Honestly, I hate TPMS.
1) The batteries in my four are all dying/dead, so I get the error light on my dashboard constantly. They're not cheap things to replace, and I think they even added to the mounting cost for tires.
2) The car only remembers four, I want eight to have two sets of tires. Otherwise, it'll need reprogramming each time ($$), or spend an entire season with the light on.
You have a *horrible* implementation of TPMS in your vehicle then. There are various ways of making batteryless sensors (you have the motion to charge them, or they can be charged via induction), and you seem to have one of the cars that instead of just accepting the sensor that is located in the correct spot (the range on these is tiny), they have keyed it to a serial number/other ID.
Those are totally faults of your car manufacturer, and not the technology.
I didn't know there were any sensors that did not use batteries.
When the tires look low.
Otherwise, it's pretty much always been what I expect it to be..
I have a pretty good eye for seeing when a tire looks low though. Can tell about 5-10lbs below normal, visually.
I check them about once a month. And I agree, that while TPMS systems are nice to have, they do require maintenance. In some cases, the sensor in the wheel gets replaced say every 3rd tire replacement. This is either because they are easily damaged by tire installing machines or as mentioned, the battery dies out. Also, if you decide to run other than factory air pressure, then the sensor needs to be taught what the new proper pressure is. And in some cases, if a tire does go too low and trips the dash indicator, it must be reset after the tire is back to proper pressure. You can thank NHTSA for all this crap, after the fiasco with some pickup trucks blowing tires. NHTSA has mandated this system on all new cars and light trucks.
When the tires look low.
Otherwise, it's pretty much always been what I expect it to be..
I have a pretty good eye for seeing when a tire looks low though. Can tell about 5-10lbs below normal, visually.
My wife's car has a TPMS and I can't tell when one of her tires is 5lbs low. She complains that the light is lit so I go check all 4 and usually find that one of them is in the mid 20psi range but it is impossible to tell by looking at them.
I hate mandated TPMS. If you want TPMS, fine, but don't force me to have it because some moron ran his tires low, had a blowout, and crashed. His stupidity shouldn't make my new car cost more. Same thing with the backup cameras.
Granted, I've never owned a vehicle newer than 2002 (my current one) so it doesn't apply there, but eventually I'll have to deal with it.. I might just yank the bulb in the dash
In VT, a vehicle won't pass its mandatory annual inspection if TPMS isn't working.
I live in Ohio where (except for a couple cities) we don't have any real inspections, so moot point for me
I wonder if there is a way to take the dumb things, permanently set them to report the proper pressure (via soldering a resistor or whatever), then throw them in the glovebox or something
lol the monitoring system sounds like it takes more work than manually checking