Seriously...TPMS?

[kenmac]

Never had TPMS in nearly 40 years of driving and never needed it, . Now (according to you) I suddenly can not get by without this feature.
I don't get it.

I'm with you. Been driving forever. I can tell when a tire is low. The reason they can't is because someone or some thing does it for them

 

[3930dave]

Never had TPMS in nearly 40 years of driving and never needed it, . Now (according to you) I suddenly can not get by without this feature.
I don't get it.

With the behaviour commonly displayed today, it's often a toss up if people are getting more A) Stupid, or B) Lazy. Mechanic's pregnant wife, Sguy's over-engineered penny fix (meaning the boyfriend, to be clear).... we could go on all night I'm sure.

Sad to say (seriously), but unfortunately many of these Safety enhancements are actually Enabling the enhanced levels of Stupidity and Laziness displayed today.

They got it eventually, but GM's early ABS light truck systems were ridiculous - everybody agreed that the trucks all stopped better once the ABS control self-faulted Off. Audi used to (at least outside of the USA) have a switchable (as in Off) ABS system - for the situations where ABS didn't perform as well.

Point being - blind faith in anything can be problematic - Safety technologies included. If I had $10 for every 4wd/awd vehicle I've seen 50+ yards off into a field, next to our high speed highways, I'd own a really nice small country by now.

Rgds, D.

 

[ruffdog]

LOL :duh:

 

[GManBart]

That's right. And the idiot lights have made it worse. What did people do B-4 TPMS. ? They checked their tires B-4 they left if they had a flat and had it changed. No big deal. Can't change a flat. pay for road side assistance. It will be cheaper than repairing TPMS when something goes wrong

The lights have made it worse? Not even close. Before TPMS there were more cars on the road with under inflated tires...plain and simple. Seeing people on the side of the road with "blow outs", and flats, used to be far more common than it is now, and a part of that is TPMS. Sure, tires are probably better, but the average car is heavier today than it was 30 years ago (yes, they really are), so they need to be, and the speed limits are as high as they have ever been....most of the highway I drive to work is all 70mph zones, and that's common. Smart people see the light come on, and do something about it. In the past, they drove until the tire was ruined, or worse. Stupid people there really isn't a fix for.

Checking the tires before you leave does nothing to help the common situations where you pick up debris while you're driving....nothing at all.

 

[GManBart]

O sure, got any data to show that TPMS saved xxxx amount of lives ??? Look I don't have a problem with people that want all the bells and whistles so they don't even have to drive their car. Just don't make me pay for it if I don't want it

The NHTSA report I linked earlier gave their stats. I think they said around 33K accidents annually are caused by under inflated tires, and those led to around 600 fatalities. I guess it would only help if you're one of those 600 or so who might have benefited from a system telling the driver that something was wrong in advance of it become a bigger problem.

 

[GManBart]

Never had TPMS in nearly 40 years of driving and never needed it, . Now (according to you) I suddenly can not get by without this feature.
I don't get it.

You've never gotten a screw or nail in your tire that you didn't notice until later? If so, you're really, really lucky.

When I was still living in Montana I went hunting by myself one day, because all of my buddies were working. I parked the truck on a gravel road cutout, and spent the day. I got back to find my left rear tire flat, and the truck was parked in a foot of snow. It took me at least an hour to shovel out under the truck to get the spare, and to get the jack under it....it was a royal PITA, and in that part of the country, can turn into something dangerous pretty quickly. There was a sheet metal screw in the tire. If I had a TPMS system I would have likely known long before I parked that something was wrong.

I've already mentioned something similar happening last year with my work car...driving along, bingo, the light comes on. I stopped, and found a rear tire with a nail in it, and the tire was down to 29psi. I was able to top it off at a nearby station, and drive a little slower the rest of the way to our garage to get it fixed.

This stuff isn't a coincidence, it happens ALL the time, to many people.

 

[GManBart]

I'm with you. Been driving forever. I can tell when a tire is low. The reason they can't is because someone or some thing does it for them

No, you can tell when it's REALLY low, which is too late. Would you be willing to bet me $1000 cash a try that you could tell whether one of your tires was say 4-5lbs lower than the other three? That's what we're talking about...alerting you that the tire is STARTING to lose pressure, not when it's so bad you can feel it by the way the car is driving.

If you want to take the challenge, that's cool....I can use some extra money to help with my barn project!

 

[ruffdog]

I wonder if that $70 tool is an electromagnet? I was thinking about making one for myself (9volt battery, a switch, some wire and a big nail) and trying it. If it works, I could add a nice plastic package and Tx LED and low battery warning LED and sell mine for $50.

Someone with the tool might want to see if it is a magnet (does it stick to steel wheel when button pushed?)...

No, it does not stick to a steel wheel when activated.

 

[xtn]

What's to keep the idiot that doesn't want TPMS, or ignores the warning light, from crashing into someone's car and killing THEM? TPMS is to protect EVERYONE out there from the idiots. You CAN'T fix STUPID.

Oh yes you can. Stop mandating protective measures for the idiots. Sure, some innocent smart people will be killed along the way. But STUPID will be fixed.

 

[xtn]

I like to have the control over my brakes to get a better feel for how slippery the roads are in the winter, antilock brakes take much of that feel away IMO and I don't like them

What? They only take feel away beyond the slipping threshold. And you can still recognize that by when it kicks in. It doesn't take any feel away below that threshold.