"However, even the most prudent of us forgets to pull out the tire gauge every 30 days. "

In the digital age, there is little excuse for still forgetting things. Set up a recurring reminder on your PC or PDA and make the device tell YOU when it's time to check the tires (or anything, for that matter). As a bonus, this will free up your brain for more important things.

I'm pretty forgetful, but a creature of habit.

Check your tires every time you fill up, it's overkill checking it that often for most people, but better than doing it once a year!

BAD idea to check at fillup. Reason being that tires are hot, and pressure is inaccurate. Always check pressure when tires are cold. And always run 2-4 PSI ABOVE manufactures rating, unless this comes too close to actual tire max, which is printed on the tire.

My 2007 Prius already has this feature. Pretty cool.

Just a technical note - if this system is the same as I have, it's basically a side-effect of the electronics for your ABS, traction control etc. Your car already knows how fast each wheel is turning; if there's an ongoing difference between your two front wheels (i.e. not just because you're going round a corner) it must be because one is smaller than the other, hence you're likely to have a flat.

The downside of this is that it doesn't tell you when your tires are underinflated, just when one is different to the other. Theoretically you could run on the rims and it not show up, if you'd calibrated it for that.

It’s easy to check your tire pressure and brakes from brakes canada before you drive a mile, but what if the gas station where you fill up is more than a mile away and by the time you get there, your tires are warm? I don’t have a way of filling my tires at home. Can tires be accurately inflated even if they’re warm?

I don't know...I suppose it will be ok but what I imagine is people driving around in their oversize vehicles thinking they are doing all they can for the environment by having something that checks their tire pressure.
Just suck it up and drive less, drive lighter smaller cars and you will make a difference.
Sorry, this seems like just more junk to me.

Mike

Not that I know of.

Just buy one of those 12volt lighter socket powered pumps for $20.

The maintenance reminder is a good one, I keep a simple spreadsheet of todo's which don't need to be done right away when a reminder pops up so I got tired of snoozing all those reminders. Moving to a spreadsheet of things that I should do monthly with one reminder to check my sheet made it a little easier. Check the tire pressue, check the lights, washer fluid, etc, vaccume the carpet, etc.
Now the flip side is I don't like having stuff like this mandated. knowing how (in)accurate some of these cheap sensors can be you could have differences between the tires, then when you buy new tires and the guys at the tires place break one or 10 years down the road one quits working and you can't find a replacement, etc. I prefer to keep vehilces for many years and not give in to the consumerism that says I have to buy a new one every three so I prefer more base models with less things that might need fixed down the road. I'd much rather they include a tire gauge in the glove box than some expensive system.
I can say that it does make a difference. I didn't realize buy the last time I bought a vehicle the tires were low and I was going by the door sticker and one day noticed the tires themselves called for much more pressure than the original ones that matches the door sticker. upping the air pressure to the correct amount upped my average mpg by 1.

I've always thought you check them warm. My dad's 2001 vette had this. It was even better since it told you the pressure of each tire.

let's save the planet :

my 2006 TOYOTA Tacoma only at 20 000 miles already got 2 of those expensives sensors changed under warranty.

technology is not a cure to imbecility.

this is the result of Ford asking Firestone to put car tires on the explorer truck; killing people there after.

as soon as the truck is out or warranty, I will bypass that monitoring system and keep monitoring them myself instead of paying a lot of money to change sensors.

No, Jilty, checking while warm is a bad metric because how hot the tires are at the time is always variable. Were you just on the highway doing 70 before you checked? Were you just on back roads doing 40 before you checked? Were you just in city stop-light/stop sign, accelerate/brake, before you checked?

All these variables play into the temp of your tires.

Ultimate best way to deal with this is to check while cold, then fill with Nitrogen. This is becoming more common. Nitrogen does not expand/contract with temp, so more even tire pressure across temp ranges is attained.

kurtdaniel: "Can tires be accurately inflated even if they’re warm?"

Accurately? Not at first. If you fill your tires when they are warm when they cool down the tire pressure is going to decrease. With a bit of practice though, filling them up at the gas station then checking them the next morning to release any overpressure, a person will quickly be able to gauge how much to add each fill up.

For safety's sake please remember to never fill your tires above the amount posted on its side wall. But when filling a warm tire you may want to go a pound or two above your car manufacturers specification (usually found on the driver side door pillar)

I my tires daily.Then again i am a truck driver.

I my tires daily.Then again i am a truck driver.

I love this feature of my '06 Passat. My wife thinks it's odd that I have to inflate my tires so often, though. Any time there's a significant shift in temperature, the TPMS light goes off. I'd say that I have to inflate the tires once every 2 months. Not bad, though. Way better than (a) driving with low tires or (b) having to remember to check tire pressure.

Yay! More crap in cars to make them more expensive!