Understanding How Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems Work

Thanks to our viewer, Kay, Nancy discusses Tire Pressure Monitoring Systems and their importance since they were enacted into law in 2000.

Transcript:

Is your tire light on? Are you tired of seeing that tire light on? Well, thanks to our customer, Kay, we’re going to be talking about tire sensors and if you have a question or a topic you want me to discuss, enter in the comments below and next week we will discuss your topic.

Hi, I’m Nancy at Kneble’s Auto Service Center. TPMS. Tire pressure monitoring systems are designed to inform you when your tire pressure gets below 25% of the manufacturer’s recommendation.

Now there are three benefits to this system. Number one, avoid accidents. An underinflated tire will give you a decreased stopping ability. Number two, maintain good fuel economy, and number three, prevent uneven tire tread wear. And you can check out my other videos. I go more in depth about this. Now in 1990 Firestone had a major recall due to tire tread separation. There were over 250 deaths.

So in the year 2000, President Clinton signed into law that all manufacturers are required to equip the vehicles with these TPMS or tire pressure monitoring systems. Now there are two types. There is the indirect and the direct. Now the indirect monitoring system works off the wheel speed sensor in the anti-lock brake system. It detects the revolutions of the tire. So if you have one tire that is underinflated, the circumference of the tire is smaller and the tire has to work harder to keep up with the other three tires. The downside to this is that when you properly inflate that tire, you must recalibrate the system. Also, if you put on different size tires than the manufacturer recommends that the system may not work. And remember when you rotate your tires, you also must recalibrate the system.

Now the direct monitoring systems have tire sensors in each tire. They can have an aluminum tip, they could have a rubber tip. Tire sensors have serial numbers for each one and they had batteries in each one. So, therefore, if the battery starts to fail, you’re going to have to replace the sensor and you’re going to have to reprogram the system. Now when you have all your tires properly inflated and the tire light is still on, remember you could have a sensor in your spare. Now road and grime, road salt and grime, can also cause these sensors to become defective, which you may require replacement and have to be reprogrammed.

So remember, keep all your tires properly inflated, even that spare, so you don’t see the tire light on. And if that tire light is on, come see me or your car care specialist. Now if you like what I said, thumbs up, share the information because everybody’s tires should be properly inflated.

Thank you for watching.