Don't You Dare Disable that TPMS Sensor!A little reading for those that are interested. I thought I would post this since our vehicles did come with it and we will have to deal with this whenever looking at new tires, wheels etc..


The following was obtained from Tire Business:

New technologies tend to create love-hate relationships, and tire pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) are no exception.
TPMS is a mandated safety feature for all vehicles beginning with the 2008 model year, but numerous late-model vehicles are already equipped with it-unbeknownst to many of their owners, according to tire dealers.
TPMS is intended to reduce the number of cars stranded on the side of the road with flat tires and cut down on accidents. But many tire dealers dread working on it and many customers hate paying for it. While the former is unavoidable, some dealers say simply educating customers about the system can help dispel ill feelings about TPMS and any service or replacement costs involved.
At least 40 percent of the cars that pull into Watertown, Mass.-based Direct Tire & Auto Service are equipped with TPMS. "It's the bane of my existence," President Barry Steinberg said. "Customers are so upset and confused about it. They didn't want it. The (car) dealer didn't tell them about it."
Mr. Steinberg said his staff hears complaints about TPMS all the time: "Take this thing out!" "I'll know when I have a flat tire." "I've never had a flat in 30 years."
"We have to explain to them it's (against) federal law to disable it," he said. "People are sensitive about spending money."
Customers will even say, "'Old Joe says he can replace (the TPMS sensor) with a regular valve,'" Mr. Steinberg said. "That's what we're dealing with. The public only likes to hear what costs them the least amount of money."
In one case, Mr. Steinberg said his dealership was willing to lose a $3,000 sale because a customer wanted the technician to disable the TPMS rather than pay $150 for bands needed to reconnect the sensors to the new larger tires and wheels he ordered. The dealership eventually was able to convince him to spend the extra money to be in compliance.
The consumer angst also is inflamed by other all-too-common stories, such as a gas station technician who broke a TPMS sensor but refused to replace it or a car dealership that planned to charge a customer $85 to fix a TPMS warning light malfunction. In the latter case, it took Direct Tire's technician about three minutes to correct with a scan tool-and the tire dealership didn't bother charging for the quick fix, Mr. Steinberg said.
Consumer annoyance with TPMS could be abated with education about the system, he said, and that education process needs to start with the car dealerships that sell the TPMS-equipped vehicles.
For Direct Tire's part, the company has signs on the wall of the showroom about TPMS service fees, and the technicians will check a customer's vehicle to verify if it has TPMS before starting to work on it.
"I think our customers feel confident at the end of the day that it's a safety issue. We explain and educate the client about the safety issue and that it's the law," Mr. Steinberg said.
Quality Tire Service Inc. in Spring Grove, Ill., also displays TPMS information posters on its walls and hands out brochures to educate its customers. It also has compiled a library of information on resetting and fixing the various systems. The one-outlet dealership handles about two or three TPMS jobs a day and has built a reputation as being the "go to" place for TPMS service in its rural market because no one else in the area will work on them, according to owner John Jindra Jr.
He said many customers don't realize they have TPMS until the warning light comes on. He also hears customers' claims that other tire shops offer to disable the system. "They're not even aware it's a government mandate," he said.
"If you teach people that you have the knowledge to repair (the systems) and they know you are up on these cars.they'll get comfortable with you," he added.

 

Oh my, the sky is falling. First of all, I live in Canada. MyOutlander is a 2007 and TPMS is NOT mandated. I also plan on having a dedicated set of winter wheels/tires for it. I don't plan on shelling out and hour of shop labor time in the spring and fall to have the dealer reinitialize for the new wheels. I will have it disabled.

 

Hurts the eyes in that font I will change it and read that later.

 

Sounds like it is creating more hassle than intended. I guess safety features do that though. I am too young, but weren't people complaining when seatbelts became mandated? It is just new and will blow over. I know when I was looking at rims/tires at tirerack.com it told me right away I would need a new sensor for the new set.

 

So we should remove a safety feature because tire changers don't like to work with them? Do people REALLY hate it?

Personally, I like it. If I'm on the highway and get a puncture...I can slow down and maybe even catch a service station before I'm totally flat.

But this is no substitution for checking your tire pressures..I think they only show a warming if you're under 22 psi. You're wasting gas and tire life if you're running less than what is specified on the door sticker

 

That is my point with the post. What you aren't told is just how low the governent has allowed the pressure to go before warning you. It is further than it should be. They also were allowing automakers to use passive systems that utilized the ABS brake data. Some of the manufacturers figured out that they were already monitoring wheel revolutions with the ABS sensors and wrote algoritihms to detect differences in wheel rotation speed and back figure what tire pressure differences must be. That assumes that low pressure causes the difference and also doesn't work when all of you tires are low by a similar amount. The system can lead to a false sense of security. The direct monitoring systems like on our Outlanders are good, but will be a pain to deal with when buying tires and wheels until all tire and wheel dealers become knowledgible about them. Yet another law enacted with good intent but is not being implemented in the spirit in which it was created.

 

You are right it was bad. I changed it.