I've read about TPMS being a pain before but any backroomers had similar?

Had TPMS on a total of 6 cars since 2005 and had the warning light come on 3 times in that period. On each occation the tyres had been fine when checked with my trusty gauge within a couple of weeks max. On each occation the tyres looked fine on a visual walk round. But on each occation the trusty gauge said that one of the tyres had low pressure and close inspection revealed a screw in the tread each time.

What a pain. It resulted in me pumping the tryre to the correct pressure on 2 occations and driving strait to the local tyre shop. The other time I had to fit the spare because it was Sunday afternoon.

If I did not have such a pesky system fitted I would never have known. But there again I could have been killed in a huge fireball when the car crashed after a blow out.

As I said, modern technology can be such a pain. Why ever did they introduce front brakes on cars. Just more to wear out and go wrong.

The Civic and Jazz have that problem where you get false alerts, but I just where possible stop to check and reset, it was annoying for a while but have got used to it now

I know there is a software update for it, but was told Honda are still working on it so I`ll wait untill the next one

at least I don`t get as many alerts for TPMS as proximity warnings ie too close to other cars(not my fault when cars cut you up)

Civics is ABS

I had 4 new tyres on it 10k miles ago and no sensors in the wheel so has to be ABS, I assume Jazz is as well.

Had the warning come up on a SEAT Leon a while back. It was on the stretch of the M25 that is notorious for giving the feeling of having a puncture. So it felt like a puncture and indicated a puncture. However, once I managed to get off the morway I found nothing wrong at all, same pressure as the others.

Surely TPMS should have a temperature sensor as well a pressure sensor for the tyre, so it knows what the cold (presumably minimum) pressure should be and what the equivalent is when running? As others have said, when a tyre is use, it warms up, and thus so does the air inside, raising the working pressure by as much as 20%. PV=mRT and all that.

Otherwise the system could think the pressure is fine is someone inflates their tyre to the handbook figure mid-journey when they should add, say, 10% for the effect of the warm tyre.

If its ABS TPMS its based on rotation and as 4 tyres heat it will be the same (unless you are hooning round a track with all RH or LH corners). There should be no warning.

With valve based TPMS the warning should come on with pressure drop not pressure increase (pressure increases when driving) so IMHO if you get a warning after driving any distance you either have puncture or a fault.

For example. On our Superb the nomal rear pressure is 32 PSI. For a car loaded with 5 persons and luggage its 40 PSI. Add in a pressure increase for hot day motorway driving and they probably reach 45 PSI. Never seen a warning yet.

But I occationally recalibrate ours should any sensors have adjusted themselves from factory settings. This needs doing on a strait road otherwise it could affect the rotation speeds if its ABS based.

Surely good drivers can feel or indeed hear when they have a puncture? Perhaps not.

Agreed, with each and every electronic stage of the dumbing down of driver skills, most newer drivers who didn't learn the previous generation of vehicle lose another layer of that seat of the pants feel for whats happening underneath and in the drivetrain...

ie newer drivers don't have a clue about cadence braking or keeping by feel through toes and bum the wheels on the point of lock up because ABS does it all now...until it doesn't when they find themselves on snow ice or loose surface, and no longer needing to power correctly and gently through wet bends cos one of many three letter acronyms does it all for you...again until it doesn't.

As for vehicle choices due to such faff, i have no intention of buying any more modern than the two vehicles we currently own, a 2005 Landcruiser and 2008 Forester, if one of those meets a write off fate i will search out similar replacements, most unlikely to ever go newer than 2010.

Edited by gordonbennet on 06/06/2018 at 11:36

I wonder how many potential buyers of cars with TPMS saw the function as a tipping moment of truth to actually buy?

Surely good drivers can feel or indeed hear when they have a puncture? Perhaps not.

But I suppose it might be quite handy if it alerted you to slow puncture?

The ABS type works well enough, although ours (Roomster) doesn't tell you which tyre is low. I don't think resetting on bendy roads matters as it derives the roatational relationship over a long distance - c. 10 miles I think.

I was concerned that the wheel sensor type on the Outlander might be more likely to play up, but I've had no alerts in 10,000 miles so far.

We've had several slow punctures on a couple of our cars over the last few years. I blame frequent visits to the tip, they have all been nails or screws.

I can feel a soft rear tyre before it gets too bad, it upsets the steering feel in bends. Front is more difficult for me and I put this down the the now common small or negative roll radius steering geometry which stops the steering pulling when a tyre is soft. In fact most of them will probably still steer and brake in a straight line with a completely flat tyre. In the days when power steering was the exception and most cars had a large positive roll radius (it made the steering lighter) the steering / brakes always seemed to be pulling one way or the other.