Is tpms supposed to beep when tire full?

tacthecat

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Different tires shouldn't have different "specs" from auto mfg recommendations. Unless you know what you're doing, mismatching tires is dangerous for many reasons, not the least of which is the TPMS in the '16- Civic will show a fault that can likely only be cleared by "mis-adjusting" the odd tire pressure.
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BarracksSi

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Thanks for the people that were actually helpful. I do know what Tpms is, and no you shouldn’t use the specs on the door jamb because you may change the tire for a used one with different specs. I just thought the car would beep when filled as it is convenient on Nissan cars.
RTFM. Answers all of your questions.

And yes, use the pressure specs on the door jamb -- i.e., don't fill to 45 PSI or deflate to 20*. Don't be the knucklehead who says, "Well, the tire's sidewall says max pressure is 50 PSI, should I fill it to that?"

Besides, they'll be the same regardless of tire size. Switched from 235/40-18 all-seasons to 215/55-16 winters on my car and guess what? The recommended pressure for the Civics with 16" tires is the same as what they list for the stock 18" tires.

* Unless you're racing, then you go outside the envelope a bit. Dragstrip? Drop the drive tires lower (I used to go to 20 PSI; any lower and they'd "cup", meaning the center of the tread would lose grip). Autocross? Pump the rears higher (I did about 40 PSI on my EP3) so they lose grip easier and let the car rotate sooner.
 

tacthecat

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Pressures can vary for different size (tread width and height ratio) and are related to the load carrying capacity of the tire. I would think a good tire dealer could provide the "recommended" pressures for your application. (Hint, if the load capacity is the same or higher than OEM it will usually be the same as on the door sticker.)
 

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...(as to why Honda is doing it this way instead of having pressure sensors in the wheels, I'd say it's cheaper and simpler -- no remote sensor pairing required, no sensors to maintain, can swap wheels more easily, etc)
The main limitation is that if all tires lose air pressure equally, there is no low indication. Honda's indirect TPMS is a cheap out.
 

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The main limitation is that if all tires lose air pressure equally, there is no low indication. Honda's indirect TPMS is a cheap out.
All four tires losing air equally normally means running over something that blows them all out. If tires are leaking gradually, it's almost always just one of the four, and the TPMS will catch it.

Car owners still need to be responsible enough to check their pressures at least monthly, or as the seasons change. TPMS of any kind is no substitute (in-wheel sensors can fail, too).
 


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BarracksSi

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Or a change in the weather. As a rough rule of thumb, tire pressure will change by 1 PSI for every 10 degrees F change in temperature. Drive from Las Vegas to Mammoth Lakes this time of year and you could lose 5 psi in a few hours.

https://www.tirebuyer.com/education/tire-inflation-pressure-and-temperature
Right, so like I said:

All four tires losing air equally normally means running over something that blows them all out. If tires are leaking gradually, it's almost always just one of the four, and the TPMS will catch it.

Car owners still need to be responsible enough to check their pressures at least monthly, or as the seasons change. TPMS of any kind is no substitute (in-wheel sensors can fail, too).
 

oldjackbob

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1) Several of the replies are correct in saying that the TPMS does not actually measure any pressure in any of the tires, it merely watches for any changes in rotation speed between the tires. So it will not tell you whether you have too much or too little pressure in any of the tires to begin with, it will only tell you when it senses that a tire is losing pressure, because that tire's rotational speed will change slightly compared to what it had been previously.

2) You can easily mix and match tire sizes and/or pressures (not that you'd particularly want to) and the TPMS system will be happy with that mismatch as soon as you do a Calibrate. From that moment on, the system will recognize that the tires rotate at different speeds because they were of course calibrated at those speeds. The system will then watch for any changes in rotation speed, based on what it was last calibrated to. So you could conceivably have 4 different size (and 4 different pressure) tires and the system would think that everything's fine, because you told it everything was fine when you calibrated the TPMS. From that point forward, the system would watch for any changes to the rotation speeds that differed from what it detected during calibration. Quite ingenious, very reliable, accurate, and inexpensive, but it does require that the owner pre-set the tires to the correct pressure before calibrating the system.

3) Because all 4 tires may not wear uniformly, the TPMS system may eventually show a warning simply because it can't tell the difference between low pressure and different wear rates among the different tires, especially if you haven't rotated your tires for several months (front tires wear faster). If/when that happens, manually check the tire pressures in all of the tires with a gauge. If the pressures are good, simply re-calibrate the system and you're good to go again. The same situation may arise after you have your tires rotated, especially if the tires aren't exactly the same size. Again, the solution is to simply re-calibrate the system and you're good to go.
 

tacthecat

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Not sure any of this is true (see p513 in the owner's manual) :
owners manual indicates tire mis-matches (type or size) may cause the TPMS to alert,
believe the TPMS checks for differences in rotational speeds of the 4 wheels (ie poll each wheel over a short period and compare its speed to the others) all 4 must be moving at the same speed (RPM) within the allowed tolerance or the alert will occur.

I'll admit I don't get why you have to recalibrate when you rotate tires, or how the TPMS can detect temperature/altitude changes that effect all 4 tires.
 

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Hi,
I got the low pressure light today while i was driving back. Once i parked the car and took the readings of pressure on all 4 tires (After waiting 30-40mins for car to cool down), I noticed the pressures were around 36-37psi(In March i had gotten the tires rotated at the dealer and I wonder what tire pressure they had put in the tires before calibreating - usually in winters they keep 1-2psi more than std of 32?)
Could it be that since it was 4-5psi greater than standard today, it might have shown the low pressure warning(seeing that it might have sensed "different" RPMs)? Also today the temperatures here hit around 90 if that matters.
 


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Hi,
I got the low pressure light today while i was driving back. Once i parked the car and took the readings of pressure on all 4 tires (After waiting 30-40mins for car to cool down), I noticed the pressures were around 36-37psi(In March i had gotten the tires rotated at the dealer and I wonder what tire pressure they had put in the tires before calibreating - usually in winters they keep 1-2psi more than std of 32?)
Could it be that since it was 4-5psi greater than standard today, it might have shown the low pressure warning(seeing that it might have sensed "different" RPMs)? Also today the temperatures here hit around 90 if that matters.
30-40 min after driving is usually by far not enough time.
 

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Do you guys prefer the digital pressure gauges or old fashion kind? Got a digital one from Amazon, I feel like it's more accurate.
 

joe2

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30-40 min after driving is usually by far not enough time.
Yep,
I will check tomorrow morning around 6am to be sure.
Let's say all 4 tires are around 34psi. Do you recommend I bleed them to 32psi, then do a calibration reset, drive 30-40mins and hopefully the warning shouldn't appear?
If it does, I am guessing it could be a sensor issue or something else?
 

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Yep,
I will check tomorrow morning around 6am to be sure.
Let's say all 4 tires are around 34psi. Do you recommend I bleed them to 32psi, then do a calibration reset, drive 30-40mins and hopefully the warning shouldn't appear?
If it does, I am guessing it could be a sensor issue or something else?
I would calibrate at exactly the standard pressure, regardless of what pressure you want to drive with.
The warning should disappear.
It seems like many new owners get a TPMS warning after a couple of days, but your car doesn't seem to be new.
 

joe2

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At 6am today i measured pressure on all 4 tires and they showed around 34psi.
So i bled them down to 32psi (which is recommended) and then started the car and then clicked on System>Car>TPMS calibration>Calibrate.
Then i drove for 10-15mins on the highway to a grocery store, parked, came back and drove for another 10mins or so back home.
On my way back home, the darn "Tire pressures low" signage came up again !
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