A couple cars ago, my car had a display that would show the pressure in each tire. My most recent car (bought used) had warning light, but didn’t even tell you which tire, nevermind the pressure - or else it was buried in in a submenu somewhere and I just never found it.
Starting to look at new cars online. I’ve looked at some manuals and the like, but they all seem to just say there is a notification and you should stop and check your pressure. Looking at small sedans, hatchbacks and SUVs (very preliminary stages of “maybe I’ll start looking” stage). It may seem like a trivial feature, but it’s one I miss. So, do new cars still do that? And if they stopped, was it because the displays were inaccurate or thought dangerous, or what?
Thanks. Been doing some more looking, and it looks like it may be the difference in direct and indirect TPMS? So now I’m trying to figure out which cars have which.
My Escape has a warning light. The system is useless, because every time the temperature gets cold the pressure in the tires goes down enough to trigger the system and light the warning light, and you can’t shut it off again without either an OBS II handset or going through a complex series of steps I can never remember. So you rapidly learn to ignore the warning light.
It is good for one thing: It adds about $400 to the cost of a new set of tires.
Maybe a system that gives you actual pressure would be useful. And it’s certainly useful in offroad vehicles where you change the pressure in the tires regularly. But for a standard road vehicle, just check the pressure yourself with a gauge occasionally. It also gives you the opportunity to inspect the tires for damage, unusual wear indicating alignment issues, etc.
I have the same issue with the cold. Usually, though I hold my breath, worried if anything is really wrong, then pull off to a gas station when I finally come to one and check the pressure (more likely to skip that if it’s cold and just eyeball it, I admit) to see if it looks like there is a problem. I check the pressure when I get home and the tires refill tires to the higher end of recommended and the light goes off again.
For me, it’s because I live 45 minutes from work and at times am well between gas stations and even further from one with air. All vehicles will alert to low tire pressure now, and I want to see the pressure, so I can know if it’s a “pull over right now” thing or a “slow leak I need to check on thing” or a “it’s a cold day” thing. I’m always afraid the tire will be really low, but I won’t actually feel it.
What? I’ve had four cars with TPMS, and the worst it added was about fifty bucks. That time the sensors had to be switched from old wheels to new ones. The other times added no cost. They didn’t have to be reset since the tire guy just put the wheels back on the same corners.
That’s a great feature. My eyes are not good enough to read the gauge on the hose, and most pumps don’t let you set the pressure. So, add some air, go in side the car and see what the reading is, and repeat.
It was wintertime and I was filling the tires with one of those plunger/scale type hoses. When the horn tooted I thought: “Wait a minute did that just indicate what I think it did?”
I went around to the other tires and it happened every time.
Let’s go Chevy, Lets Go!
My last tire change required a new TPMS sensor for each wheel, and as I recall they were about $75 each. With installation, almost $400. But this was at a dealer, and I’m sure they charged me full retail. TPMS sensors on Amazon run from about $50 for a set to about $250, depending on the tech involved and the car model.
In any event, it’s always good to manually inspect your tires occasionally anyway, so a pressure gauge is all you really need unless you have special uses for the vehicle.
My 2002 Pontiac Trans Am has this system where I get out of the car every couple months or so and check the air pressure with a gauge. System works just fine. Sometimes I adjust the pressure but usually nothing is needed unless I have a leaky tire.
Our recently sold 2010 Dodge had a singular idiot light showing one or more unspecified tires were below pressure limit (I think 5 PSI below nominal) but I still had to gauge each tire to find out which.
My 2013 Nissan would read out actually pressure values on each tire, which is a smidge more useful.
I’m guessing the Honda we replaced the Dodge with is more like the Nissannthan the Dodge, but I haven’t checked.
Official Tesla TPMS for model 3 is $95 ea so close to $400 a set. However, that’s just once, and it’s integrated to the car’s computer and shows actual pressure. I see others on Amazon as low as $130 a set, compatible with a range of higher-end vehicles. Annoying that in -20 weather you may get a low pressure warning until you’ve driven for a while… and will sometimes in that situation indicate one wheel in orange with exclamation despite showing one or two others with the same pressure.
My 2014 BMW 330 (GT, Xi) does not have individual sensors but instead uses differential tire rotation to sense when one tire is too low compared to the one opposite.
The wife’s 2014 Equinox showed each tire individually, as does her 2019 Mustang. PITA with the Mustang was when I had to remove a rear tire at home to go have it fixed, then ended up having to take it in for a TPMS reset because it affected the traction control system.
It is? TPMS sensors tend to have a lifespan roughly similar to the tires they monitor - 5 years, or 100K km or so. Then the batteries die. So I think it’s pretty normal that when you get new tires they also replace the TPMS sensors unless your tires wore out prematurely. They certainly did on my last tire change. I was at about 70,000 km and four years, and the sensors were still fine but they wouldn’t last the life of the new tires so they were changed.