Tire Pressure Sensors are a GOOD THING!
 

i know we have all debated about them before. many people feel that we were unjustly saddled by them because many an american will never check the pressure in their tires on their own.

well yesterday my light came on. when the tires had warmed it went off. today when i went out for lunch the light was on again. so i checked the pressures and one was indeed about 3 lbs low. but while i was checking i saw what i thought might be a stone stuck in my tread on the right rear. on further inspection i realized that it was a nail or screw that was stuck in there and gradually letting the air out. i got it down the street to the tire shop on the corner and patched. i for one am very happy that the sensor allerted me to the air leak. with out the warning i may have found myself half way home with a flat tire on a back road. then it would have been either a tow or a the fixaflat from the repair kit and a new tire.

thats good to know. thanks for sharing!

Monique, that's mikeb's line. :)

I still don't think that hundreds of dollars for the system is justifed for a condition that I would end up noticeing either because I see the tire looks a little flat, or that I will notice because the car starts to ride a little off. In all my years of driving, I have never had a tire go totally flat from a slow leak.

However, I am not disputing that the tire pressure monitors are a good thing. I am questioning, in a rather annoyed way, why I was forced to buy them as standard equipment by my federal government. Right now I have electrical tape over the sensor light because I have after market wheels on the car with my snow tires. My five hundred or whatever dollars are not working for me, and as a consumer, I know that I check my tire pressure every few weeks anyway because I always have, and I am still forced to do so since this system is not working for me.

I am happy for those people who would have chosen the option for their car, that they have the opportunity to purchase the system. I am sad for myself and all those who were not given any option in the matter. I have spent somewhere north of five hundred dollars on something which has the same utility for me as an extra hole in the head.

The tire pressure monitor system would be a wonderful option, but I wish that the government would understand that they cannot keep finding new ways of spending my money to support the auto industry. It's a bloody nuisance.

When I spoke to TireRack they said the sensor was especially needed on run-flat tires. Evidently that type of tire doesn't visibly show that its getting low on air. I have the sensors on my 17" snows, even though they aren't run-flat tires, and the sensors do work. Ironically, the only time they have signalled low air pressure it was because the valve stem nut wasn't properly tightened, and it was the cause of the air leak. Hence the sensor indirectly created the situation it was intended to sense.

My RX-8 will eventually have three drivers and I was OK with the extra safety aspect of the sensors.

I hadn't heard it was a fed'l requirement. I had assumed it was a safety feature to support those types of tires, and there would be a way to disable the light when other types of tires were used. What's next, maybe music loudness sensors, to prevent hearing loss?

Re: Tire Pressure Sensors are a GOOD THING!
 

zoom44,
Thanks for sharing. The TPMS system can use any good news out there. We'll never know how this would have turned out without the sensors, but I'm sure no better than the way it did.

I presume they patched it from the inside of the tire. How much did they charge?

I found a fix-it-yourself kit you can read about here that I hope to use if I find myself in a similar situation.

regards,
rx8cited

When I was hit from behind a few months back, the sensors came in handy. I'd pulled off the road and checked the damage, but it was dark out, and frankly the hit didn't feel that hard. I could tell there was damage to the paint on the panel behind the driver side rear wheel, but couldn't see any other damage.

I gave the trooper my report and was going to be on my way. When I got in the car and started it, the darned tire pressure was going crazy. I got back out and looked a little closer and noticed the damage to the wheel and that it had been hit just right so that the seal was broken and the tire was flat.

If not for the tire sensor, I would've driven off and then noticed a short way down the road that something was definitely not right and possibly done further damage to the tire, which ended up being fine. It would've been a heck of a lot more inconvenient to get a tow further down the road than right there where the trooper was.

Re: Re: Tire Pressure Sensors are a GOOD THING!
 

I found a fix-it-yourself kit you can read about here
here that I hope to use if I find myself in a similar situation.

regards,
rx8cited [/B][/QUOTE]


I carry the kit and a 12v inflator in both my other vehicles. Plugs work great, even if you want to use them for a temporary repair until you get an inside patch installed. I only had a problem once with a plug leaking but that was after 30,000 miles and it was a rope type plug not the mushroom type. It sure provides peace of mind especially on a long trip. I have actually used more plugs fixing other peoples tires than my own.

yea they patched from the inside. of course they had to unmount the tire and then remount it. so they insisted on balancing it. they were very careful with it and did no damage to the wheel or studs or nuts. $21 for their time and care didn't bother me at at all. very little hassle given the alternative that could have happened.

so tell me, does it show the psi or does it just beep and/or flash whenever theres somthin' in your tire or leaks or w/e

Say after me - Pressure Sensors are GOOD for some - Unfunded (that means you pay) mandates are BAD !!!

My only issue with them is that it acts as a warning system rather than an information system. ie. I would rather the car tell me at start what each tire has in it, preferably instead of the stupid 'MAZDA RX8' message that pops up.

I find myself still checking the tire pressures by myself because I am quite sensitive to their change and the system does not help me in this regard.

Waste of money? Probably not for most, but to me they are since they haven't helped change the way I check my tires..

The Stems apear to be the same as on a C5 Corvette. Programing them to the car is similar as well. I suspect that there will be, if not already available, a module that will give each tire presure.

John

QUOTE]Originally posted by sunlightred8
so tell me, does it show the psi or does it just beep and/or flash whenever theres somthin' in your tire or leaks or w/e [/QUOTE]

When one of my tires was low, the car beeped a few times and then the tire indicator light stayed on until the pressure was fixed. If the indicator was on when I turned the engine off and restarted it, the indicator would light up again, but it didn't beep. I think it does the same thing for overpressure, but I haven't actually seen that mode. It doesn't indicate which tire has the problem, the PSI, or any information about what the problem is. The manual may have said the indicator flashes to signal a malfunction.