Wireless tyre pressure monitoring?

[Roger Mills]

Does anyone out there have any experience of wireless tyre pressure monitoring devices - the sort which have special valves containing a sensor, and a central display with LEDs and a bleeper and report status?

Yesterday, I wrote off an otherwise perfectly good 225/45x17 tyre because I had apparently been driving it flat for a while without noticing.

In days of yore I could always tell by the seat of my pants if a tyre was a bit flat. But many modern cars are grossly over-tyred, with very wide low profile tyres which *look* flat when they're not, and don't really *feel* any different when they are.

At £100 a throw, you don't have to write off too many tyres before a monitoring system would be cheaper.

Any comments or recommendations?

TIA.

[Brimstone]

How about manuall checking your tyre pressures weekly, at the same time as you make all your other routine checks?

You do make routine checks don't you?

[NOSPAMnet]

Must be "very" low profile if you can't tell the difference when it's flat .

[Conor]

Don't be daft.

[Mike P]

Check the pressures yourself once a week?

Mike P

[tinnews]

Depends on the car, a flat at the rear of a 'proper' Citroën with LHM suspension is really quite difficult to detect unless/until you take some corners fast.

[Mike P]

Yes, when I had a flat on my Xantia, on the motorway at maybe slightly more than 70, I didn't notice until I smelt burning rubber :-) I'm old enough to remember the Citroen GS ad where they blew a tyre out when it was in between two trucks at speed :-)

Mike P

[Rod]

Some of the 'check it' comments might be applicable to the OP (and to me!) - after all, he says he drove for a while in that state. But such checking really doesn't address the journey on which the problem starts to manifest itself.

There are a great many multi-axle and multi-wheel-per-axle vehicles - I don't have the experience, but I can't believe a low tyre would be that obvious.

I think that pressure sensors (of whatever sort are implemented) are potentially a major contribution to road safety. (Hmmm, now where did I here that before?)

[Rod]

Blooming spelling checkers - please correct my typing *then* my spelling

- of course that should be 'hear'!

[M............]

Following up to Mike P

tyres dont always wait a week to go soft and a soft tyre doesnt notice on a modern car till probably too late to save it. How about treating the query as other than an opportunity for sarcasm, everyone.

[Mike P]

Every modern car I've driven, bar the Xantia, I find it easy to tell when a tyre is soft. Up until recently, over the last 15 years or so I've always had access to, and used company pool cars. They don't get looked after as they should do and within a couple of miles I can tell whether the tyres are soft or not. I seemed to be the only one who bothered to ever check the tyres and oil between services in them

Mike P

[dennis]

That's the easy option, centrifugal force keeps the tyre round even without the air when you are driving fast. It would have been fun to see them do it on a curved bit.

[Roger Mills]

Yes, I do make frequent visual checks - and occasional checks with a pressure gauge (plus under-bonnet checks), but - as others have pointed out - if you pick up a nail and a tyre starts to deflate while on a journey, weekly checks ain't going to help.

Do you have anything *useful* to contribute?

[Mike G]

Unfortunately routine checks don't cover all eventualities. Does anyone visually check all 4 tyres every time they use their car?

I can sympathise with the OP as I wrote off a 255x40x17 tyre in a similar way. At low speeds, on a straight road, it's very difficult to detect a flat low profile rear tyre.

In my case it was the n/s rear tyre. Fine in the morning. Jumped in and drove about 300 yds straight up the road on my way home. Realised something was not quite right, so stopped and found the flat tyre. Changed it for the spare, but the damage was done. With the weight of the car on the fold in the tyre, the carcass had started to delaminate.

The only consolation, if you can call it that, is that the tyre would have been scrap anyway, as a the puncture which had caused it to deflate during the day was an unrepairable one on the shoulder.

I checked and decided against the option of tyre monitors. Aftermarket ones rely on wireless dust caps, which are too easily nicked. I just check the tyres a bit more frequently than I did before. Mike.

[Mike G]

A couple of miles! A low profile tyre can be ruined in a few hundred yards, as I found out for myself just over a year ago.

I seemed to be the only one who bothered to ever check the

Don't kid yourself. I keep a close eye on tyre pressures. Checking at least once a week, and on a run would expect to detect a loss of as little as 2-3 lbs, simply from how the car handles. However it can be difficult to detect a flat low profile tyre at low speeds. Mike.

[Mike P]

Yes, if it's "soft" if it's flat then much quicker.

I wasn't inferring that no one else does, I just meant the other users of the pool cars I used to use.

I don't see how it can be with the amount of uneven surfaces and holes that will make it obvious something isn't right ;-)

Mike P

[Mike G]

I only drove about 300 yds at a fairly low speed.. A flat concrete road on the trading estate where I work, which was enough to start delaminating a 255x40x17 tyre.

Because it was low profile, the rim of the wheel was running on the fold of the tyre.

With a normal size flat tyre the fold is clear of the rim. The fold is less severe, and not having the weight of the car on it, is more likely to survive for a short period without damage. Mike.

[John]

As an aside, have you ever told another driver that one of their tyres looks soft. I have and it is normally met with apathy of abuse. Yesterday I told a young woman and at least she giggled.

I just cannot image how badly some cars must handle with a soft tyre.

Soft tyres and failed brake lights seem to be ignored by many.

[Adrian]

"Mike G" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Nothing to do with the profile of the tyre - if the tyre's flat, that's how the weight on that corner is always going to be borne. Unless, of course, your car has so little suspension travel that the difference in sidewall height between a 40 and a 60 profile tyre is significant...

No tyre will stand up to that. They're just not designed to, even run- flats will be damaged beyond repair.

You may have a point with the "fold is less severe" - but the weight WILL still be being borne by the rim on the folded sidewall.

[Rod]

Yes. It is. They do. They are. :-)

Sometimes the difference in shape would be obvious to someone walking past the vehicle.

Soemwhat frightening when you see them that bad at 90+ on a busy motorway.