Ok, I went and looked at a new car. I was reading some literature. It say equiped with some transmitter inside the tire that monotors the air pressure. Think to self, That will be in the round file quick. A guy at the Deuce Reunion says they are required for all 2008 cars and you can't let the tire go flat and set them off. $200 to reset or something.They are tied into the cars computer ?? What the hell is this all about??
you can run without them, but the light will be on on the dash. there are two styles, a valve stem mount with a transmitter that sends a radio frequency to a receiver/monitor in the car. Or a second type that have no sensors in the tires but use the abs wheel speed sensor to detect a differential in wheel speeds, indicating a flat tire. also most of the owners manuals have the reset procedure in them. $200 is bologna. Matt Petersen Ase master tech
Saw the kind of low pressure "sensors" - transmitters - that screwed on the valve stem, and sent a signal to a dash mounted receiver; advertised the other day. (one of the "big box" stores) Got me thinking; would these things throw the wheel out of balance?? The HAVE to weigh more than a valve cap. (at least they LOOK bigger)
from what i see the public in general needs this. since the loss of full service gas stations hardly any one checks their tires. i see dangerous low tires every time i go on the freeway.
The reset is easy. Most likely varies between manufacturers, but for GM it is simple. $200 at a dealer maybe, take 5 mins and make a few bucks. There basically a very annoying waste of time.
Ironically, This morning, in my 2007 Exploder Sport-Trac, on the way to work, I got a low tire pressure message. First off, I didn't know I had that. I stopped and looked at the tires, nothing obvious(no gauge and it was 3:30 A.M.) By the time I got to work, the message was gone. Seemed strange, maybe the temp change?? We have been swinging 30 degrees here in Chicagoland.
More stupid gizmos enacted into law to protect stupid people from themselves. I don't wish injury or death upon anybody but really - how hard is it to check your tire pressure once in a while?
Good morning Andy. My 2006 Yukon came with that on it. It actually gives you a read out of the pressure in each tire. I gives a low tire warning also except the monitors are mixed up and it reads the wrong tire I found out, I guess for rotating the tires. Didn't have to reset anything. I heard something about them being required on new vehicles. No idea how they work.
you can thank ford, firestone, and the dumbass general u.s population for that. really how hard is it to monitor your own air pressure.
It's not hard at all. But most folks never ever do. Life is more and more a maintenance free affair in most Americans eyes. Driving and NOT applying makeup, shaving, reading the paper, drinking scalding hot coffee while having a stereo going and a cell phone shoved in your ear are easy as well but I see it every day. Americans want a low effort life but this modern version of simple living becomes more and more complex with each passing year. And with each passing year the general populace relies on its government to protect them from themselves. Some great safety advances in automotive technology have been made in recent years but I see no end in sight and now we're getting down to the minutia of what advances are left.
Chrysler/jeep has used them for a few years,some tell you what wheel has what pressure and some just have a warning lite.most of these cars can be reset by the owner the car is equipped with a calibration magnet located by the spare.owners manuel gives a step by step. mostly overlooked is the spare it has a monitor also.if the magnet is not in the car dont be supprised i think i found 1 to 2 cars with them in it,The new car sales people usally swipe them.I think any 07 or o8 cars equipped with tpm cannot have the tpm lite on to pass newyork state inspection Isnt it just grand that state officials care so much about your tire pressure, makes you wonder how we made it so long.
My friend has the air pressure warning on his '99 Grand Am. I figured out how they work. He has ABS. The ABS controller "reads" how fast each wheel is turning in relation to the others. When braking it then applies the brakes to "even up" the turns of each wheel. The air pressure monitoring uses the same data but samples it over a longer period of time, when the brakes are not applied. If the monitor "sees" a wheel turning, say 10%, faster than the other wheels it knows that wheel has lower air pressure. It is actually determining that the diameter of that tire is smaller because of low pressure. I'm sure some ace engineer figured he could add the "low pressure monitoring" to a car with ABS and almost no cost except for a counter and a dash light! Once it was offered it becomes law because the gov'ment knows most people are too dumb to check their air pressure!
I think it's pretty cool. I have an tire on my old Dodge that leaks "sometimes" so it'd be cool if I could check the pressure without having to get dirty
I know on the Mustangs, the light will go off when you inflate the tire. Its auto-reseting. It takes a reading every 10 - 30 seconds. I can't remember the actual number. Then when it gets below a certain pressure the light goes on and it will go off when you pump the tire back up.
On Fords all you have to do is get the tires to the right pressure and drive the car at 20 mph for a certain distance. On some you set the tire pressure and you can reset the sensors through the computer using the in dash buttons. It's all in the owners manual. Something I was always told to do as well was the magnet thing, turn the car on and off a number of times and drop the round magnet (a piece out of a Ford transmission) over the valve stem until the horn honks. But that always seemed unnecessary since it can be done the other way.
My father brings his '07 BMW 3 series over about every three weeks because the damn low tire pressure light keeps going off. check the tires- one may be a couple of pounds low, re-inflate. Turn car back on and all is well..... BMW says he should bring his car in every time. Just another pain in the ass system to get you into the dealerships so they can charge you big bcks for nothing.
how long will he do this before he realizes he should just check the pressure in the tires every week or two? sheesh....
I have worked closely with Tire Pressure systems for a few years. Putting them on passenger cars was a Federal Government (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - NHTSA) reaction to the Explorer/Firestone issue. Driving a long time on underinflated tires causes tires to break down from the heat, occasionally leaving the vehicle shiny-side down in the median. The ABS-based systems assume that an underinflated tire must turn faster than normally-inflated tires to keep up, so compares tire rotation speeds between tires using the existing ABS sensors. Kinda cool, and saves money by not needing new hardware, but not as accurate as desired. The sensor-based systems do indeed have a pressure sensor in each tire, measuring tire pressure and transmitting it via radio to a receiver in the vehicle. Needs a sensor in each tire and a receiver in the vehicle, so more expensive, but very accurate. The doughnut magnet forces a transmitter to transmit, usually with a special "magnet" message, so the system can learn which sensor is in each tire. This is important for systems that show the location of the tire with low pressure (or show the pressure in each location). You put the system in "learn" mode with the ignition/brake code, then trigger the sensors in a particular order using the magnet. This is done when the tires have been rotated or a sensor has been replaced. Some newer systems have triggering devices installed on the vehicle, so the system can track sensor location automatically even when the tires are rotated to a new location. Oldcarmike was right on, as this is another way that the folly of the few (which used to simply help the gene pool) must now be mitigated by controlling the rest of us - and charging us for the privilege of being controlled.
I work for the company that make the sensors. They are actually kind of kool. They have three working parts. A pressure sensor. . . a motion sensor . . . and a transmitter. The ones that replace the valve cap are aftermarket only. I can imaging them getting stolen quickly by the same punks that steel the dice off of mine. The OEM style are incorporated into the valve stem itself. They only weigh abut an ounce so balance should not be a problem. All 2008 and newer vehicles will have to have a system. They came about because it was discovered that over 40% of the cars on the road have one out of four tires under pressure.
I don't see the issue with something alerting you to a potential problem. As long as I am not required to have some expensive reset, there is no issue, no need to get your panties in a twist. If I have a 2008 vehicle (not happening anytime soon) I will welcome the new rule. This makes more sense to me than a lot of the rule they come up with. As a motorist that does check his tire pressure, I see a lot of cars with underinflated tires and if the average John/Jane Q. Public needs this to remidn them to do something the should be doing anyway, then I'm all for it. If a sensor and warning device can alert some lazy, no tire psi checking retard to a problem and that prevents them from having a catastrophic blow up that takes me or some other unsuspecting motorist with them, why get upset about it? I just don't see the problem in this.
they have been in corvettes for a long time.. my dad's '99 has them. I don't see any problem with them. they display the individual tire pressure for each wheel on the dash as you cycle though the info. There's a warning light too, but I don't see how this is any different from an oil pressure warning light or water temp or anything else...
That's because since the C5 debut in 97 (?) there's no spare tire designed into the car. So you gotta stay on top of the 4 it's wearing.
and this whole political issue came about because of the oil situation in the 70s, when gas prices shot up, and the full service gas stations went away, and people had to start doing their own vehicle maintenance.
. And that fact that most if not all stations now days charge you for water/air doesn't help. For gods sake, had to plug that over priced air vending machine twice just to air up the rods tires last week, $2.50 on top $35 for a few gallons gas. I know, fix that home compressor motor that blew up and died last month....H
The way I think, simple conveniences are not mandated by federal law. Simple conveniences are CD players, power windows, A/C, and the like. Air pressure moniters are yet another knee-jerk reaction by government in response to those people who are unable to accept the responsibility of owning and maintaining an automobile. Just another sign of a society that tends not to accept personal responsibility. Let the lawyers decide.
We started getting new 08 Ford e-series vans at work, with air pressure sensors of course, they come with a programmer thats including with the vehicle, used to reset the sensors after a rotation since the f&r tire pressure is 25 lbs differance.. Ford is starting to use sensors that mount to a band(big looking hose clamp) around the wheel on most models. They still use a few valve mounted sensors. One downfall, if someone wants to upgrade to bigger wheels and tires, new bands(70 bucks each) must be bought and the sensors can be transfered over. Than they have to be reprogrammed.
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