Which TPM (tyre pressure monitor) System?

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jumperjohn

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Dec 7, 2011
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Location
Sheffield
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E500 5.5 V8 Estate!
Hello.

I have an 07 facelift S211 E estate. I was wondering if any of you smart guys can guide me. I maybe looking to buy a set of summer wheels but not if I have to buy a set of TPM for each wheel. Is the pressure monitor controlled by the ABS sensor or via a valve? If the former can I simply change wheels and the system will recognise this and do it's monitoring thing as normal? Thanks!
 
IF you have the ABS-based system, as I do on the C-Class, then it recognises the new settings when the system is reset so the change of tyres or wheels should not requires anything more than a simple reset from the instrument cluster (basically the car 'learns' the new settings after a reset).

However I would expect that MB's flagship-class will not have the cheapo ABS-based TPM system - so you probably have the valve-based one (someone else will confirm), in which case I think you will need to move the pressure monitors from one set of tyres to the other, or buy new ones...
 
It'll have the ABS-based system as standard. The full-monty pressure-monitoring system was/is an option.

How to tell? If you get the actual pressures coming up in the display then it's the valve-based system, otherwise it's the ANS one.
 
I dont think the E has the sensor based system as standard. It is easy to tell, the ABS based system does not give individual tyre pressures where as the TPMS system which uses sensors does,
 
npuk said:
I dont think the E has the sensor based system as standard. It is easy to tell, the ABS based system does not give individual tyre pressures where as the TPMS system which uses sensors does,

Thank for all your replies. I have individual tyres pressure displays so I must have the tpms. I'll keep my wheels then!
 
Do you valves look lke this - if so it's the high line system, 475 on the datacard.
P1000641.jpg
 
Wouldn't this be an MOT failure in future?
It's a factory option and a nice-to-have safety item but it's surely no more a failure than the radio not working. It's not even a failure to have a bald spare tyre or a cracked front fog lamp as they are not required to be fitted.
 
IIRC all new model cars 2011/12 have to have tyre pressure systems as standard, invariably will be the ABS monitor type but I don't think it's a test item
 
It's a factory option and a nice-to-have safety item but it's surely no more a failure than the radio not working. It's not even a failure to have a bald spare tyre or a cracked front fog lamp as they are not required to be fitted.


On re-reading the MoT website:

' Section 4.1 – Tyre condition
....tyre pressure monitoring system (TPMS) has been included in this section.... The check only applies to vehicles first used on or after 1 January 2012 and is simply that the TPMS warning lamp is working and not indicating a malfunction.'

So it only applies to new cars, then. And privately-owned new cars bought after January 2012 will not see an MOT before the end of 2014...
 
Found elsewhere:

'Although just five per cent of cars in the UK are fitted with TPMS, this figure is set to rise dramatically when EU regulations on its mandatory fitment in all new cars come into force in 2014. Anticipating this wider adoption of TPMS, next year updated MoT regulations also take effect – under these regulations, a malfunctioning TPMS will warrant a fail.'

Are you equipped for TPMS?

So all new cars will have TPMS from 2014?
 
As the standard TPMS is based on a comparison of wheel rotations vs steering wheel turn and yaw etc if you remove the full-fat TPMS (sensors in each tyre etc) does the standard TPMS come back into action? If so you're covered for the MOT.
 
I think the only check that the MOT tester can carry out is for the presence of an TPMS fault light (or error message on the display).

You can't really test that the TPMS warning light is actually working simply by switching-on the ignition (i.e. in the same way you would test other warning lights), unless you actually know that the car is supposed to be fitted with TPMS...

I suppose that you could say that any car with run-flat tyres will have to have TPMS...

At any rate, on my C-Class the TPMS is easily deactivated from the instrument cluster. So nothing for the MOT tester to check.

Perhaps part of the 2014 regulation would include a mandatory warning light that MOT testers can actually check to ensure that the TPMS system has not been deactivated?
 
I suppose that you could say that any car with run-flat tyres will have to have TPMS...

At any rate, on my C-Class the TPMS is easily deactivated from the instrument cluster. So nothing for the MOT tester to check.

Perhaps part of the 2014 regulation would include a mandatory warning light that MOT testers can actually check to ensure that the TPMS system has not been deactivated?
As standard TPMS has no sensors of its own I'd be surprised if it could break on its own without ABS or ASR/ESP also being down - those are also MOT failures.
 
I'd agree that it should only be mandatory for vehicles with run flat. I've never had a problem knowing that I had a puncture before these sensors were invented
 

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