I did a search on here and found a thread that discussed Tyre Pressure monitoring systems but it was back in 2007.

Looking at a brochure on one that I saw advertised yesterday in Halfords they had no stock of them and said that they was no demand for them.

The esseesse upgrade has this installed as part of the package but I heard 'off the record' that they were more trouble than they were worth.

A posting that indicated that the UK (we will follow suit) is the TPMS is 'not on the list' of the new regulations. IIRC the US have to have them.

Has anyone used the one advertised in the picture. A 'contributor' to the review didn't think much of it. Quick check on prices listed it at st£163 but it did not list the cars that we have. Another site specifically advertises it for the 500...
http://www.ppcgb.com/Fiat/500/Abart...re-Monitor/pt90_1020_-cma1908-cmo1909-ct1915/

I thought it might be something useful to have bought in advance if you were due a change of tyres. Having the 'right' pressure is good for overall performance and could be a good safety feature given that we are on the space savers or tyre repair kits. There appears to be 2 types. One that gives into the tyre i.e. tyre has to come off and another that attaches to the valve (possibility that it might get robbed ?). Imagine it would have little effect on the 'unsprung weight' of the wheels.

When I checked my tyres pressures last day after delivery of the new car the front drivers left was 25lbs and the rears were under-inflated. I did notice the difference on a particular piece of road.

Would be interested in your views and in particular if any of you have fitted aftermarket ones.

bad idea imo, stops people visually checking them, if you check visually you can also look for things like a damaged side wall.

A quick visual walkround each time you get into the vehicle, backed up with a fortnightly check with a pressure gauge has worked fine for me for the past 40 years.

The only case where I feel it's justified is on a vehicle with twin tyres, where a flat on the inside wheel could easily go unnoticed.

dave said:

bad idea imo, stops people visually checking them, if you check visually you can also look for things like a damaged side wall.

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My visual check is usually when I'm washing the car.
Noticed a lot of garages now starting to charge for 'air'.
Had an incident on the autobahn a few moons ago in a hired 320D when I had a type of blow out. I was 'driving' at the time. Colleague that was with me wasn't too impressed and 'didn't talk' until we arrived at the hotel some 100 miles later.
I often wondered if an 'early warning' system might have helped. :idea:

loveshandbags said:

Noticed a lot of garages now starting to charge for 'air'.

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that should mean the machines are better calibrated, in theory anyway

dave said:

that should mean the machines are better calibrated, in theory anyway

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BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

On a serious note, just buy a pump and a good quality tyre gauge and be done with it. TPMS is a fiddly thing and prone to breakage, failure, lost sensors etc. Dave is right, visual inspection is best.

jnoiles said:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

On a serious note, just buy a pump and a good quality tyre gauge and be done with it. TPMS is a fiddly thing and prone to breakage, failure, lost sensors etc. Dave is right, visual inspection is best.

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Forgive me for sticking my two penneth in too, but I absolutely agree with this sentiment. A proper weekly visual inspection is imo, much better. People don't take much notice of half the gauges in a car anyway, so I doubt a tyre pressure monitoring system would be treated any differently. I'm probably more anal than most at checking my tyres weekly. I have a good digital gauge which appears to be very accurate. Also, I had a puncture repaired on my Cadillac the other day, purely as a result of picking up a 3psi drop in pressure during a weekly check. Neither I nor the tyre fitter I took the wheel too could visually see any puncture until he took it off the rim. Found an inch and a half nail had penetrated right through and the head of the nail had broke off rendering it invisible. £14 to fix a puncture is better than having a potentially fatal blow out at ahmem, 70mph.

jnoiles said:

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

On a serious note, just buy a pump and a good quality tyre gauge and be done with it. TPMS is a fiddly thing and prone to breakage, failure, lost sensors etc. Dave is right, visual inspection is best.

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Yup. I bought myself a 12v Michelin pump and you just set the pressures and it does the rest for you. I've checked against it with various gauges and it seems accurate. It's not much slower just to use the pump to check the pressures and inflate if necessary than it is to check the pressures with a gauge.

Thanks for all the inputs so far.

Had a quick gander in the other camps and you'll notice the 'marked' difference in responses.

It does appear that the kit that comes with the esseese is dubious but it might be a 'cheap' option but at least it would have the side effect of glowing red caps - might look pretty good in the dark.:idea:

Robbed the video clip (it's the 2nd gadget) below from the Abarth camp and the 'result' at the end was very interesting . I was expecting a different one !

http://fwd.channel5.com/gadget-show/blog/pimp-your-ride-with-clever-car-gadgets

jnoiles said:

On a serious note, just buy a pump and a good quality tyre gauge and be done with it. TPMS is a fiddly thing and prone to breakage, failure, lost sensors etc. Dave is right, visual inspection is best.

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Took your advice and bought a new digital tyre pressure gauge. Noticed that the front tyre has a very slow puncture and it's down to 27lbs. Given the recent posts 'pumped them up'. Still prefer to let them sit below the 'high load' setting for a bit of grip. Cheaper digital guages reviewed here.

It would appear that I'm not the only one obsessed with tyre pressures - Sebastian Vettel is also at it as well but then he would have just cause. Notice how he's told at 2:34 in the [ame="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xkcjxh_bbc-sebastien-vettel-in-bbc-top-gear_sport"]video[/ame] to 'just get on with it and drive'. Get the impression that tyres are a BIG factor in success or failure in F1.

Judging from more recent information this probably is no longer true...
http://www.besttyres.com/?p=306
New Legislation that will be effective from November 2012 states that all newly homologated vehicles mustbe fitted with TPMS

loveshandbags said:

Cheaper digital guages reviewed here.[/FONT]

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ive got there number 2 mine don't have halfords written on it though but its crap, often it lets too much air out, wasn't too bad when i first got it, but went funny after a while, i only keep it as a spare, battery lasts ages though i couldn't find by better one the other night so got this one out and it still works must be about 5 years old or more

dave said:

ive got there number 2 mine don't have halfords written on it though but its crap, often it lets too much air out, wasn't too bad when i first got it, but went funny after a while, i only keep it as a spare, battery lasts ages though i couldn't find by better one the other night so got this one out and it still works must be about 5 years old or more

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I have been having a little 'play' around with the new 'advance' tyre pressure gadget and so far it seems pretty good not letting out too much air out to do a test. There are presets in the gauge so if you over pump it will let out the air by squeezing a 'trigger' so that it goes down to the preset. I will be keeping mine in the free case supplied so that it does 'not go off'.

Pressure was different this morning...
32.5psi (Fronts) & 31.5psi (Back) Temperature 6 degree
Last night they were 34psi & Backs 32psi Temperature 4 degree

'Loss' of 1.5 psi on the Fronts and 0.5psi on the Back.

I would put it down to the tyres being a little warm last night but I may have done around 7-8 miles with the one stop. When I checked out the theory & the practice of measuring it seemed to make sense.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=73
The biggest variation in temperature seems to occur in the Summer in the direct sunlight so it might be best not to go mad with bringing the pressure up and possibly beyond the 'High Load' pressures stated in the manual.

After having the accuracy of a digital gauge I'd never go back to an analogue gauge.

i like the ford idea it is done using the ABS sensors once you correctly inflate the tyres you do a "calibration" using the multi menu on the dash.....

it works on rolling radius so no sensors or attachments on the wheel itself

Andy Monty said:

i like the ford idea it is done using the ABS sensors once you correctly inflate the tyres you do a "calibration" using the multi menu on the dash.....

it works on rolling radius so no sensors or attachments on the wheel itself

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My brother-in-law bought that S-Max that I recently mentioned and he said that the Tyre pressure monitoring was working correctly. I didn't realise that it didn't have individual wheel 'attachments'. Looks lke his car has a few more gizmos that can go wrong.

http://www.ford.ie/Cars/S-MAX/Safetyandsecurity
TMPS with individual wheel sensors continually checks the tyre pressure, providing accurate pressure data, and alerts you before any loss of pressure becomes an issue.

Adaptive Cruise Control(ACC) with Forward Alert (FA)
With ACC you can automatically keep your chosen distance from the car in front. Should the car in front slow down and reduce the gap, your speed drops, too. And when traffic speeds up, you automatically return to cruising speed. Meanwhile, FA monitors your distance to the vehicle in front and if you drive too close, a warning noise and flashing light activate.

What i do is i check all 4 tires pressure wise like once every week/two weeks. If i notice all the tires have defalted evenly, i am not worried as what are the chances of puncturing 4 tires at the same time unless you went over a US movie style police check point "needles"!. If one of the tires is signfiicantly as in like 5 psi less then all the rest, then it is time to worry about that tire = )

I have had a flat tire on the motorway with a dubious tyre that was running low on pressure all the time for weeks. Nothing serious happened and i had a full size spare wheel which i got fitted after going another 5 km to the destination, but no joke tire pressures are not something to be played around with.