TPMS Story

1431 Views 6 Replies 7 Participants Last post by raylo32, May 1, 2009

prae

Discussion Starter · Apr 30, 2009 (Edited)

For all the bitching I read here on TN about the TPMS system on Tacos and otherwise, I was surprised at my personal experience with it.

Less than a week into owning my new-to-me Taco, I started it up one morning was was greeted by an alien looking orange U with a ! in the middle of it. "WTF!?" I thought, I've never seen a symbol like that before. Since no owner's manual was provided with the truck, I shut it off and went inside to google "toyota dash symbols"... 20 mins of searching later I had educated myself of TPMS and how to reset it... Reset it I did, and the TPMS lamp blinked three times and went out. "Hrmph, sh*tty TPMS really is as bad as they say" I thought, "I can't believe I was late for work over nothing".

The next morning, the TPMS lamp cheerily greeted me once again. This morning was equally as brisk so again I chalked it up to the hyperactive TPMS that I'd read all about on TN. This time, the system would not reset! Gahhh, this is going to drive me crazy! I am disabling the damned thing when I get home tonight...

Call me crazy, but for some reason I actually checked my tire pressure, :lol: it turned out one was running ~20PSI! Turns out there was TWO nails in the tire. Yikes, I could have lost a bead on the freeway... They all appeared fine visually... I would not have noticed the leak until the tire was WAY low.

I'm now a TPMS believer, it probably saved my butt!

Perhaps the craziest part of the whole story? I forked out $30 to repair the flat on the stock Dunslop tire repaired!!!

ibtl;dr

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badass03taco

· #2 · Apr 30, 2009

everybody talks bad about the TPMS sensors cause most guys put aftermarket wheels on and dont swap the sensors and get the dummy light. on a stock vehicle, the TPMS sensors will notify you if the tire is more than 20% out of threshold. this can save your tire in many instances. if you had a slow leak and it went un noticed for several weeks, you can severely wear a tire out running it low for a few weeks. by having the sensors and dummy light in the dash, you are notified if any tire is low.

i personally love mine, i have never had a low tire, or ever seen my dummy light come on, but having the peace of mind knowing i have 4 little aliens inside my wheel that do nothing but monitor my tire pressure gives me peace of mind. i went ahead and bought an extra set of sensors in case i ever do buy another set of wheels or if the local tire shop breaks one when mounting new tires, because that seems to be the problem most folks see.

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el_smurfo

· #3 · Apr 30, 2009

Saved my butt in the Nevada desert once too. Not a big fan of nannyware, but the TPMS is at least useful (don't get me started on the crash data recorder though)...

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Memphis

· #4 · Apr 30, 2009

A year from now when it comes on and all 4 of your tires have the perfect amount of air pressure in them, the reason will be that your pressure will be low in your spare. Air it up and the dreaded !-in-the-U will go away.

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Larzzzz

· #5 · Apr 30, 2009

el_smurfo said:
.....(don't get me started on the crash data recorder though)...

<<<turns key and it's a cranking......

Let's hear it on a new thread

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eccracer104

· #6 · Apr 30, 2009

I swapped mine over to my after market rims. Never had an issue with the TPMS. I too enjoy having the peace of mind that if I am not paying attention and let my tires go low, I get a warning to air up!

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raylo32

· #7 · May 1, 2009

Yes, but.... I am on a business trip and have a Chevy Malibu rental. It has a little led info display under the speedo that you can scroll through odo, trip A odo, trip B odo, oil life %, and LF/RF tire PRESSURE, and LR/RR tire PRESSURE, in addition to having low pressure warning. Actual tire pressure... what a concept. I mean I love my Tacoma, but Chevy does this a lot better.

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