Kevin, it seems you are still confused.

• The older system works by wheel speed. There are no sensors on the wheels. This type of system is "indirect".
• The newfangled system with the new valve stem has a sensor and a transmitter which sends pressure info. This type of system is "direct."

 

Older system = no sensors as the poster above states.
You have the luxury of ordering any rims you want while the rest of us with the new system have to take it into account.

 

Excellent.....So when my new wheels/tires are on the Tire light on my dash wont be going On?

Thanks for your help...I totally understand it now Thats good cause I dont feel like shelling out about 200 bucks or so for that LOL....I can't wait for my tires though Ill be able to give my stock one rest and I'll be able to drive in the snow.

For anyone lookinf for snow tires...I've had the Ws-50 Blizzaks previous years and they work very very well. I am getting WS-60 Just the newer version.

 

So, what if you don't care if the car knows it has a low tire or not, and you want to get new rims and tires that are not runflats? Can you leave the sensors off and just have normal non runflat tires or will the car have a problem with that?

 

You have the FTM system which compares rotation speeds of the tires. If a tire loses much pressure its rotation speed will change. The OBC compares it to the ratio that was originally set between it and the tire on the other side. When that ratio changes, it alerts you that you have a flat.

With this system you have no worries when buying new rims or tires. When you get them installed, you have to reset the FTM and you are good to go. See your manual for instructions.

The TPMS is the one that has to have sensors in the wheels. If you had that system (which you don't) you would have to buy sensors for your new wheels. Not all wheels will accommodate TPMS sensors, so care must be taken when buying wheels.

 

Why do you have to buy new ones? I have three or four friends who have put on aftermarket rims and all they did was transfer the sensors from their stock rims over to the aftermarket ones. No problem whatsoever.

Is there something special about the TPM sensors in the MINI that make them different from the ones used by other manufacturers that would cause them to have to be replaced with new ones when changing to aftermarket rims? Just wondering...

 

Kevin,

If you have the old build R56, you do not need the wheel sensors. You don't have the computer in your R56 to receive the signals the sensors send to notify you of a pressure loss (low tire).

You only need standard stems and some nice stem caps. Tell the rack or whom-ever that your car is the old style monitoring system.

You will have to reset your monitoring system after you swap your wheels and tires. I did not when I swapped and the system took about 40 miles to figure out that I had done something so it finally flashed the alert.

The reset takes about 5 second, you should do this after you check pressure and add or take away pressure in your tires every time you manually change out your pressures or fix a flat.

Hope that does not muddy the water for you.

 

If you are willing to put up with the idiot light then yeah you could. However from my experience the low tire pressure warning dominates the upper display so you can't keep speed or other data up there.

 

yes thanks everyone