TheImpressiveXWhat are some household chores people should do more often?
Sir_KevinCheck the air pressure in your tires. Seems like nobody does this these days.
KoppensnellerDon’t most cars do that for you now? Mine does.
Wanted to make a joke about fancy young cars, but apparently automatic tire pressure systems have been around since the 80’s, and apparently it’s mandatory in the EU since 2014?
Never saw it in a car myself, but the youngest car I ever drove is I think my dad’s from 2010 or something.
If it’s now standard that’s a good thing. My broke ass still has to check periodically.
Yeah, but this is the system based on the rotations per meters. Which sucks as it’s not that accurate and only warns you when it’s already very low on air pressure.
The accurate one’s are veeeery expensive.
You mean it guesses how much pressure is lost based on actual rotations of the tire? So a leaky valve or something will not be found?
Yeah, you “set” it when you filled it. Then it knows the rotations to look for. And if it is off by a lot, it warns you.
BeardedBlazeI’ve no idea what you’re talking about. I don’t see anything, when I add air to the tire the dash monitor reflects it immediately. No setting anything.
You guys, I have a hunch that perhaps there are different designs. 🤔
Uh, no. My 2014 Ford Focus (standard trim) senses the tire pressure. I know because one of my wheels had a slow puncture and would always set off the alarm.
Depends on the implementation. Some indeed have it like you described, using some of the sensors used by ABS. others use tiny pressure sensors mounted to the inside bit of the valve of the tyre and those are much more accurate.
They aren’t that expensive either. Each sensor is about €20 and lasts about 7 years on its battery before it has to be replaced. (On ours, battery is integrated, so not replaceable).
If we had bought our car new, it would’ve cost us €15k-20k. Not the most expensive car. :)
My 08 sienna had it kinda. It didn’t have sensors in each wheel, instead it guessed based on relative rotation of the tires at speed. This was problematic; lots of false positives but it was easy to reset. It caused undue concern but it did actually work too (true positives).
Sensors are their own headache. They must be taught to the car computer which requires specialized equipment. I swap my summer and winter wheels myself so had to buy the $200 thingy and go through the headache of learning to use its terrible interface. They are also another failure point; one of my sensors died prematurely so I have to take that wheel in to fix it.
My 2017 Ute (truck?) doesn’t.
You should still check, as the tpms may only warn you when it gets too low but generally driving even just a couple psi off can have a big effect on fuel economy and tire life.
I think most newer cars do. However for mine I think the tires should be at 35psi and the alert goes off at 30, so you’re a ways away from ideal pressure.
I try to check my tire pressure whenever you have drastic temperature changes (summer -> fall and winter -> spring) and that seems to work for me.
My car has an alarm if they drop 0.1 psi