First - Happy New Year everybody

My Old Year ended with me cutting a corner driving (slowly) out of a friends rural drive and catching the rear nearside back tyre on a rough sandstone kerb. I cursed my misjudgement but drove the 1.5 miles home as normal - and briskly. The bad was that I had ripped a large hole in the side wall of my new winter tyre. The good(s) were that despite a very brisk drive home, the Yeti proved totally stable with one rear flat - indeed I did not know it was flat till I got home. Another good is that I had bought a spare winter tyre from mytyres in case of need such as this. Will get it fitted etc after New Year. Another good is that had I got my alloys on - there would almost certainly be some damage to a wheel and the standard tyres are even more expensive that my inexpensive Nankang!!

The only worrying aspect is that on my drive home I checked for a warning light on the tyre pressure indicator (I wondered if I had damaged the tyre) and there was indeed NO warning. That is one reason why I drove home normally before making an inspection of the vehicle.

My sympathy with regards the tyre. I had same thing happen last year but to a front tyre. I didn't have a spare winter tyre and could not get hold of one!

The tyre pressure monitor does take a while to react. I noticed that as well. When I say a while, I mean a few miles. Not too impressed.

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Also noticed the TPM takes about two to three miles to wake up. Appears to work better for warning of a slow puncture than a rapid deflation :wonder:

Hope you get it sorted.

TP

how does the tyre pressure monitor work and is it used for just when you get a flat or when the tyre pressure has reduced slightly like overtime/temperature etc etc

could not find out anything in the manual for the car and the misses never checks the tyres so something that told here that the tyres were starting to get low would help no end

It does not actually monitor the tyre pressure but uses the abs sensors on each wheel to determine the rolling radius of each wheel and tyre. Any which shows up a significant variation from the others over a period of time will throw up a warning on the TPM.

Ian

The above responses excellent - many thanks. I did know how a TPM worked but had no idea about the time lag. On my previous car (Octavia) the TPM did warn me about a slow puncture and gave me confidence in the system. However I had no idea about the time lag and was taken aback when I got no warning about a flat tyre. This forum is so good for this type of knowledge - always something to learn for everybody.

Also noticed the TPM takes about two to three miles to wake up. Appears to work better for warning of a slow puncture than a rapid deflation :wonder:

Hope you get it sorted.

TP

That's my experience with the Leon- had it twice now.

My sympathy with regards the tyre. I had same thing happen last year but to a front tyre. I didn't have a spare winter tyre and could not get hold of one!

The tyre pressure monitor does take a while to react. I noticed that as well. When I say a while, I mean a few miles. Not too impressed.

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Rockhopper, what does the TPM sound like when it 'goes off'??

I was driving the other day and heard a loud BONG!!! sound but nothing showed up in the Bolero display OR the Maxidot.

I'm wondering if the TPM is audio only and one of my tyres is underpressure, but not knowing how the TPM works or alerts you I really don't know.

Rockhopper, what does the TPM sound like when it 'goes off'??

I was driving the other day and heard a loud BONG!!! sound but nothing showed up in the Bolero display OR the Maxidot. :wonder:

I'm wondering if the TPM is audio only and one of my tyres is underpressure, but not knowing how the TPM works or alerts you I really don't know.

TPM does bong and you get a tyre symbol I think in the speedo display.

Wonder if your bong was the ice warning :wonder:

Oh mines bonging on start-up but the maxi is telling me to get a service

TP

The TPM is audio only and an amber light on the instrument cluster.

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A strange thing is that every time I switch from summer to winter tires (or the opposite) the TPM activates (and I have to make a reset holding the button for a while), although it should not as all the wheels have -contemporary- the same diameter variation...

A strange thing is that every time I switch from summer to winter tires (or the opposite) the TPM activates (and I have to make a reset holding the button for a while), although it should not as all the wheels have -contemporary- the same diameter variation...

I think this is normal - I would reset after any tyre change - individual or group so that the car system learns "what is now correct" because it will detect very trivial differences. Indeed I did my first journey this morning using my spare wheel (keeping to <50mph) and I had forgotten to reset my TPM. After about 1 mile it boinged and the yellow tyre dash symbol displayed. After collecting the newspapers I reset the TPM and heard nothing on my return journey.

That behaviour is the as my experience as well.

The system learns the diameter of the wheels that you have set and when you change all 4 to a different size it thinks you have a puncture( on all 4 wheels) but doesn't tell you which one. Seems to deal with slow punctures/spare wheel being put on quicker than catastrophic failure of tyre, which I think is wrong. But hey, what do I know about these things? I only use it.

I had a failure on my bicycle tyre on Christmas day on a very muddy section of my ride (I go for a ride every Christmas day whilst swmbo slaves over hot stove :lol:) let pressure down too low on my tubeless tyres and the seal went a few miles into the ride. I only realised what had happened when my tyres which are fantastic in mud all of a sudden didn't grip and my legs were spinning and I was going backwards instead of up a very steep muddy incline!! No TPM on the bike.

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The TPM is audio only and an amber light on the instrument cluster.

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I had a TPM warning on my Roomster. It Bonged and the indicator light came on. I checked all my tyres but they were correct.

The previous day I had the front tyres replaced but I had driven 200 miles, including motorway before the warning came on!

I reset the TPM and all was OK but as I was less than impressed with it I decided not to spec it for the Yeti.

The theory is good but the practice was useless!

Fred

The TPM is audio only and an amber light on the instrument cluster.

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Last week I had my first TPM warning. A bonging noise, yellow warning indicator, and (most helpfully) "Check tires" message on maxidot.

Didn't tell me which tire to check, and they visually looked fine. Checked all of them at the front off-side was down about 20% compared to the others.

I'm really glad I only paid £80 then for this rubbish feature. TWO miles to detect a flat? Or 200 or more?!?! I've only had a TPM bong once and it was just after my car had been with Rockhopper's on the rolling road.

I also find it totally daft that the systems knows exactly which wheel was spinning faster yet it keeps this information to itself and does not even help a bit to tell you which wheel is the offending one?! This was a no-brainer option to me in terms of safety vs cost. But on balance now it seems I totally wasted my money.

I have had TPM on my Octavia vRS models and have ordered it on my Yeti. My current vRS suffered 3 punctures over a couple of weeks last winter and it picked up all of them well before I would have noticed and certainly before I was stranded.

I have had a couple of false alarms. On my previous vRS it went off a couple of times with the caravan on, current one has done this once too as well as setting off during the snow a couple of weeks ago. We caravan a lot so alter the rear pressures for each trip, I now always make sure I reset when altering them .... didn't always do this and it never once picked it up! NB Full load is something like 10psi above normal so a fair amount.

Had I not had the experience with several punctures last year then I wouldn't have bothered ordering it on the Yeti BUT it did seem to work when there was an issue.

This was a no-brainer option to me in terms of safety vs cost. But on balance now it seems I totally wasted my money.

Like you I was unimpressed that it did not immediately pick up my flat. However when I forgot to reset the system after fitting my spare it only took about a mile to tell me that there was a slight (albeit insignificant) change which in theory could have been a slow puncture. So from this episode I have learned that if I suspect a flat then check it myself immediately without relying on the TPM but it seems to be good for picking up a slow puncture in plenty of time. This proved the case on my previous Octavia.

The other "goods" that have materialised are that my tyre fitters only charged £8 for fitting my spare winter tyre to the wheel. I declined their offer of putting it on the car as I was not confident as to where they were going to place their trolley jack. The other good is of course, thank goodness I chose the spare wheel option - would have been a much greater hassle without.

Just for the record the TPM will also react to over inflation of a tyre. Mine did so quickly, within a mile.

Andy

Just for the record the TPM will also react to over inflation of a tyre. Mine did so quickly, within a mile.

Andy

Makes sense since any difference in rotation speed - faster or slower - will set it off.

BUT in a mile you can totally destroy a tyre that might have been saved had you just stopped and put the spare on......... So really useless.

I find this system quite handy.

In the year I've had the Fabia it's warned me of two slow punctures due to nails in the tread I must have picked up earlier in the day. Each time the tyre was down to about 60% pressure but still looked fine.

Without it I'd have been changing the wheel on the hard shoulder... rather than a much safer services.

One of these might be a better option than TPM (as seen on the gadget show)

around £170 on ebay but shows pressure in all four wheels.

http://fwd.channel5.com/gadgets/lifestyle/travel/tyresure-tyre-pressure-monitoring-system

Makes sense since any difference in rotation speed - faster or slower - will set it off.

BUT in a mile you can totally destroy a tyre that might have been saved had you just stopped and put the spare on......... So really useless.

I had a rapid deflation of one of my winters last year, a stone or something nipped off the valve and so pretty much instantaneous flat rear tyre. I was just accelerating away from some lights had got up to 60 when heard it go, fortunately an entrance ahead so stopped pretty much immediately, ~100m absolute max. Tyre still stuffed. A TPM would not have saved it, and probably given false security to carry on a bit further rather like the OP.

So imo for those of us who look after our cars with regular pressure checks daily, or minimum 3 times a week, the TPM is perhaps a bit of a luxury, but for the great unwashed who don't check anything hardly ever it is probably a benefit. If you get a rapid deflation, by and large you are stuffed either way, TPM or not.

Reference to great unwashed, all present company excepted obviously.

One of these might be a better option than TPM (as seen on the gadget show)

around £170 on ebay but shows pressure in all four wheels.

http://fwd.channel5....nitoring-system

Would be ideal apart from the four new valve caps you need to put on which are fair game for any low life to appropriate... :no:

Would be ideal apart from the four new valve caps you need to put on which are fair game for any low life to appropriate... :no:

Shame they can't be integrated into the valve stem to stop low life taking an interest in them. Definitely better system than we have though.