What happens if you have no TPMS?

[SevanC]

At some point, I'm going to buy snow tires on their own wheels. If I don't put TPMS on the new wheels, what will happen? Am I going to be annoyed by a warning every time I turn the car on?

After 28 years of driving, I think I have learned to spot/feel a flat tire on my own. Of course there's also the secondary indicator of a catastrophic tire failure: the guard rail you hit.

[Sponsor]

[e350 coupe]

For the first 3-4 days nothing will happen and you will think life is good, and you might even wonder if these sensors even worked, then somewhere between 3-4 days,

Every time you start the car the center display will display a fault message with your TPMS sensors, followed by buzzing and pinging sounds.

There will be an additional flat tire indicator in the speedo gauge flashing on and off for a couple of minutes then it will turn solid.

And finally there will be an error message between the fuel gauge and temp. gauge.

This will go on and on every time you restart the car.

I lasted about 20 minutes in a line up and I then pulled over and reset my sensors.

[DougC]

TPMS…. yet another useless cradle to the grave protective regulation compliments of the nanny state.

[PratoN]

Originally Posted by e350 coupe

Every time you start the car the center display will display a fault message with your TPMS sensors, followed by buzzing and pinging sounds....There will be an additional flat tire indicator in the speedo gauge flashing on and off for a couple of minutes then it will turn solid... And finally there will be an error message between the fuel gauge and temp. gauge.

This will go on and on every time you restart the car.

Would you consider this unbearable? I'm debating whether or not I can justify spending the extra $200 on the sensors. It might be worth it and it saves me from having to get them mounted later.

Your thoughts?

[e350 coupe]

I lasted about 25 minutes in the Costco gas line up, afterwards in the pouring rain I pulled over and reset all the sensors. Yes I would consider this unbearable.

[PratoN]

Originally Posted by e350 coupe

I lasted about 25 minutes in the Costco gas line up, afterwards in the pouring rain I pulled over and reset all the sensors. Yes I would consider this unbearable.

It buzzed and pinged for 25 minutes!?

EDIT: OR was that just because you continued to start/stop your car when creeping in line?

EDIT^2: I've decided I'm going to save myself $245 and deal with it. (Assuming tire rack $42/sensor plus the $45 reset tool and for some reason extra shipping)

[e350 coupe]

I enquired with the maker of this kit

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...#ht_2019wt_770

if they would work on the new 2012 Focus's with their TPMS, to which they replied

Dear th-1,

yes it will

- blueovalindustries
Click "respond" to reply through Messages, or go to your email to reply


The reset tool is useful, not just when you want to change wheels, but also when you want to change air pressure, say you decided to run your factory 18"s at 44 psi instead of 39 psi, all you do is set the tires to correct pressure and then put car into learn mode and have the vehicle learn the new tire pressure.

[e350 coupe]

Originally Posted by PratoN

It buzzed and pinged for 25 minutes!?

EDIT: OR was that just because you continued to start/stop your car when creeping in line?

EDIT^2: I've decided I'm going to save myself $245 and deal with it. (Assuming tire rack $42/sensor plus the $45 reset tool and for some reason extra shipping)

I posted the above identical unit to which I used, and my interaction with the supplier.

As for your question it goes through this annoying startup sequence every time you start the car. The main center display does go out if you hit OK however the other 2 warning symbols remain on all the time and do not go out. I only endured 25 minutes of this before resetting my new tpms sensors on my dedicated winter tires.

[Julian@TireRack.com]

Originally Posted by PratoN

EDIT^2: I've decided I'm going to save myself $245 and deal with it. (Assuming tire rack $42/sensor plus the $45 reset tool and for some reason extra shipping)

Yeah the national Highway Saftey Admistration makes us either install sensors in your new wheels or have you tell us you will be transfering your own. I don't know how we got by for 50 years without a computer telling us our tires were low, but that's the hand we were dealt.
You would probably have a hard time finding a dealership to disengage the sensors all together because it's a "safety issue" Just like they say not to fool you brake sensors with a piece of wire to complete the circuit. Because we can't tell when are brakes are going bad unless our computers tell us...

On the plus side, the Fordtrigger tool is only $35 now.

[alex62390]

Can't it be disabled by the dealership? I work on SAAB's, when i install a snow tire package without sensors I can use the scan tool to deprogram the computer module from the car's network. Even though TPMS is required on all US cars, its not required in all countries and there might be a way to disable the system.