Can TPMS be turned off?

Pete. (l33t FS) said:

02Pilot said:

Not that it helps, but I was very pleased to see that my GF's Mazda 3 (MY 2017) has a button to turn it off. Very useful for when the snow tires are mounted.

That doesn't turn the system off, it just resets the indirect system so that it can learn the new tire dimensions.

Thanks for the clarification. I know my BMW has an indirect system as well (RDS or something like that in BMW-speak), but without the TPMS sensors the dash light will come on. In the Mazda, no TPMS sensors in the snow tires, and no dash light with the button pushed.

I agree that it sounds like it's working as it should.  So I don't know that you'd want to do this, but I have heard that one solution is to take your tpms sensors, and enclose them in a glued up pcv tube with a shreader valve in it.  Just pump it up to 30psi and put it in the back of the car. 
 

this was a solution for guys tracking their cars with separate sets of wheels so they don't have to constantly relearn tpms sensors in order to drive the car with different wheels. 
 

but again, it sounds like the system is actually working and you might need a touch more air in a tire. 

02Pilot said:

Thanks for the clarification. I know my BMW has an indirect system as well (RDS or something like that in BMW-speak), but without the TPMS sensors the dash light will come on. In the Mazda, no TPMS sensors in the snow tires, and no dash light with the button pushed.

If the BMW has sensors, it's a direct system, not indirect.  Direct systems use sensors to directly read tire pressure, indirect uses wheel speed to detect a low tire. 

Once again, let me suggest that a better solution would have been to include a tire pressure gauge with instructions in the glove compartment of every new car, instead of mandating the complex/expensive/finicky/annoying TPMS. 
 

And as a bonus, it can be easily retrofitted to older vehicles. 

I'm not getting this.

So the factory system that warns you that a tire has dropped below spec pressure warned you and you find that annoying?  I would only be annoyed if it failed to warn me.  Pump the tire up a few pounds and be glad that system is doing it's job properly.  You can reset pressures when it warms up in Spring if you worry about it getting too high then.

And never set your tire pressures using the TPMS as a guide - always use a proper gauge (that cost you more thn $5) for that job. I've seen people yelling at someone sitting behind the wheel "Is it up yet"

rslifkin said:

02Pilot said:

Thanks for the clarification. I know my BMW has an indirect system as well (RDS or something like that in BMW-speak), but without the TPMS sensors the dash light will come on. In the Mazda, no TPMS sensors in the snow tires, and no dash light with the button pushed.

If the BMW has sensors, it's a direct system, not indirect.  Direct systems use sensors to directly read tire pressure, indirect uses wheel speed to detect a low tire. 

It has both. I suspect the TPMS was required for the US market at the time (it's a 2009), while the indirect system was OK for everywhere else. It's possible the RDS is not active in US models, but it's there and is checked for faults when I run my scan tool.

The batteries can go bad on the sensors. They should last for years, but much like anything else, there's always the chance to get a dud.

In reply to bobzilla :

Canadian market Hyundai/Kia don’t have TPMS 

On my FiST, my snow tires don't have tpms sensors.   when I start out ,no light but 15 miles later I get a warning and the light comes on.

A piece of electric tape works great to hide the light..  Been doing this for years on my other cars. 

Take the sensors out, put them in a pressurized tube in the trunk.  Apply pressure until they shut up.  Done.

This thread reminds me when I bought a brand new WRX years back. TPMS light came on around the 50 mile mark. After few trips back to dealer I got told this is just an issue and not come in every time...

As far as the comments your mad because this is system could save you.. so can checking every fluid and component before driving car, low pressure oil light popping on is a too late because you're in berkeleyed situation. 

wspohn said:

I'm not getting this.

So the factory system that warns you that a tire has dropped below spec pressure warned you and you find that annoying?  I would only be annoyed if it failed to warn me.  Pump the tire up a few pounds and be glad that system is doing it's job properly.  

This ...

Some sensors have a motion detector built in. If the sensor isn't moving no reading fault remains. This was done to the art the 4 sensors in a pressurized tube trick. 

My summer tires have no sensors. No problem. I ignore the light and regularly check their pressure with a good dial guage.

On my wife's smart I made a little vinyl sticker that covers the light. Hasn't had sensors in years. Smart wants something like $75 bucks per. A good guage is cheaper.

No sensors to have dead batteries or need replacement or get damaged during a tire swap.  And no need to suffer the light or buy extra sensors when swapping wheels too. 

They also won't warn you when all four tires are low due to ambient temps because... they can't detect it. Hooray! 

I just recently found out my wife's aunt received like 3 million dollars for the privilege of sitting in a hospital for a year after being ejected from a Ford Explorer that rolled after an underinflated Firestone tire failed.  I dont know her, but I know why we have TPMS laws. 

Brett_Murphy (Ex-Patrón) said:

The batteries can go bad on the sensors. They should last for years, but much like anything else, there's always the chance to get a dud.

The sensors are supposed to last only four years, at which point the tires really should be replaced anyway.  That they manage to last 10-12 years is, frankly, amazing.

Stefan (Forum Supporter) said:

Take the sensors out, put them in a pressurized tube in the trunk.  Apply pressure until they shut up.  Done.

They need to see centrifugal force to wake up and start transmitting.  So you'd need to mount the pressurized tube to one of the wheels or something.  It'd probably be easiest to mount the sensors inside a wheel, where there is already air pressure, and there is a convenient hole in the rim for mounting.

Vigo (Forum Supporter) said:

No sensors to have dead batteries or need replacement or get damaged during a tire swap.  And no need to suffer the light or buy extra sensors when swapping wheels too. 

They also won't worn you when all four tires are low due to ambient temps because... they can't detect it. Hooray! 

 

I just recently found out my wife's aunt received like 3 million dollars for the privilege of sitting in a hospital for a year after being ejected from a Ford Explorer that rolled after an underinflated tire failed.  

That's unfortunate, but here's the thing: had Exploders had TPMS in them then they would have been programmed to accept the low pressure as normal cause that's what Ford suggested for correct pressure despite Firestone's objections. So TPMS was nothing more than a knee jerk reaction to cover Ford's bad recommendations. 

bobzilla said:

In reply to jharry3 :

Actually the airbags aren't intended to replace seatbelts. They're just to supplement them. 

That isn't how they were sold to regulators in the 80s.  They were supposed to protect an unbuckled male of some high percentile of size.  That is why they were blowing the heads off of children and shorter adults.

The idea that "oh, maybe they should be supplemental after all, instead of a protection for people too lazy to wear seatbelts" came after that, and the specification for airbag power was reduced. 

I guess it wasn't politically palatable to assume unbuckled people in collisions were suicides, and treat them as DNRs and focus on the people who were buckled in.

That's unfortunate, but here's the thing: had Exploders had TPMS in them then they would have been programmed to accept the low pressure as normal cause that's what Ford suggested for correct pressure despite Firestone's objections. So TPMS was nothing more than a knee jerk reaction to cover Ford's bad recommendations. 

Sure, but it's extremely unlikely that the low pressure spec would have been used if any party had been aware of the sheer weight of the E36 M3storm they were bringing upon themselves. So yes, while at some point there had to be an explosive reaction to some company trying to fudge ride quality by trading away safety margin in a pressure spec, that doesn't mean that a TPMS system wouldn't help avert some of the most dangerous consequences of low tire pressure from that point onward because a pressure spec like that will never be attempted again.  

Vigo (Forum Supporter) said:

That's unfortunate, but here's the thing: had Exploders had TPMS in them then they would have been programmed to accept the low pressure as normal cause that's what Ford suggested for correct pressure despite Firestone's objections. So TPMS was nothing more than a knee jerk reaction to cover Ford's bad recommendations. 

Sure, but it's extremely unlikely that the low pressure spec would have been used if any party had been aware of the sheer weight of the E36 M3storm they were bringing upon themselves. So yes, while at some point there had to be an explosive reaction to some company trying to fudge ride quality by giving away safety margin in a pressure spec, that doesn't mean that a TPMS system wouldn't help avert some of the most dangerous consequences of low tire pressure from that point onward because a pressure spec like that will never be attempted again.  

They're building SUVs on car chassis now, so it is unlikely that in the future they will need to specify 26psi as the recommended tire pressure to ensure the thing slides instead of high-sides because of a high roll centered twin I-beam suspension.

The amusing thing, in a "history doesn't repeat but it does rhyme" sort of way, is that Ralph Nader got a name thanks to the Corvair, which had a similarly crappy suspension design at the time as far as roll center height/motion was concerned, and the automaker wallpapered over the problems with amazingly low tire pressures to compensate (18psi, IIRC), and the cars were found to have dangerous handling characteristics when those pressure recommendations were ignored.  (Yes, I've actually read "Unsafe at Any Speed".  It was pretty interesting.  The 'Vair was only one chapter, there was another chapter about Buicks with power brake boosters that would fail when subjected to fuel vapors from the vacuum hose.  Think about that one for a moment)

Ralph Nader is a hero, and many people who don't believe that are, perhaps totally coincidentally, critical of many safety regulations.  Hard to know how many of them gained their privilege to dissent by them or their parents unknowingly surviving something they otherwise wouldn't have (even if it was a literal near-miss) because of standards like those he championed.   TPMS is annoying at times, but considering that it usually does nothing except light a light, the oldest warning light trick in the book (physically disable the light) still works and that's a damn sight better than things like 'undefeatable' trac/stability control that are so interconnected it's just not practical in a lot of cases to do anything about it.  At least if you want to underinflate your tires you can still go physically let air out of them. 

In reply to Vigo (Forum Supporter) :

Oh, I make no comment for or against, just interesting.  What is also interesting is the book was written in the pre-1968 days of non-collapsible steering columns, single circuit master cylinders, plate glass windows that turn to shards when broken, switchgear on the dash that would stab you when you hit it, and you WOULD hit it because your car didn't have seat belts, and if they did it was lap only...  In that context, it was actually kind of amazing.

We're almost sixty years later, and the consumer climate has changed quite a bit.  Reminds me of a whine letter that someone wrote to C&D about their new (whatever) that was chock full of mandatory nannies like ABS, stability control, rear camera, TPMS, lane guidance, proximity sensors, door-open interlocks, etc.   "Ed." merely replied that the only thing on the list of complaints that was mandatory was TPMS, everything else was a feature the automaker put there because that is what they felt consumers wanted in a new car.

Vigo (Forum Supporter) said:

No sensors to have dead batteries or need replacement or get damaged during a tire swap.  And no need to suffer the light or buy extra sensors when swapping wheels too. 

They also won't warn you when all four tires are low due to ambient temps because... they can't detect it. Hooray!

The newer ones typically will.  That's why they've got the re-learn button, as if you change tires or tire pressure, it'll think all 4 are off.  Not quite sure how it works, but my assumption is that the car knows its gearing, so if the engine RPM to sensed road speed ratio changed, tire rolling diameter must have changed. 

This is my problem: The garage is 48*. Tires were ar 32-ish (gauge is decent but dasj marks are small and I"m not young). Outside air temp was 6. She drove to the Y, spent two hours in there, came out and the light comes on as she drives away because the tires saw a 40* swing in less than a half hour. While they were in motion not such a big deal, they still create some heat on dry pavement, even in the cold. But 4* is enough to kick the light. 

The tires are 205/45-17 90V rated tires with the heavy duty rated sidewall on a car that weighs 2500 lbs. 28 psi is not going to be an issue on THOSE tires on THAT car even in the summer. What I'm saying is the sensors are a bit .... umm.... hyper sensitive. The dash light is just a dummy "TPMS" light with no details. It could mean the tires has fallen off the rim or we saw a 40* drop in 20 minutes. That just makes the wifes anxiety levels rise (and being a teacher in the current environment she's already at 11 on a 5 point scale) for no real reason. I already check oil anf pressures on her car about every other week as it is (normally, she's on a 3 week break, Dr prescribed) because of the miles she drives. I'd just like to remove some anxiety from her day to day life due to the fact we live in Indiana. Temp swings can be 40* difference in a day and swing back the following day. Hypersensitive TPMS sensors do not benefit us.

rslifkin said:

Vigo (Forum Supporter) said:

No sensors to have dead batteries or need replacement or get damaged during a tire swap.  And no need to suffer the light or buy extra sensors when swapping wheels too. 

They also won't warn you when all four tires are low due to ambient temps because... they can't detect it. Hooray!

The newer ones typically will.  That's why they've got the re-learn button, as if you change tires or tire pressure, it'll think all 4 are off.  Not quite sure how it works, but my assumption is that the car knows its gearing, so if the engine RPM to sensed road speed ratio changed, tire rolling diameter must have changed. 

It only knows road speed by wheel RPM, so that isn't it.

Mr. Tanner found that NDs are able to determine rolling radiuses by comparing left to right wheel speed differences vs. the steering angle input.  The ratio of left to right doesn't change with a larger or smaller tire radius, but the measured speed difference does (I may have that reversed) so it is able to calculate the actual rolling radius of each tire, so it can determine if all four tires are equally low.  Kind of neat.