Explorer debacle, there has been more monkey poo flung about tire pressures than you can believe. Got my Mercedes SUV back from service recently with 40 PSI in everything. I also blame the door jamb stickers that ALWAYS seem to default these days to some insanely high pressure, nowadays. The numbers seem to be pulled directly from the backside of some numpty at the NHTSA. The MERCEDES recommended pressures are inside the gas flap, 35 all round for light loads, 38 F 42 R for full load. Note that there should never be 40 PSI in the fronts ever. To be fair, I find the SUV wanders too much on the freeway at 35 PSI all round. Even one extra pound makes a difference, but oddly it seems to be at the rear where I feel the most effect. This is with a vehicle that is rarely loaded with more than me, the wife, and $50 of shopping.

This isn't the first time I've had issues with the manufacturer's tire pressures. On OEM boots my Xterra would wander on the freeway like Errol Flynn's galleon when using the recommended pressures. It needed +2 at the front to drive straight. Then one day it came back from service with 40 PSI all round. WTH!? I called the dealer to be told that Nissan had issued a missive to increase tire pressures to prevent customer complaints of the vehicle wandering. Apparently the techs in Vegas only work in 5 PSI steps.

 

[greenwellg]

Early Toyotas had no sensors in the wheels. Instead the control unit measured the wheel revolutions and compared them with the lowest threshold triggering the light. To do that it used the ABS sensors. Later they went to the current setup.

Little known fact. OBD2 has a sensor that determines the equality of cylinder balance by counting the number of teeth on the flywheel ring gear. This allows precision measuring of the actual work done by each cylinder as it passes the sensor itself. On the 1995 Sentra I bought wrecked in the front that's 105 gear teeth counted every second the engine is running FOR EACH cylinder. Multiply that by the number of cylinders,

(obd2 is on board diagnostics) required by law after the 1995 new vehicle year) A massively effective diagnostic tool for technicians. If they know how to interpret the data.

I had to replace that sensor Nissan price was $45 for the manual and exactly 40 TIMES that amount for the one I needed (AUTO). The sensors were identical except the number of teeth was different. I went ballistic with the dealership where I bought parts for 15% over their cost. Nissan fixed the mistake they made in pricing. I had the factory microfilm and current price book and one year I bought 11% of all that dealership annual parts sales.

Never summoned to appear in court to answer for ANY of my actions in millions of dollars of repairs over the period of time 4/69 to 12/99.

 

[greenwellg]

As far as tire pressures. I drove a 2005 Scion XB home after buying it from the dealership. They wanted $1800 for the wheels and tires they had added after delivery. I said put the stock wheels back on the car.
I knew something was wrong on the drive home. 65 pounds was the recommendation for the low profile tires the factory standard wheels were 34 PSI !!!! Tech read the wrong pressure on the tag in the door jamb.

Ever look at a Mercedes. They recommend replacing the air bag system at 15 years age, everything except the wiring.
Basically that means every MB sold is totalled at the expiration date of the 15 year time period. That's a repair that I'll bet has never been done. The shop manual for a mid 1930's SSKL recommended complete disassembly of the car and replacement or refurbishment of every component on an individual basis.

Document-able facts everyone. The tire pressures are used by law enforcement for high speed pursuit. Never experienced any issue with higher inflation pressures but not above max recommended which for my Prius is 51 PSI.

 

[M1A4ME]

I'll probably jinx myself/cars with this.

My 2011 Genesis Coupe has had no issues with the TPMS system since 2011. This one only tells you when the tire pressure is low and doesn't let you know which tire need air.

My 2015 BMW 435iX has had no issues with the TPMS system since 2015. This one has a test you can look at that shows the pressure in each tire. And you can set a range of acceptable tire pressures at the time you have new tires installed in case you have tires with higher, or lower, recommended tire pressures installed.

The other two vehicles are much newer and both have TPMS systems. Maybe too new to have to worry about problems. These both have systems that allow you to check individual tire pressure while in the vehicle or by an app on your cellphone.