Tyres - and drivers - under pressure

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 00:13
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - Bilboman

Confession time - I checked my tyre pressures last weekend for, er... the second time this year. I suspect I am not alone. TPMS seems to do the job quite well (barring a rash of false readings during a couple of cold snaps) and I do check pressures before a long journey, which is maybe three times a year.
In a recent horrific car crash that claimed the life of a sports star and a passenger, it appears that one of the contributory factors being put forward - according to today's official police statements - is a blowout from a tyre that may have been underinflated, on a little-used high performance car that the driver was possibly not very familiar with. The car left the road, hit a site of roadworks and burst into flames.
As the captain used to say on Hill Street Blues - "Let's be careful out there."

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 06:13
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - oldroverboy.

Confession time - I checked my tyre pressures last weekend for, er... the second time this year. I suspect I am not alone. TPMS seems to do the job quite well (barring a rash of false readings during a couple of cold snaps) and I do check pressures before a long journey,

TPMS is good, mine displays individual tyre pressures on the menu system, but didn't help me when a tyre went just as i stopped outside my house.. heard the pop as i stopped and then the hissing, (front offside) So, TPMS doesn't show if i have picked up a bit of debris or not..

It was a needle type puncture and away from the shoulder so repaired for the princely sum of £12 by my local specialists. (I don't do the "chains" anymore)

Edited by oldroverboy. on 04/06/2019 at 06:20

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 07:32
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - dan86

The TPMS in our qashqai warned us when the pressure had gone down by about 5 psi and when u used my (surprisingly accurate) mini compressor it showed the same psi as the on board display and was 5psi down

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 08:40
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - RT

TPMS seems to do the job quite well (barring a rash of false readings during a couple of cold snaps)

That's not a rash of false readings, attention is needed - Cold weather reduces tyre pressure, so they need increasing.

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 08:47
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - craig-pd130

The TPMS on my BMW and the family Corsas are quite accurate (to within 1psi of my trusty accurate gauge), although the BMW system mulishly refuses to display anything other than Bar readings, which means having to do a quick conversion. b***** German engineering ;-)

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 11:17
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - Avant

At least the German engineering in Audis tells you which tyre is down. Swedish engineeering would tell you only that there was a tyre with low pressure, so you had to check them all.

OK, so you should check all the pressures anyway, but looking for a nail in one tyre is preferable to looking for it in all four.

Just another example of how much more user-friendly the information systems in Audis (and the Skodas that I had previously) are than the one in the Volvo V60 (pre-touchscreen, although for different reasons I wouldn't want a Volvo with the new prod-for-everything toiuchscreen).

Edited by Avant on 04/06/2019 at 11:20

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 11:37
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - oldroverboy.

At least the German engineering in Audis tells you which tyre is down. Swedish engineeering would tell you only that there was a tyre with low pressure, so you had to check them all.

OK, so you should check all the pressures anyway, but looking for a nail in one tyre is preferable to looking for it in all four.

One up for SAIC (MG) then.

Dashboard display via menu system shows actual individual tyre pressures.

This morning. left front 2.3 lr 2.3 rr 2.1 rl 2.1 so not only can you see it is down, but also by how much.

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 12:41
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - badbusdriver

The TPMS in the Jazz only tells you that 'a' tyre has lost pressure, not which, and certainly not by how much.

As is the case with these kind of situations, seeing as my wife is driving down to Solihull (from N. E. Scotland) this coming Sunday with her mother to see her sister, i discovered yesterday that there was a slow leak on one of the rear tyres!. Having checked them all and topped them all up last Thursday (after the warning started showing), the warning came on again yesteday. After checking all 4 tyres again i found that 3 were fine, but the n/s rear had lost 7psi. And being a motability car, it isn't as straightforward as simply going to a local tyre fitter. I mean i could have, and if they had managed to repair the tyre, all well and good. But if they had to replace it i'd have to pay for it, then claim the money back from motability, and that of course, would be assuming the local tyre fitter had a 185/55 R16 in stock!. The nearest Motability approved place is Kwik Fit, and there are 4 of them in Aberdeen (just over 30 miles away), so i phoned the one most convenient for me. "No problem, just take it in", but after explaining about the odd size of tyre, "Oh, we don't have any in stock, let me check other branches". So i ended up having to go to one right in the city centre, and, of course, they managed to fix it!.

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 17:02
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - Andrew-T

The TPMS on my BMW and the family Corsas are quite accurate (to within 1psi of my trusty accurate gauge), ....

Do these gizmo systems continue to be accurate after several years of driving in mucky and perhaps mildly corrosive situations?

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 17:41
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - Engineer Andy

The TPMS on my BMW and the family Corsas are quite accurate (to within 1psi of my trusty accurate gauge), ....

Do these gizmo systems continue to be accurate after several years of driving in mucky and perhaps mildly corrosive situations?

Indeed - if I recall correctly (it may have been for my car's make [newer models] - Mazda) some complaint about them erroneously coming up with a pressure warning if the unit gets covered in mud. The emergency stop ones seem to through a wobbly if a plastic bag gets caught up in them.

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 19:16
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - KenC

If they stop working I believe its an MOT failure.

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Tue 4 Jun 2019 23:02
Tyres - and drivers - under pressure - Smileyman

I've had a few false alarms in my SEAT Toledo, each time I have checked the pressures, found no fault and re-set the system. I know the alarms are false as the system does not activate again.

IMO the TPMS system is a get-out for proper checks, a lazy driver's rely upon. Would much have preferred a vehicle wide "bulb failure" system to have been stipulated first, stop all the drivers in cars with faulty headlights and side/stop lights driving about in ignorance. (Bulb failure in my dad's Volvo from 25 years ago did correctly indicate a failed stop light bulb).

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