petem
Senior Member
- Thread starter
- #1
I've seen it said on here several times that the CTR uses indirect tire pressure monitoring for the deflation warning system, via the ABS wheel speed sensor. Also, the manual for the UK car says the same thing, that there is no direct monitoring of tire pressure but instead the wheel rotation speed is monitored. So far so good.
However, today my 19" wheels and winter tires were ready, and when the local dealer removed the original wheels they had a close look and pointed out that they in fact DO have pressure sensors fitted! They haven't been touched since the car was delivered, so it obviously came with them fitted.
The tire dealer can fit third party sensors that can be programmed to work on your car as they've done that for me before to avoid having to swap sensors over when you change wheels, but when they tried to get a match for the sensors that were already in there, the equipment they use reported that it couldn't find a match so they can't program the new sensors. They've contacted the company that supplies the equipment and they're waiting for a reply about why it doesn't support the sensors.
Of course I pointed out that the owner's manual pretty clearly says it doesn't use pressure sensors, so they're trying to confirm that. They did say that they have seen it a few times before where a car that doesn't use them still has sensors fitted, possibly either because valves with sensors attached were all they had available when they needed to fit the valves, or because they were just fitted by mistake, so that is a possibility.
I left the original wheels with them as they'll keep looking into it (so they weren't in the car and therefore neither were the sensors), and I went the long way round on the way home and did about 30 miles, and there was no warning from the tire deflation system. I don't know for sure, but you'd think if it was listening for signals from sensors and not getting them, that would be enough in itself to trigger the deflation warning.
So it does look to me like the car doesn't actually use the sensors and they're in fact doing nothing, but who knows? In fact that's my question - does anyone know for sure what the truth behind this is likely to be?
Bear in mind that this is a UK car so there's always a chance that different regulations might force it to have something different fitted than US or Canadian cars (ISTR Canadian ones don't have TPMS at all). It is mandatory to have TPMS on new cars here in the UK but I don't think it matters whether it's direct or indirect, so probably no reason to do it differently to whatever they're fitting for other markets. Then again...
However, today my 19" wheels and winter tires were ready, and when the local dealer removed the original wheels they had a close look and pointed out that they in fact DO have pressure sensors fitted! They haven't been touched since the car was delivered, so it obviously came with them fitted.
The tire dealer can fit third party sensors that can be programmed to work on your car as they've done that for me before to avoid having to swap sensors over when you change wheels, but when they tried to get a match for the sensors that were already in there, the equipment they use reported that it couldn't find a match so they can't program the new sensors. They've contacted the company that supplies the equipment and they're waiting for a reply about why it doesn't support the sensors.
Of course I pointed out that the owner's manual pretty clearly says it doesn't use pressure sensors, so they're trying to confirm that. They did say that they have seen it a few times before where a car that doesn't use them still has sensors fitted, possibly either because valves with sensors attached were all they had available when they needed to fit the valves, or because they were just fitted by mistake, so that is a possibility.
I left the original wheels with them as they'll keep looking into it (so they weren't in the car and therefore neither were the sensors), and I went the long way round on the way home and did about 30 miles, and there was no warning from the tire deflation system. I don't know for sure, but you'd think if it was listening for signals from sensors and not getting them, that would be enough in itself to trigger the deflation warning.
So it does look to me like the car doesn't actually use the sensors and they're in fact doing nothing, but who knows? In fact that's my question - does anyone know for sure what the truth behind this is likely to be?
Bear in mind that this is a UK car so there's always a chance that different regulations might force it to have something different fitted than US or Canadian cars (ISTR Canadian ones don't have TPMS at all). It is mandatory to have TPMS on new cars here in the UK but I don't think it matters whether it's direct or indirect, so probably no reason to do it differently to whatever they're fitting for other markets. Then again...
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