TPMS experience - mine not good

Sorry to say Richard, but from my VERY limited experience with "Technology & Electronic gagdetry" - all of which I wished I had not wasted money on, I would say that such are like fishing lures in that they were designed to "catch the fisherman". My technology is stop after first 100k and do a rig check, tyre temp check, hub or bearing temp check and then each 1.5 - 2 hrs at most another break and check as above.
That way we get a good idea of how everything is travelling and we catch even the slow pin hole leaks before they get too flat and go kaboom!
Now we shall see all the Teknos get on the band wagon! :-)
Cheers - Mobi

Condo,
Unfortunately I like gadgets and do get burnt often. I think the idea of these are good but they have to be reliable.

However the what is reliable is the approach you have described.

All the best,
Richard

"Tyredog"brand. First set lasted 700 km before each sensor successively died. New unit replaced under warranty and lasted 800km before two sensors died, a third worked erratically and the fourth gave readings up to 10 psi in error. This set has been back with the Adelaide distributor for over a month now am
nd are procrasting over replacing them.

With my set I can get them to register but after a bit of travel
they lose the connection to the sensors.

I have contacted the place I bought them from and am waiting on a response. I just emailed them late yesterday so will give them time.

It was a bit disappointing that they did not work as supposed to cause I like the idea.



Richard

I am glad you made this post . I was not aware these gadgets had such problems .

Some time in the future I hope that one of the brands comes out with a good quality set that will cover the 4 wheels on my car plus the four wheels on my van .

Good luck Rick ,

Willie .

G'day Richard

I have owned the new 6 sensor version of the TyreDog TPMS for about 5 weeks now. I'm only using 4 of the sensors and I intend to use the 2 extra sensors when towing our off-road van.

I had a lot of issues in the first week with getting the sensors to register in a reasonable time. I was using the cigarette lighter as the power source which was via the ignition switch and this cut off power to the unit each time I stopped the engine. After reading the manual I found the unit was supposed to be left on all the time. Since then I have used the battery source (I'm too lazy so far to wire the cig lighter into the battery direct) and I have not had any issues at all since doing that.

The pressure accuracy seems reasonable to me (I'm sceptical of the temperature accuracy) and I have unscrewed a sensor and it does go into alarm. I'm more interested in having something to warn me when travelling on dusty, corrrugated roads and the ability to know about a slow leak before I destroy as tyre as I have seen many do.

I find the reply regarding corrugations interesting and agree the battery holder does not seem very robust. I will very interested in seeing how others have found them.

Cheers
PeteS

Richard,

I have also been let down by the tyre monitor.

I have had the unit back 4 times now and the last time the battery holders have broken away.

I have worked out why they are failing. On corrugated roads the rubber tyre valve mover up and down rapidly. The screw on sender unit hits the rim and this has an effect on the sender unit.


Image Could Not Be Found

As you can see in the photo the mark on the rim just below the tyre valve. This is where the sender unit has been hitting.


Wayne

Richard we are currently doing a long term test on a Schraeder brand TPMS and they have proven very reliable. In fact they are now used by Toyota and were launched as an option for the LC200 series. We had been evaluating them for around six months prior to the LC200 coming to Australia.

We have also spent a lot of time looking at any number of TPMS over the last few years and have the view that more expensive is not necessarily better. The unit we have on test is around $150 cheaper than anything else we have seen.

As for differences in readings between your gauge and the monitors that is nothing to get excited about. If you used a different gauge you would have every chance of getting different readings regardless. The key is using the same gauge every time for consistency of readings.

The unit we have is powered by two AA batteries in the head unit and the valve senders are powered in the same way a self winding watch is, by movement. So they go to sleep when stopped and start again when the vehicle starts to move. The batteries, in the head unit, last around a year.

We are firm believers in the value of TPMS. They have saved us several tyres. Rapidly changing temperature is the first sign of a failing tyre NOT a change in pressure. that comes later and generally too late.

Regards

RobA

I bought a set of 4 in June and 2 failed on the CSR trip. The third had broken three of the four little battery mounting legs so it was about to fail. I did not bother opening the fourth one. The whole system was replaced in July 08 at no cost.

They worked OK. I did not expect the temp to be an accurate value of the tyre temp as the ambient temp has a lot of affect and the two tyres on the sunny side of the vehicle will always be hotter.

I bought them to warn me when a tyre has a slow leak so that when on a straight road/track I would not destroy the sidewall before realising that a tyre has a puncture

I did find that all 4 transducers were accurate to 0.5 PSI which impressed me.

Cheers
Pete

Bought 4 x TPMS for my GU Patrol recently.

My reckoning was that one saved tyre would go 3/4 of the way to paying for them, and then I was home free - or nearly. Plus I couldn't resist another toy. The TPMS retail package was cunningly place on the front counter of my service bloke's premises.

Drove from Adelaide to Alice Springs on the black top & thought that batteries in the sender/monitor on two of the 4 tyres was faulty. After hunting high & low in The Alice got a replacement set of the little coin shaped batts. Still got'em as the intermittent faults disappeared.................

Drove through Docker River, north side of the Rawlinsons, Warburton, Heather H'way, Gary H'way, Windy Corner, Talawana Tk, Newman, Pt Hedland, Pilbara, Newman, Wiluna, Gt Vic desert, northern side of the Nullabor, Forrest, Eucla, Adelaide. Carried 5 x passengers + 8 x swags on the roof - back was chocka as well, so a fair load, it could be said.

At about half way, two senders failed. Inspection revealed the soldered brackets retaining the battery had let go on these two valve stem units. As a consequence, power to transmit a pressure signal was not available. Hardly surprising as they are light construction, and the tracks haaddd corrruuugggatttioonsssss! Then ran with just two senders on the rear only - it did not matter that one said "left front".

Got home, took vehicle in for a 10,000 service: complete senders & new in cabin monitor replaced, no questions asked.

Only driven about 1500 km since then on relatively easy (Flinders Ranges) surfaces. All is well.

Yes, it is hard to get each tyre to read as you want on the in cabin monitor - however, no harder than getting a tyre's pressure to be exactly where you want in regular circumstances.

My unit is effectively hard wired, but I have been in the habit of turning it off overnight.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

I've just sold mine as well.... They'd been sitting in the glovebox for the past 6 months or more.

My issues related mainly to the complexity (for me) of re-programming the damn things anytime I aired-up/down etc plus the difficulty _I_ had in trying to drop 2 of them off the menu when I wasn't towing the camper trailer. I stress that this has more to do with ME than the units. I am technologically challenged and even have difficulty programming a modern VCR these days.

Although that was my main issue/s, I also did suffer from false reporting and/or the main unit's inability to read the sensor/s at various times.

In my opinion, these are a great idea which has yet to be perfected.

I will buy another set when the programming can be done more easily. In my mind, you should be able to physically set the tyres to your desired pressures, then jump back in the cab and press a button/s and hold for say 20 seconds during which time the sensors would register the pressure they have in their tyre and hold that in the memory of the main unit. That's what I would call the "setting" mode. From then on, any variance of say 4psi or 10oC would sound an alarm. When you air down for a desert drive or gnarly track, just repeat the 20 second hold-the-button/s proceedure and the unit would do the rest.

Same thing with a trailer....if you ditch the trailer in the garage or leave it at camp while you do a day trip, just do the same thing once you're more than about 30 meters from the trailer. The unit won't "find" the trailer sensors, so will only register the 4 wheels on the 4x4.

Sounds easy to me, but I am relaibaly informed it would take a very special computer chip to be able to do all that at once with 6 or 8 sensors.

Roachie

Hi Richard,
I am close to buying a set and am wondering what brand you have. I had not heard of any problems before.

Can anyone tell me how a sensor screwed to the valve stem can possibly give a remotely useful temperature indication of the sidewall of a tyre, considering that the valve is quite well insulated from the rim, let alone the tyre.

Measuring the pressure is one thing, and I love the idea of measuring the temperature, but can't convince myself that it can be done externally with useful accuracy by these screw-on devises.

Cheers
Peter
www.tinyurl.com/35ra68

Hi,
Before mentioning the brand I want to take it up with the seller first. It is not one of those mentioned above. Unfair if I did and it proves to be my fault or is fixable but from others experiences it looks like a common concern.

If I have not heard back in a couple of days I will let you know.


Richard

Hi there,
the TPMS sound very useful. I have just blown the sidewall on a tyre with a slow leak. I am sure I could have saved the tyre by repairing the puncture if had I known there was a leak. I'm down to one spare at the moment which isn't great given the condition of the roads/tracks in the Pilbara.
Has anyone got a TPMS that they have used for at least 6 months, including lots of work on corrugations/offroad tracks, AND been happy with the results.
If so which brand are you using and where did you get them?
I dont mind having to reprogram them after letting the tyres down etc, I just cant afford to have them break off or stop working part way along the GRR etc.

Cheers

Dan

Hi all

I bought a TPMS - outfit with two extra sensors after corresponding with the agent about my application and vehicle.

Trouble started immediately - intermittent (NOS) no signal sensor alarm every few minutes.

Impossible to know if a sensor was gone or it was signalling a drop in tyre pressure or an increase in temperature. No one sensor involved - all of them were involved at different times.

Two sensors failed on the first dirt stretch - caps came off - dropped batteries.

Contacted agent but no spare parts only complete sensors at $35 each plus post. Thought that was a bit rough but wanted keep the system going and paid for another two. Agent suggested that caps needed to be fixed on with silicone rubber - followed this advice to no avail.

Next stretch of dirt saw three sensors drop their caps and batteries.

Corresponded with agent by email - gave full feedback - apart from sending two emails to China and being told by the makers that the sensors had been discontinued because of poor design and light construction agent provided every assistance short of actual help - or replacement.

I would suggest on my poor experience with the product and unresponsive agent that TPMS be avoided.


Hope this helps

Thanks Richard/Teapot,
what brands were you using? I have heard a lot of bad news about the tyredog brand but very little about any other brand. I am hoping that there is a brand that is reliable. Any brand specific feedback would be great.

Thanks

Dan

I have the Jette 400c from ABR Sidewinder (6 senders). Only a couple of months old but 5000k over some very ordinary roads in that time. No problems at all & have twice given useful (minor) warnings. So far so good & very happy at this stage.
.......... Alan

Mine still not good.

The previous post indicated that their experience with the Jet400c from ABR was working well so as I have the exact same set up I thought I would give it another go.

tjis is what I did
I tested each of the 6 batteries in the sensors and confirmed that all were at at least 2.9v.
I recharged the console/monitor
I deleted the old tyre definitions from the console and reset them
I used a different pressure gauge to check pressures and theye were fairly close to the values displayed
All looked OK.

I left the monitor on and the next day it still showed the settings, so still OK.

I went for a short drive on the bitumen, so no stress and as with the previous experience I started getting sensor alerts again and - in other words same as before they did not work. I have not heard back from the seller yet but will give them another go as they do have a good reputation for after sale service.

One thing that may be worth mentioning and I am not sure if significant. I have removed the lock nuts that come with the senors. They are a real pain undoing and doing up. I can't see why that would make a difference but who knows with this product.


Richard