Tyre Pressure Warning System!

[portzy]

Well, what can I say, it definately works!!!

Going to work this morning in my new "Van" and off goes the red dash warning letting me know something is amiss. It was dark but luckily I was only a few humdred yards into my trip so I went home and with torch I found a 1 1/2" wood screw in the outer part of the tread. Put some water+washing up liquid over it and it barely bubbled so the electronics must be very sensitive.

Now, is it me or does any one else always suspect vindictive vandalism when ever you get a puncture? Seriousley, I always rush to assume that some scuffer has had a go whenever this happens. I dont know why but I had a bad feeling about yesterday and especially last night, like as if something bad was going to happen which I suppose it has, 215x45 17" GoodYear Exellium? that will be £185 fitted sir!!!!!

Portzy.

 

[Gareth]

tell me about it, I had a nail in one of my rears, took it to be looked at, turned out both rear tyres were worn on the inside due to the tracking being out, so due to the nail two tyres and full tracking cost me £478.13! The tyre pressure warning system does work well, I had a slow puncture due to the nail and it picked it up easily, its a much better system than the one Renault uses, theirs have sensors on each tyre valve which are easily broken and it costs £80 a pop to have a replacement reprogrammed, it was causing them so much grief they dropped them completely in the end on some models.

 

[portzy]

tell me about it, I had a nail in one of my rears, took it to be looked at, turned out both rear tyres were worn on the inside due to the tracking being out, so due to the nail two tyres and full tracking cost me £478.13! The tyre pressure warning system does work well, I had a slow puncture due to the nail and it picked it up easily, its a much better system than the one Renault uses, theirs have sensors on each tyre valve which are easily broken and it costs £80 a pop to have a replacement reprogrammed, it was causing them so much grief they dropped them completely in the end on some models.

Crikey!!!!, see what I mean about bad feelings and sixth senses. To get me back to work one of the NationalTyres guys gave me a lift and we were talking about TPWS and he happened to comment on the Renault system, just like you have commented, he was saying that they corroded a lot and that they were easily broken. I think I will go away and hide for the rest of today.

Portzy.

 

[Gollom]

Yup, agree. 2 new tyres on rear and within a couple of days up comes the warning. Check and of course it is a scree right through one of the new tyres!

 

[NewMB]

My TPM works, but still shows up on display as something wrong with one of the sensors.

 

[Diesel Benz]

My TPM works, but still shows up on display as something wrong with one of the sensors.

Does your TPMS display show some sensor warnings or is just the normal malfunction indication like "tyre pressure monitor, visit workshop"?

Early W211 TPMS control units appear to have some issues, specifically if you have to change sensors, I've had the issue with my W211 too. I think it was 2006 time that they changed to Siemens and it should be more reliable. The Beru system has been used on several car models, Audi and Ferrari included.

 

[Gollom]

Mine just gives a generic warning and advises I check tyre pressures

 

[Diesel Benz]

I also had a nail (on the W221), soon after having installed new tyres of course. The first time TPWS gave me a warning I walked around the car and thought the electronics are misbehaving. Later on I noticed there actually was a slow leak on the front tyre, the TPWS was surprisingly accurate after all.

 

[portzy]

£164.00 fitted and working so not too bad in the end and they gave me a 10% discount which was welcome. They seemed a decent set of lads, National Tyre Services Bradford branch that is.

I think I will be checking with a torch for strategically placed screws & nails for a few weeks until the light mornings arrive again. Just what my OCD needed.

Portzy.

 

[popuptoaster]

Amazes me the amount of people i see driving around with flat or nearly flat tyres, i can tell if one of mine isnt right just from driving the car and the noise the tyres make, had a rear tyre delate quite fast on my last W115 in a contraflow on the A13 but i felt it going down even before i heard it and managed to pull over into the coned off area, and even though i love em i have to say a W114 is hardly the most communicative of cars. Nice to have all these warning devices but i cant bring myself to trust they'll work all the when you need em to

 

[NewMB]

just the normal malfunction indication like "tyre pressure monitor, visit workshop"?

It does this exactly!

Dealer said they would have to change the sensor(s). But they reckon its only one of the rear ones which is doing this. But still, I get the pressures ok.

 

[Diesel Benz]

Amazes me the amount of people i see driving around with flat or nearly flat tyres, i can tell if one of mine isnt right just from driving the car and the noise the tyres make, had a rear tyre delate quite fast on my last W115 in a contraflow on the A13 but i felt it going down even before i heard it and managed to pull over into the coned off area, and even though i love em i have to say a W114 is hardly the most communicative of cars. Nice to have all these warning devices but i cant bring myself to trust they'll work all the when you need em to

Is your point that you don't see any value with the warning systems if you cannot trust them? Or are you assuming that people who drive with a flat tyre have the system and trust it but it does not work and then they don't inflate their tyres?

Driving aids are not supposed to remove the responsibility of the driver but we had a few good examples on this thread where the system obviously was better than the driver when sensing the tyre issue. Even if it did not work in one case out of many, it should be better that it helps in those "many" cases.

I don't know what your driving experience is but I can tell that I've been driving 4-wheel vehicles before I could reach the clutch while looking forward and have quite a few years on my meter now and my MB drives too well for me to detect if one tyre has lost 10% of its pressure. On a worse car to drive I might have been able to detect it.

From the two systems, the tyre pressure warning system has limited capabilities but still shown useful. The tyre pressure monitor system in unbeatable, if you can check the true (temperature compensated) tyre pressure for all wheels while driving, I'd be amazed how an experienced driver would do it with out these electronic aids.

 

[popuptoaster]

I been driving a long time now, not off road very often although i have done offroad days and spent a little time on me mates farm, but most other things over the years up to big trucks and buses, even forklifts and yard shunters, i agree a 10% difference is pretty hard or impossible to feel on most vehicles, i was commenting on much flatter tyres than that really.

a 10% tyre pressure imbalance isnt gonna make your vehicle unsafe, if its going flat while your in the car and driving your gonna notice as the imbalance increases and if its not going flat then you should pick it up when you do your regular tyre pressure checks.

Just cant see the point of the systems especially as they are unreliable and not cheap in most cases, much the same as an external ice warning system, complication for the sake of it and its disguised as progress or just to make you feel like your car is better than someone elses.

I got nothing against usefull gadgets, but with everyone bleating on about being green we still insist on weighing down our cars with rubbish these days, and any gadget that makes drivers think they can neglect safety checks on their cars could have an impact on other people who still do choose to check them themselves.

just me having a rant really.

 

[st4]

In my old BMW you could trick the car into thinking it had a puncture by cornering in an exhubert fashion that would get a wheel in the air, reducing the pressure loaded onto the sensor, tricking the car into thinking it had a puncture. If yiu couldn't get the tyre warning light on, you weren't trying hard enough

 

[Defiant]

My Sprite had a auditory tire monitoring system, wherein if the pressure was off, the squeal from the bias-ply tire would change note.
God, I miss it, and both its fuses.

 

[miro]

Does your TPMS display show some sensor warnings or is just the normal malfunction indication like "tyre pressure monitor, visit workshop"?
.

According to mechanics, that is all the module ever does.

 

[Diesel Benz]

According to mechanics, that is all the module ever does.

By "sensor warnings" I meant "sensor fault codes". I have not seen that while I have seen it showing tyre pressure figures.

 

[miro]

By "sensor warnings" I meant "sensor fault codes". I have not seen that while I have seen it showing tyre pressure figures.

It buggers up quite a lot.

 

[Delboy0127]

Tyre pressure monitor

Can anyone advise me how to change my TPMS to read in PSI.