Technology strikes again, and if we buy what they are selling, it isn't cheap. TPMS is "Tire Pressure Monitoring System", and what it does is tell the driver that a tire may have less than ideal tire pressure. That's a good thing, except it doesn't tell you which tire and it means you have to use a tire gauge to find out the culprit tire. When the light came on yesterday on our car, we stopped, looked at the tires ( which looked fine), then stopped at a local tire shop to have the pressure checked. I don't believe in paying for air, so I take advantage of the "check your tire pressure for free" offer at most tire shops.
The result was all tires were at the same, and proper, pressure. The technician then brought out a "black box" which he pointed at each tire, and told us the sensor in our left rear wheel was defective because the battery on the sensor had run out of juice. You can't just replace the battery, you have to replace the sensor, and each wheel has a sensor. That means we have the potential of all four sensors needing to be replaced when the batteries run out. Life span on the battery is about 10 years and our car is a 2008. Cost to replace the sensor-$100 per wheel and we can be pretty certain if one failed, the others aren't far behind.
My question to the technician --what happens if we don't replace the sensor? Answer -- the light stays on. And does the sensor have any other function? No, it just tells us the tire pressure is low in one of our tires. And if the sensor breaks, it doesn't do anything, except cost us $100 per replacement. The solution ---- check our tire pressure visually and with a $1.15 tire gauge and if low, stop at a tire shop for the free tire fill-up. Wait a minute, I just remembered, we have a cigarette-lighter-plug-in compressor, so I can fill a low tire, if necessary, unless the cord won't reach. I'm going to check that now. I better find out so I can be emotionally ready to bite the bullet and pay for air, should the situation arise.
Technology has been a blessing to us with the vast amount of information we can access on the road; the ease of making travel plans and medical appointments or reservations at places to spend the night, checking weather, fuel costs and paying our bills on-line, keeping in touch with friends and family with ease, getting directions and finding places to eat. But when technology glitches, or a simple chore becomes an expensive ordeal, it makes us remember the days we traveled from pay phone to pay phone, used paper maps had our tire gauge and free air at the full-service gas stations along the way, and did pretty well.......because we didn't know any better......and had no choice. The times have certainly changed.
Sent from my iPad
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