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Got a low pressure warning on my rr tire today. The warning fluctuated between -6 and -2 once the tire heated up. However the TPMS indicates pretty much the same pressure on all tires as I've been running for the past few weeks.
I stopped for air and verified the TPMS was reading the same as my digital hand gauge for each tire. So I went to add a couple lbs all around, but I couldn't get the rr to go above 35. Basically I could hear almost no air going into the tire. It was 34.5 when I started. The other tires took as much air as I wanted, and I could hear the normal hiss filling them up, so I know the air pump was working fine.
Any thoughts on what this might be? Bad valve stem? Bad TPMS sensor? Tire is visibly fine, and the ride seems normal. Never had a car with TPMS so I'm in unfamiliar territory. I've had this less than 2 months so this is the first time I've attempted to put air in the tires.
Get a quality, "dial" style analog reader. I have something like this. And check the PSI against the car's reading. If air is not going in it may be the valve stem. Take it to a local tire shop and see what they say. Otherwise don't worry about nitrogen. In fact I fill my tires with nitrogen as well for FREE...in fact I even breathe nitrogen all the time as well!
Before you go tearing into expensive sensors, eliminate the simplest and least expensive things first - replace the valve core in the tire. Then see if it takes air after that. Valve core should be 50 cents or less, although you will need a valve core remover, which should only be a couple Dollars.
Start small and simple, then work your way up to the more complex and expensive stuff. That's a very fundamental part of doing a basic diagnosis.
If you verified the tpms manually and can't inflate it, it sounds like its probably a valve stem issue.
Don't buy the nitrogen hype, if your not driving up 30,000 ft or racing, or something else that might see drastic temperature differences it's a waste of money.
I've had TMPS on two cars now and I don't find it particularly useful.
If a tire looks low.....I put air in it and check the pressures all round.....it ain't rocket science!
Mikey
May of today's tires with short and stiffer sidewalls won't "look low" until they are very low. A car designed to run at 35 PSI, may not look like low at 24 PSI, but it is. With lower pressures, comes extra heat (because the sidewall flexes more). Too much heat causes a blowout of the tire. That's the basis of the requirements for TPMS in newer cars.
I recommend people don't rely only a visual inspection of tires for the appropriate tire pressure.
Faulty air stration? Or ome of those stations where you set the pressure to a number and it automatically stops?
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