Quote:
Originally Posted by Lil Joe
I lost a wheel off of the 5er rolling down the interstate in Amarillo TX. The Tire Minder TPMS did not register anything. No heat build up, no disconnect. In fact it still showed I had correct pressure in that tire even though it had flown out into oblivion. We only noticed when the wife said the fender skirt was flapping. I called the company and they said."We'd be millionaires if we could figure it out to register if a tire went missing. So what good is it if one disconnects and the main monitor does not register it?
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With some systems the dash monitor can report a lost signal or bad battery but since the sensors only "report" about once every 10 to 15 minutes if there is no loss of pressure I don't know how any system can report a "lost" wheel without needing new batteries every couple of days.
If you have a question about this you can do a test yourself. Turn off the system. Wait about an hour then turn it on again. You will see it can take 10 to 15 or even 20 minutes before you get the reference psi reported.
As I understand it the sensors only report when there has been a pressure drop of x psi in the last couple of minutes. This "drop" is in your literature. The Tire Minder guy should have known this.
Comment to the folks that ever "lost a wheel" but didn't know it. This kind of proves the need for a TPMS as if you don't know when you loose a wheel now you can understand why it's possible to have a tire go flat you never know about it till someone flags you down.
My recommendation is to shut the monitor down each night and turn on back in the morning. If you don't get all tires reporting the cold tire pressure within 10 to 15 minutes you need to learn why.