Does TPMS really work?

[gregoir]

Mines a 16 plate and I get something like " Do all 4 wheels meet the required pressures?"

So seems to be different from mine.

[automass]

11 minutes ago, gregoir said:

Mines a 16 plate and I get something like " Do all 4 wheels meet the required pressures?"

So seems to be different from mine.

 

Same as mine actually...but what I meant is once you touch the button it goes gray for a while but doesn't give OK to confirm..

[HotVRs]

TPMS on my 2013 Octavia (on Golus 18's) was a PITA, would go off all the time, once did it three times in a around 100 miles on the same journey, thought I had a slow puncture, I didn't, no fault. The TPMS on my 2014 Octavia (standard 17's) has triggered a warning maybe once or twice in 3 years. Might just be my own anecdotal experience but it seems to have been reduced in sensitivity to prevent nuisance activation.

[gregoir]

That's what I do...inflate them all and then set TPMS. By the way, when I touch the button to set it goes gray for a while and then come back normal but doesn't show any confirmation dialogue or doesn't give me confirmation sound..does it sound correct?

 

What I said above is a  confirmation dialogue i.e. a question is asked and you then press a button. So you want a further confirmation dialogue about a confirmation dialogue?

Too much man.

 

[pist0nbr0ke]

18 minutes ago, gregoir said:

That's what I do...inflate them all and then set TPMS. By the way, when I touch the button to set it goes gray for a while and then come back normal but doesn't show any confirmation dialogue or doesn't give me confirmation sound..does it sound correct?

 

What I said above is a  confirmation dialogue i.e. a question is asked and you then press a button. So you want a further confirmation dialogue about a confirmation dialogue?

Too much man.

 

 

On mine, it says 'tyre pressures stored' once complete?

[automass]

Just now, pist0nbr0ke said:

 

On mine, it says 'tyre pressures stored' once complete?

That's exactly what I am talking about...in my car I dont get any confirmation like that...not even a sound...so how shall I know whether it is really storing the data or not.

[pist0nbr0ke]

Not sure if it's the same on all systems - I have a 2016 vRS with Amundsen nav unit. What does your owner's manual say about the process? 

[Ootohere]

Now now,

are you seriously suggesting that Driver / Owners should read an Owners Manual and pay attention to that?

[Robbijay]

I'm looking forward to having a nice, sensible TPMS system like the VAG one. the one one on my car is just an annoying expense due to having to get new valves programmed into the ECU or (in my case) paying for clonable valves so the car doesn't tell the difference when you have your winter wheels on. The only problem then is when you're storing your other wheels in the garage, they slowly deflate and set off the warning whenever you get home! it wouldn't be so bad if you could program them yourself or tell the car to learn the new valves, but you can't!

Edited 31 January, 2018 by Robbijay
spelling

[automass]

31 minutes ago, pist0nbr0ke said:

 

On mine, it says 'tyre pressures stored' once complete?

Wow..I found some tyre pressure monitoring kit on ebay..around £64..they must be nice, I believe..I really needed this type...but onky downside is they will occupy my 12v port.

[pist0nbr0ke]

23 minutes ago, AwaoffSki said:

Now now,

are you seriously suggesting that Driver / Owners should read an Owners Manual and pay attention to that?

 

 

[Tim1631]

On 29/01/2018 at 20:52, AwaoffSki said:

Filling Station Tyre Inflators you put 20 or 50 pence in are calibrated, and you can inflate tyres higher than needed if required, then check how accurate with your own device, deflate the air you paid for even to your 'accurate' gauge if it is of a quality that is 'Calibrated'. 

 

Millions of vehicles on the roads are running what a Tyre Centre or garage set them at, or what went in at filling stations. 

 

Worth every penny, which is not that many, about 9 litres of fuel.

 

20/50p where are these?

 

Its £1 now for 5 minutes 

[Ootohere]

Tesco or Asda Scotland.

& Tesco £1 is air and Washer Fluid.   Might cost you a few quid to drive to Scotland if not available further south.

 

eg

Edited 31 January, 2018 by AwaoffSki

[automass]

18 minutes ago, pist0nbr0ke said:

 

On mine, it says 'tyre pressures stored' once complete?

 

Sainsburry's in Becton, East London is even free.

[Ootohere]

I never trust 'free' you are not able to complain if not accurate if someone gives you something for nothing....

[Guest]

For not much more than that Draper thing, you could by a 12v tyre compressor aka the ones supplied when you buy a car without a spare wheel. Didn't specify a spare when we bought the SEAT so it came with a gunge kit thingy. Bought spare wheel + jack / wrench  aftermarket so now I have best of both worlds.

 

12v compressor

 

Does TPMS work? Yes. It detected a pressure loss in rear tyre. Sainsbury's (free) air was broken, as was local Tesco (50p) and Morrisons (20p). Was about to head off to tyre centre when I remembered I had the SEAT compressor kit. Not only was I able to check the pressure, I could pump up the tyre. Set TPMS again, next day a warning went off, checked the tyre and it had lost air. Tyre centre found a nail. £15 repair - all back working again.

 

Pressure gauge will tell you you've lost air - a 12v compressor will do the same but you can also inflate the tyre.  

[Ray Luxury-Yacht]

Mine does work....eventually....

 

I was coming down a curved slip road from a dual carriageway a couple of months ago, and as I apexed the corner, the nearside front tyre grazed the kerbing. The kerbs are angled at a 45 degree angle so wouldn't normally cause an issue - however one of them was sticking slightly proud of the others, caught the sidewall of the tyre and - rrrrrip! Instant deflation with a big hole.

 

There was no way I was going to stop on the offslip, especially round a corner, too dangerous - so I decided to drive the mile or so further on until I could stop in a safe place down a side road, not caring if I damaged the wheel or not. The cost of a wheel is insignificant compared to being taken out by an HGV!!

 

Anyway as I said, I drove a mile with a completely flat tyre and the TPMS only just flashed up as I was parking, probably two minutes after the complete deflation.

 

In my book then, that's a bit of a crap system...

[Ootohere]

Scot5, as long as you have some means of inflating tyres and checking pressures on odd occasions, 

but if you are doing long journeys and changing tyre pressures because you are no longer towing or having a full load and maybe changing pressures weekly or every couple of weeks do you really use one of those compressors off a socket in the car?

 

inflate Car tyres, trailer tyres quickly when fueling, 

and later deflate a little again with pressure gauge until next time pressures need increasing / checking.

 

Edited 31 January, 2018 by AwaoffSki

[YMe]

2 hours ago, Ray Luxury-Yacht said:

Mine does work....eventually....

 

I was coming down a curved slip road from a dual carriageway a couple of months ago, and as I apexed the corner, the nearside front tyre grazed the kerbing. The kerbs are angled at a 45 degree angle so wouldn't normally cause an issue - however one of them was sticking slightly proud of the others, caught the sidewall of the tyre and - rrrrrip! Instant deflation with a big hole.

 

There was no way I was going to stop on the offslip, especially round a corner, too dangerous - so I decided to drive the mile or so further on until I could stop in a safe place down a side road, not caring if I damaged the wheel or not. The cost of a wheel is insignificant compared to being taken out by an HGV!!

 

Anyway as I said, I drove a mile with a completely flat tyre and the TPMS only just flashed up as I was parking, probably two minutes after the complete deflation.

 

In my book then, that's a bit of a crap system...

I don't understand this - you knew you had damaged the tyre what does it matter if the TPMS flags it up or not  - what did you want it to do? My opinion, for what it's worth is that it,s meant to flag up a gradual discrepancy between the tyre pressures - which mine did since new for a month until I asked a tyre place to check and they found a slow puncture which was fixed - the TPMS has not flagged anything up since.

[Gerrycan]

I have 'neglected' our Octavia lately since I am now not its principal driver.

I've not been checking the tyres as often as I should and when I have re-inflated the tyres I have forgotten to reset the TPMS. That has not caused any TPMS flag.

My wife is taking the car away this weekend alone so I was galvanised into checking the car over and refuelling at our current low-point of cycle prices (they are likely to increase by 30% overnight), all other fluids and of course tyre pressures .

I normally run the tyres around 37psi and they had all gone down to 33 psi without giving a general warning. It made me think though.

 

If you reset the TPMS when pressures are at 33 psi, then pump up the tyres to a higher pressure but fail to reset the TPMS then is the system is going to be less sensitive to subsequent pressure lost??

 

Edited 31 January, 2018 by Gerrycan

[YMe]

If the TPMS is monitoring wheel rotations then once you have set the TPMS on your pressure and then change all four pressures by the same amount each then the TPMS is still seeing equal wheel rotations - it doesn't know the pressure in each wheel.

[automass]

Update:

 

I have reduced the front left tyre in a significant amount of pressure and rear right just 5psi..then drove around 5minutes. All of a sudden TPMS  warning light pops up on the dash saying me to check front left tyre pressure..it didn't say anything about the rear yet though. I kept driving but nothing about rear. Now I am gonna inflate them with my RING inflator and set the TPMS.. 

[Robbijay]

My active TPMS (valve sensors) will only go off there is about an 8pis drop, so i guess it depends how much you let out. if you let too much out and drove for 5 minutes you may want to get your tyre checked out?

[Ootohere]

The tyres on the car can make a difference.

Some manufacturers had TPMS fitted when there were 'Run Flat tyres' and they warned the driver of a blow out.

 

On the Skoda you might have softwalled tyres and a little deflation very easily gets a warning.

You might have low profile tyres that are XL (reinforced side walls.) and the 3-5 psi is not so quickly warned about.

 

So many different situations, and sometimes people talk of 'false warnings'  but when the warning happened, one tyre might have been getting hotter 

as you drove, outside lane of the M25 clockwise, or 3 were and 1 was not, and yet when you stop and check the pressures were as when you last checked and set the TPMS.

 

False warnings are hardly an issue if it does have drivers checking tyre pressures, and then resetting the TPMS.

[TDIum]

19 hours ago, automass said:

Update:

 

I have reduced the front left tyre in a significant amount of pressure and rear right just 5psi..then drove around 5minutes. All of a sudden TPMS  warning light pops up on the dash saying me to check front left tyre pressure..it didn't say anything about the rear yet though. I kept driving but nothing about rear. Now I am gonna inflate them with my RING inflator and set the TPMS.. 

 

I think it only warns you about the worst wheel.